Overweight patients will be given “motivational coaching” on the NHS to help them to stick to diet and activity plans that reduce their risk of diabetes.
The five million people who health chiefs believe are suffering from pre-diabetes — whose blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but lower than those of diabetic patients — will be put on the scheme to stop them developing the disease. From next year they will be given nine months of one-to-one and group sessions.
Health officials believe that the scheme will save £3 for every £1 spent. Type 2 diabetes costs the NHS £9 billion a year, almost a tenth of budget.
Andrew Lee, a diabetes expert at NHS Yorkshire and Humber, said: “This is about sustained support — motivational coaching by people with a health trainer background.”
News of the scheme came as doctors said that people should stop counting calories and instead focus on the nutritional value of what they were eating, to improve the health of their heart.
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Writing in the online journal Open Heart, Aseem Malhotra, James DiNicolantonio and Simon Capewell said that changing the way people thought about food could cut heart disease as well as obesity.
Eating more omega 3 fatty acid from fish, olive oil and nuts has been linked to rapidly reduced rates of death and cardiovascular disease, they said. They added that doctors had focused too much on food’s calorie content, thanks to the food and weight loss industries.
Sugary drinks should be taxed, fruit, vegetables and nuts subsidised, and the marketing of junk food more tightly controlled, they said, adding: “Applying these population-wide policies might achieve rapid reductions in disease and hospital admissions visible even within the electoral terms of most politicians.”