Oliver warns over unhealthy diets
The economic downturn could lead to people eating more unhealthy food, TV chef Jamie Oliver says.
He told the House of Commons Health Committee for the first time in British history large numbers of people simply could not cook.
It meant that they already relied on cheap takeaways and fast foods.
And with money scarce, this reliance on unhealthy foods was only likely to get worse, as they had little ability to improvise to keep costs down.
Mr Oliver was appearing before the cross-party group of MPs as part of an inquiry into health inequalities.
His latest show Jamie's Ministry of Food follows his attempts to teach families in the Rotherham to cook.
His idea is to teach "pyramid cooking", where each of the eight people he trains will teach two of their friends, and they will do the same until 250,000 have been taught to cook.
The 33-year-old chef targeted the South Yorkshire town after mothers were pictured shoving burgers and chips through school railings in protest at menus suggested in a previous series, Jamie's School Dinners.
During the appearance before MPs, Mr Oliver said whereas in the past when money was short people had been clever in how they put together nutritious fresh food there was now a "generation of young parents" who were nervous about raw ingredients.
By Nick Triggle
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