Anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe has explained to MPs why it appears food is becoming more affordable - when the reality is the complete opposite.
Ms Monroe has been giving evidence to MPs on the cost of living at a meeting of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
She was asked why the percentage that people spend on food now is less that 10 years ago - and was asked if that is not proof that food is now more affordable.
Ms Monroe was told that, for the most deprived 20% of homes, the percentage of income people spend on food has fallen from 16.7% in 2008 to 14.7% by 2019.
Asked if that proved food was now more affordable, Ms Monroe responded that just showed that the cost of everything else had gone up more.
She replied: "It's not that affordability of food has got better, it's that the expense of everything else has got worse.
"Food is one of the most fundamental human necessities for survival, it's the last thing that any household chooses to cut in their budget.
"But rents have gone up, gas has gone up, electricity has gone up, Council Tax has gone up, the general cost of living has gone up to a point where people have less to spend on food in their household expenditure.
"And in my experience of 10 years of working at the coalface of antipoverty work now I can tell you that people are just eating less and skipping meals and having less or eating cheaper food, less nutritious food. Bulking out on that 45p white rice and 25p pasta in lieu of being able to have things like fresh fruit and vegetables and nutritiously balanced meals.
"It's not that food has got cheaper because it certainly hasn't. It's that everything else has got more expensive so there's less in the household budget for food."
MPs were told the story of a woman who has been left with £112 a week to pay for food, heating, rent, clothes and everything else for herself and her two children after her local authority decided to take more than £50 a week off her.
Ms Monroe detailed the story as she set out how 4.1million people - including millions of children, are now living in poverty in the UK.
Ms Monroe said the situation will get worse the coming weeks as the cost of everything increases, while benefits fail to keep up.
Inflation - the rate at which everything is getting more expensive - is forecast to hit more than 7 or 8 per cent.
At the same time benefits will go up by just 3%
Ms Monroe said one of the biggest problems at the minute is the Government pushing people into debt with a five week delay in paying out Universal Credit.
The delay in the first patent is covered by a loan - which is then paid back by reducing future benefits.
Ms Monroe said: "I heard yesterday from one woman who was paying back £5 a week in a Council Tax debt, the council had taken the debt back from the private bailiff because it wasn't being paid back fast enough for their liking.
"They have taken £57 a week out of her benefits which means that she has something like £112 a week now to live on and that is £112 a w eek for rent, clothes, heating, food, two children."
Ms Monro also said food insecurity creates or worsens a range of at least 40 health and mental health problems - and she called for a public inquiry into the use of food banks across the UK.
