Healthier foods are still on the back burner where children are concerned. While 80% of kids have tried crisps, chips, and burgers, natural alternatives like aubergines, hummus and prunes have been sampled by less than 20%. A quarter of 7 – 12 years olds do not even recognise a prune.

In a survey by the Honey Association, new findings show the concerning way in which most children know far more about processed foods than natural healthy items. Nearly all children (95%) knew that chips come from vegetables, but half wrongly believed yoghurt came from fruit rather than an animal. Worryingly, 30% of boys and 20% of girls said they weren’t actually interested in knowing where the foods they eat come from.

In response to our children’s apathy about natural foods and to celebrate National Honey Week (12th -18th February), the Honey Association who carried out the survey have developed a fun booklet featuring everything from filo pear and honey tarts to a vitamin C boosting Berry Ripple. For mums and dads, there’s tasty offering including honey-glazed ham, bang bang chicken salad and even honey-fried bananas.

Anita Bean, one of the UK’s most highly respected nutritionists, specialising in children’s nutrition and Brian Butcher from The Honey Association had a chat with Female First to provide their own top tips about this flexible food and share their favourite recipes.

Tell us about your own involvement with National Honey week and the study carried out by the Honey Association…....

Anita - The survey was carried out by the Honey Association to discover how much kids know about foods and in particular - do they know more about processed foods or natural foods? It was really surprising because many of the children in the survey didn’t know where food came from and what was really worrying was that a quarter didn’t even want to know either. Here’s a couple of examples – half thought that yoghurt comes from fruit as opposed to being a dairy product and 40 per cent of children in the survey didn’t know that honey came from bees. So there is a big education job that needs to be done.

How can we educate our children more about the origins of food then?

Anita -Well kids are getting it from advertising, the Internet and their friends. But parents have got a big role to play in terms of teaching their children more about foods and importance of healthy choices. The best way they can do that is to get their kids more involved with food. Get them involved with planning menus, so they can have a bit of control over what they’re going to be eating. Get them involved with food in the kitchen – so let them help with preparing food, with cooking food and shopping for it. Once they’re interested in it and actually handling the food and sorting it out for themselves, they’re much more likely to make healthy choices.

The other thing that you can do as a parent is to try, and I know this is difficult (Laughs) but try – to make time to eat together more often. As a parent you’re always going to be a role model for your children, and if they can see that you’re enjoying healthy food then they’re much more likely to do the same themselves. Make sure that you’re serving them the same foods as the rest of the family – that they just don’t have “kids” food, which could be processed food like chips and nuggets. It’s really important that kids eat the same foods as yourself as far as possible.

My kids (two daughter aged 11 and 9) are honey lovers, most definitely. I do regularly allow them to have honey on toast and I let them serve themselves. They have loads and loads of it actually. (Laughs) They love it on pancakes – that’s my favourite too!

Tell us more about the educational booklet from the Honey Association, for parents?

Brian – They’ve published a little booklet, which you can get details on, from our website. It’s a family booklet designed for all ages and it’s not only got lots of interesting recipes in it but it's got a few games and some fascinating facts about bees and honey too.

What can you suggest for really picky children with regards to healthy natural alternatives for their diet?

Anita – One thing you can do is present the food that they say they don’t like – whether it’s broccoli or something like that – along with food that they do like. So for example if you chop it up small and add it to pasta sauces, soups, curries, stuff that they already like. Then it doesn’t seem quite so obvious.

Ultimately if you do want them to be able to eat broccoli as a big pile on plate, try to get them to eat with kids who already like that food. Children will copy the behaviour of those around them without even thinking. So they think, “Oh, he’s eating that, I’ll eat that.” They’ll automatically do it.

Childhood obesity is such a problem now – what are your personal feelings about it?

