Hospital dieticians are running supermarket tours as part of a series of district-wide workshops to beat obesity and combat diabetes.

The free sessions are an effort to help people manage the condition more successfully.

If current trends continue, half the UK population could be obese by 2050.

Latest figures from 2013 suggest an estimated 36,000 adults are diagnosed with diabetes in Bradford and Airedale and 85 per cent of them have type two diabetes which is closely linked to being overweight.

Dietician Rachel Boyd from St Luke’s Hospital said: “If you are overweight, losing weight can help improve blood glucose levels, blood fats including cholesterol and blood pressure, reducing the risk of long-term complications.

“As a healthy diet and lifestyle are key in managing diabetes, we are running a series of free sessions which aim to help people live well with diabetes, whether it be through learning more about healthy eating or losing weight.”

Simple changes such as being more active and eating a more balanced diet can reduce the risk of getting diabetes.

The sessions will be available to anyone newly diagnosed with diabetes or who have had the condition for some time.

They include a one-off introductory session teaching patients more about diabetes and the importance of healthy eating and 12-week weight loss groups at Westbourne Green Community Health Centre and Shipley Health Centre.

One-to-one weight loss sessions will also be run at medical centres covering Bowling Hall, Eccleshill, Undercliffe, Low Moor, Horton Park as well as at Westbourne Green Community Health Centre and St Luke’s Hospital. There will also be carbohydrate awareness sessions.

The supermarket tours will be at Asda in Rooley Lane and Shipley, Sainsbury’s in Greengates, Tesco in Halifax Road, Buttershaw, and Great Horton, and Morrisons at the Victoria Centre in Girlington, Rushton Avenue at Mayo Avenue, Thornbury and Enterprise Way, Five Lane Ends, Idle.

To find out more, contact the diabetes dieticians on (01274) 365884. Lines are open from 8.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.