This month, NELFT is working with NHS England London to raise awareness about diabetes. Throughout north east London and Essex, NELFT helps members of the community by providing education and support as they learn to live with their diabetes.

NELFT’s Vitality Healthy 4 life service is an adult weight loss programme for residents in Thurrock. It’s designed to provide participants with the information and support to make long-term changes to their lifestyle that will encourage healthy weight loss and increase physical activity levels. We spoke with them to find out their top tips for maintaining a healthy balanced diet with diabetes.

Whether you have diabetes or not it is important to have a healthy, balanced diet and to keep physically active. A diet that includes five portions of fruit and vegetables; that is low in fat, in particular saturated fats; low in sugary foods such as cakes and biscuits; low in salt; includes a balanced amount of carbohydrates; and is high in fibre.

Foods high in saturated fats and sugary treats should be kept to a minimum, and swapped with healthier options. Keep hunger at bay with healthy snacks – chosen carefully. Snacks can be a healthy part of your diet and stop you overeating at mealtimes. Swap sweets, biscuits and crisps for more nutritious and filling snacks such as fruit, chopped vegetables with hummus, rice cakes, unsalted popcorn, half an avocado, homemade root vegetable crisps, mini packs of dried fruit or a handful of nuts or seeds.

Top tip: try having a drink first – we often mistake hunger for being thirsty, so have a large glass of water or a small fruit juice (one of your five-a-day) and if you are still hungry after 10 minutes, you can have a healthy snack as well.

The Vitality Healthy 4 life 12-week weight loss programme is available to Thurrock residents and provides information and advice to those interested in making positive changes to their diet and lifestyle, with the added bonus of losing weight. Over the weeks, we look at the importance of eating a balanced diet and being physically active, as well as understanding food labels and portion sizes, and our relationship between mood and food. David, from Grays wrote to us having attended our programme back in September 2015. David said: ‘A big vote of thanks for all your help and support in introducing me to a healthy way of eating and living. My diabetes was out of control and causing concern. After six weeks on the Healthy4Life programme, I’m absolutely stable. I’m also advised that if I continue to eat healthily, my type 2 diabetes could be eradicated. I’m thrilled with the results and generally, I have a feeling of well-being that I had previously not felt.’

If you live in Thurrock and would like to find out more about the programme or would like to refer a patient, please call Vitality on 0300 300 1550 or visit www.nelft.nhs.uk/services-thurrock-vitality-health-4-life 

To find out more about your local healthy eating and nutrition services provided by NELFT, click: www.nelft.nhs.uk/our-services 

For further information about diabetes - go to: www.diabetes.org.uk