Anita – Yeah, it’s shocking to think that over the last twenty years, the number of obese children has tripled and that’s absolutely enormous. There are no signs of the obesity rates slowing down. Really it requires so many things to happen – obviously kids do need to become more active, and spend less time in front of the screens. But certainly by getting them more involved with food and getting them interested in it, it will help guide them towards making healthy choices and steer them away from processed snacks, packet foods and ready meals.

Jamie Oliver has done a great job in raising awareness of the lack of knowledge that a lot of children have got about food and also in trying to persuade children to do something about it. Human nature is that people don’t like being told to do something but I think on balance Jamie has done far more good that telling people off. He’s more likely to turn kids onto healthy food, even if it means upsetting some parents and making them rather angry. (Laughs)

What are the health benefits of honey then – I’ve heard it has Aphrodisiac qualities, is good for digestion and can be used as a hangover remedy?

Anita – From a nutritional point of view honey is far better than sugar because it’s a natural project and also it will give you more sustained energy. It’s got a lower GI compared to regular sugar – white sugar in packets, which means that it doesn’t send blood sugar levels up quite so rapidly, it gives you a more longer lasting energy. It does contain small amounts of vitamins and anti –oxidants, so that’s a bit of a bonus but you can use honey for lots of other things, as well. It’s a well-known remedy for sore throats and colds. The idea is that it coats the linings of the throat, so it makes you feel better. It won’t get rid of the cold unfortunately but it will take away the rawness and that irritation that you can get.

Brian – Yes. Honey with lemon juice and hot water is a smashing way to soothe the throat. The great thing about honey is that it’s such a versatile product – traditionally people have eaten it on toast for breakfast but you can put it on all sorts of things. Certainly, if you’re just talking about a breakfast meal you can put it on porridge, cereal, you can use it as a sweetener in hot drinks – with tea and coffee, smoothees. You can use it in baking as a substitute for sugar and because it’s sweeter than sugar you don’t need to use as much. It is a fantastically versatile product.

It’s good for beauty as well as health I believe – Madonna has even confessed to using it. Any secret tips you can divulge?

Brian – That’s right. Honey has been used quite extensively in all sorts of beauty treatments from face masks to hair conditioners. It’s because it’s a very moist type of material. For burns for instance, it’s got a natural antiseptic quality, which is also useful in treating minor abrasions and wounds. It’s good for the skin certainly.

Have you seen a growth in the honey market and the specialist honey market in particular, Brian?

Brian - Yes. Over the last couple of years, honey has really taken off. A couple of years ago, honey overtook the sales of marmalade for the first time ever. Since then honey has continued to become more and more popular. I think that is down to the versatility of honey and I think more people are discovering that honey isn’t just one product – there is such a huge variety in the colour and the flavours and the uses that people are thinking well now I’ve tried this one and there’s plenty more to try.

What gives honey its flavour for the readers who don't know – because as you say, there’s so many different varieties?

Brian – Good question. The flavour of the honey is derived from the flowers that the bees visit whilst they’re collecting it. Bees will fly typically anything up to four miles away from the hive and obviously they will go to which ever is nearest. So if you put your beehive next to a field of lavender, then you will end up with mostly lavender honey. That’s what gives the honey such a huge variety.

I’ve heard honey might not be suitable for infants less than 12 months of age. Is that true?

Brian – Yep! You’ll find that written on the labels of most jars of honey that you can buy. The reason for that is that some years ago there was a study done in America. It showed that very young children, i.e.: under 12 months old – because they have such a different stomach content as it were – their stomachs and their insides don’t work in the same way that adults and older children do. For that reason they could be susceptible to spores that are found in the wild. It doesn’t worry any adults and although these spores are found everywhere, you’re not likely to give a six-month-old baby very many things that are growing wild. But of course honey, being such a very easy food to take, and sweet – there is a temptation that you may feed it to infants. So for that reason, our advice is don’t do it – wait until they over 12 months old, in which case then their insides are much better tuned to dealing with it.

For more information about honey and further details of the delicious recipes mentioned above, please visit www.honeyassociation.com