EVERY week my desk is littered with, and my e-mail in box calls my attention to, communications from organisations proclaiming their answer to our need for a healthy - or healthier - diet.

Vitamin supplements for every age, soya for the menopausal, selenium for the ageing ... I could go on. The "five portions of fruit and vegetables a day" is mentioned everywhere as a rider to whatever food or supplement is being promoted until I wonder if the Government has nobbled the public relations industry on that one. The fruit and veg are, however, almost an afterthought; what we really need, we are told, is the proprietary addition to our diet.

Forgive me if I'm a doubting Thomasina but, when preparing to care for someone with one of those mysterious, debilitating illnesses which defy diagnosis, I asked what vitamin tablets I should buy to help things along. The answer was "none", provided the victim ate a "good and varied" diet.

Most of us aren't ill, anyway. Is the real problem that a healthy, unsupplemented diet is just too much bother to organise? I admit it's time-consuming, though the fruit and veg bit can be frozen or canned, as it involves menu planning and more kitchen time than it takes to microwave a readymade, but I'd rather take time than tablets.

This week's influx brought not only the much-publicised Government tirade against salt, but news of Seafood Week, which begins today. I seem to keep going without adding salt to anything except bread dough (since the heart consultant looked at Sir's family's medical history) but I don't think I'd want to plan a week's meals without fish.

There are, says the week's organiser, the Sea Fish Industry Authority, 100 varieties of fish available in the UK, so we don't need to stick to traditional sorts, which are under pressure. We should aim at two portions a week, one of them an oil-rich fish like mackerel or herring, and this year's Seafood Week, the fourth of its kind, is stressing the speed and ease of fish cookery.

Look out for supermarket demonstrations and Seafood Week leaflets, or take a look at the web site, www.seafoodweek.co.uk, for new ideas. This week's recipe is from the "good for you" section of the web site but I chose it with the start of the university term in mind as much as for its healthy fibre, fresh vegetables and oily fish. For inexperienced cooks with minimal facilities, it's a "bung it in" dish needing little culinary skill. The ingredients will be in the nearest supermarket and the cans and pasta will probably come in the store's cheapest own-brand range. It doesn't require a set of scales. It is filling (but, given student appetites, it might not stretch to six). If you do pass it on to your student, just say how simple it is. Don't for heaven's sake tell them it's good for them. If you fancy something rather more advanced and, to be honest, more subtle in taste, and can look at the web site, there are recipes such as squid bruschetta. Fishmonger, restaurateur and author Mitchell Tonks offers spaghetti with clams and top chef Antony Worrall Thompson offers "smoky fish pie" - sadly, his list of ingredients alone would have taken up the allocated recipe space here.