NHS diabetes ‘soups and shakes’ programme helps a third into remission

The NHS’s ‘soups and shakes’ programme has helped nearly a third of participants in England to put their type 2 diabetes into remission, NHS England has said.

NHS England has argued this shows the progamme, which supports people to switch to healthier, low-carlorie diets, works at scale and, therefore, the recent expansion of the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission (T2DR) programme to cover all of England therefore has the potential to benefit thousands more people.

The study showed that, of those who completed the programme and were measured twice, 32% had put their type 2 diabetes into remission, with an average weight loss in these participants of nearly 16kg.

Published in journal The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, the research covers the period between September 2020 and the end of 2022, during which time, 7,540 people were referred to the T2DR programme.

Of those who started the programme before January 2022 (1,740), the findings showed that the average participant had lost more than 10kg in one year.

The 12-month programme helps kickstart weight loss by providing participants with low-calorie, nutritionally complete, total-diet replacement products for the first 12 weeks. These include soups, shakes and bars, and consist of 800 to 900 calories a day.

Participants are then supported to reintroduce healthier, more nutritious food into their diet to maintain weight loss, and their progress is monitored.

During the programme participants are able to choose how they are supported through one-to-one in-person sessions or online.

NHS national clinical director for diabetes and obesity Dr Clare Hambling said: “The NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme can have a huge impact on the lives of participants, and it’s brilliant that these findings show a large number of those who completed it have seen life-changing benefits including major weight loss and type 2 diabetes remission.

“We know obesity is one of the biggest threats to health in the UK and will be one of the biggest and most costly challenges for health systems globally, so seeing such encouraging outcomes from our programme shows that obesity can be tackled head-on, and we’re looking forward to scoping any further expansion to this programme in due course,” Dr Hambling added.

Patients can benefit from the programme if they have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the last six years, with referrals made by GP practices.

The programme is offered to people who meet a set of criteria, which include those who are aged 18-65 years, have a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes within the last six years, and have a BMI over 27 kg/m2 (where from White ethnic groups) or over 25 kg/m2 (where from Black, Asian and other ethnic groups).

More than 25,000 people have already been offered access to the programme since it was first piloted by NHS England in 2020.

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