Money spent and saved on healthy eating

Following the runaway success of Jamie's School Dinners the British public is spending more money on healthy food, and reaping the insurance benefits.

In his groundbreaking series on Channel 4, Jamie Oliver exposed the poor quality of school food and demonstrated how it could be improved at little cost.

And as people watched the celebrity chef try to win over parents, dinner ladies, and politicians, they seem to have been thinking more about their own eating habits.

As a result one person in five is now spending more of their cash on food that is good for them, PruHealth has found.

And, along with the health and lifestyle benefits that come from a better diet, eating well can save money on health and life insurance policies.

"By focusing the nutrition debate on schools Jamie has, perhaps unwittingly, done something very clever. He's found a way of educating people about the benefits of healthy eating, and the dangers of eating junk, in a way which isn't patronising or hectoring and is motivating," said Rosan Meyer, dietician private medical insurer for PruHealth.

"Our research shows that some of those messages are having a real impact on the population at large. Jamie's School Dinners is probably the cleverest piece of public health education we've had in many years," she added.

PruHealth found that only one person in seven thought that a lack of money was stopping them from eating better, and one person in five said that they had changed their weekly shopping habits to buy healthier and more nutritious foods after watching the programme.

But there remain barriers to eating better, as one person in three said they did not have enough time to prepare food themselves and one person in eight said they are too attached to their unhealthy diet to give it up.

But by canning convenience food people can save money as well as helping their health.

This is because insurance companies charge people less for health and life insurance the healthier their lifestyle is.

PruHealth, for example, includes diet as part of its Vitality Points scheme; this could see insurance premiums halved or even wiped out entirely the following year.