In Our Hands

Let's Take Healthy Eating Into Our Hands

Type 2 Diabetes continues to rise in Tower Hamlets, where 1 in 9 adults are now living with the condition. 

Some people are at higher risk due to their ethnicity, age, living with obesity or overweight, or had high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. 

The good news is that, even if diabetes runs in your family, it’s often possible to prevent or delay it.

We are launching our new healthy eating campaign called 'In Our Hands', in partnership with the Limehouse Project and Well Newham.

'In Our Hands' campaign focuses on understanding portion sizes, cutting down on the amount of oil you use and swapping snacks for more healthier options. 

Portion size

Using your hand acts as a great guide to measure portion sizes.

Reference: Food portions - BHF

You can find out more about portion sizes for the different food groups (rice, fruit and veg, meat, cheese) here.

Use small amounts of oil and spreads

Measure oil using a teaspoon, don't pour from the bottle.

Don't reuse oil.

Air-fry, bake or grill instead.

Avoid deep fried foods e.g. fried chicken and chips. Try have these less often and keep as an occasional treat only. 

Find out more information around oils here.

Snacks

Eating regularly (three nutritious and balanced meals each day) will help stop you from snacking on unhealthy foods.

Some snack foods can add extra fat, sugar and salt to your diet, so choose carefully.

Visit Heart UK for tips for healthier snacking.

Visit NHS Healthier Families for snack swaps that are easy and family friendly snack swaps.

Visit VegPower for fun, tasty snack ideas and the best snack-tactics for kids.

Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

Research shows the three main things that you can do to prevent type 2 diabetes, by keeping your blood sugar levels at a heathy level are:

1. Losing extra weight 

See our webpage on weight loss programmes for support with this.

2. Being active and moving more

See our webpages on Be Active for support with this.

3. Eating a healthy and balanced diet 

There is support to eat healthier locally and nationally:

• Bags of Taste - free home cooking course with ingredients delivered to your home for Tower Hamlets residents.
• Local markets in Tower Hamlets - to find cheap affordable produce such as fruit and vegetables.
• NHS Healthier Families website - for healthy recipes, food swaps, nutritional advice
• NHS Food Scanner App - to help you find healthier swaps for family favourites 

Visit Help with food to find help to access food support if you are struggling. 

National Diabetes Prevention Programme

You can get help to make these positive changes to your diet, weight and physical activity to significantly reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you are at risk, you can join the Diabetes Prevention Programme. Find out more here.