Giant Landover Offers Diabetes Prevention Program

Giant Food customers can avoid developing type 2 diabetes with the PreventT2 lifestyle-change program now available at eight of the Ahold Delhaize banner’s stores in Washington, D.C.; Maryland; and Virginia. Led by in-store nutritionists serving as lifestyle coaches, groups of participants are learning the skills to make permanent changes such as eating more healthfully, losing some weight, becoming more physically active and dealing stress.

“One in three American adults has prediabetes, so the need for prevention has never been greater,” said Lisa Coleman, Giant Food’s lead nutritionist. “The PreventT2 program offers a proven approach to preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes through modest lifestyle changes made with the support of a coach and one’s peers.”

PreventT2 groups meet for a year — weekly for the first six months, and then once or twice a month for the second six months, to reinforce their healthy-lifestyle changes. The program’s groups provide a supportive environment as people facing similar challenges try to make the same changes.

The program is part of the National Diabetes Prevention Program, overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Giant Foods’s free offering has enrolled more than 100 customers in the inaugural classes. Additionally, the chain and Chicago-based higi, the largest network of retail-based self-screening health stations, have joined forces to help customers use the kiosks to track and monitor their progress between meetings with the in-store nutritionists.

“People need to realize the important role that food plays in overall health, and how food choices can have a major impact,” noted Khan Siddiqui, higi’s chief medical and technology officer. “Giant’s registered dietitians can do a lot to educate their shoppers and prepare them to make the better food choices. The infrastructure higi offers with its in-store screening stations is a major bonus for our participants. The stations offer a private weigh-in option, available any time they visit our stores as well as blood pressure measurement and tracking for various other health metrics.”

“The program has gone well for me so far,” said a local community member enrolled in the Prevent T2. “The nutritionist’s energy is encouraging, and I love that I can ask questions. The information in the group settings has encouraged me to make better decisions, and as of today, higi showed me I'm down four pounds since starting the program. I'm excited about the weeks to come and learning more ways to reduce my risk of diabetes!”

In reponse to a query by Progressive Grocer, a Giant Food spokeswoman said that there were no current plans to expand the program to other stores.

PreventT2 is based on research showing that people with prediabetes who lost 5 percent to 7 percent of their body weight by making modest lifestyle changes lowered their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent.

Based in Landover, Md., Giant Food operates 167 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, and employs about 20,000 associates.