Your Tesco shopping will soon be checked by GPs to help fight against flab
Clubcard data can be made available to doctors in a bid to tackle high cholesterol
TESCO customers will have their shopping vetted by GPs to get them to ditch junk food.
Their Clubcard data will be examined by doctors who will then analyse the fat content of their goods.
Those with high cholesterol readings will then get advice from a practice nurse on ditching artery-clogging products.
University of Oxford scientists have teamed up with the supermarket giant to trial the scheme. But they have denied the pilot scheme is nannying.
The university’s Dr Carmen Piernas-Sanchez said: “This is not the nanny state at work as these people are volunteering and are already willing to try and change their eating habits.”
GPs in the Oxford area have been asked to nominate 112 at-risk patients aged over 18 for the trial.
Those giving their consent to take part in the pilot, due to start early next year, will be given a £10 gift voucher.
Volunteers will have weight and cholesterol checks with their GPs. Then a nurse will spend 15 minutes highlighting unhealthy purchases and suggesting alternatives.
After three months the tests will be repeated to see if the medics’ advice has made any difference.
If successful the scheme could roll out nationwide.
Critics called it snooping but said as long as it remained optional it would not be a problem.
Tesco stressed the scheme is optional and said it would never share customers’ data without permission.
Don't say o-word
HEALTH workers have been told to avoid using the word obese around tubby kids in official guidance.
Public Health England suggests using phrases such as “healthier weight status” and “healthier lifestyle”. NHS Digital figures last week showed one in five kids leaves primary school obese.
But Tory MP Johnny Mercer, who sits on the Health Select Committee, said: “We shouldn’t be running away from this ticking time-bomb.”