This policy explains what cookies are and how they are used on Health Shelf. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy.
What cookies are
Cookies are small text files that a website places on your device. They are widely used to make websites work, to remember your preferences, and to gather information about how a site is used. Similar technologies (such as local storage) work in comparable ways.
Cookies we use
Essential cookies. Health Shelf is a simple, static website and does not use advertising or analytics cookies. Any strictly necessary cookies are used only to deliver and secure the website and do not require your consent.
28 Day Plan tracker. If you use the 28 Day Plan tracker, it saves what you enter, such as your ticks, notes, reviews, your why and, if you choose to give one, your name, along with your settings, in your browser’s local storage on your own device, so they are there when you come back. It also keeps a copy of the tracker page itself, so the page opens without a signal. This is strictly necessary for the tracker to do what you have asked it to, and it is never sent to us or anyone else. You can delete it with Reset tracker under the tracker’s Options, or by clearing your browser’s data for this site. If you save it from My data, it is put into a link or file that goes only where you send it, never to us. Pictures you make to share are created on your device and are never uploaded to us.
IR Health Check. The IR Health Check remembers whether you chose UK or US units, in the same place as the recipes pages. If you press Save on this device, it saves the date, the numbers you entered, your answers (sex, fasting, medicines and diabetes) and your score in your browser’s local storage on your own device, so you can compare a later check. This is strictly necessary for the feature to do what you have asked, and it is never sent to us or anyone else. You can delete the saved checks on that page, from My data, or by clearing your browser’s data for this site.
Meal plans and favourites. The meal plans page saves your plans, your shopping list ticks and the number of meals and people you last chose, and the recipes pages save the recipes you mark as favourites and whether you chose UK or US measures and food names, in your browser’s local storage on your own device. This is strictly necessary for these features to do what you have asked, and it is never sent to us or anyone else. You can delete a plan on the Meal plans page, or delete everything by clearing your browser’s data for this site. If you share a plan or save your plans from My data, they are put into a link or a file that goes only where you send it, never to us.
Interval timer. The interval timer remembers the sound and volume you pick, the dates of the workouts you finish over the last two weeks, and the date you agreed to its safety information before your first workout, in your browser’s local storage on your own device. That is how it keeps your sound the same next time, tells you how many workouts you have done this week, and only asks you to agree once. Nothing else about your workouts is kept, and it is never sent to us or anyone else.
Favourite exercises and routines. The Exercise A to Z and the ready-made routines on Exercise routines save the exercises and routines you mark as favourites in your browser’s local storage on your own device, so they are still marked when you come back. This is strictly necessary for the feature to do what you have asked, and it is never sent to us or anyone else. You can remove a favourite by pressing its heart again, or delete them all by clearing your browser’s data for this site.
Your own routines and exercises. Routines and exercises you make with Exercise routines, and exercises you add in the Exercise A to Z, are saved in your browser’s local storage on your own device, so they are there next time. This is strictly necessary for the feature to do what you have asked, and they are never sent to us or anyone else. You can delete a routine or exercise on either page, or delete them all by clearing your browser’s data for this site. Saving them from My data makes a link or file that goes only where you send it, and a share link carries the routine in the part of the link after the #, which browsers do not send to our website.
My data. My data keeps a note in your browser’s local storage of when you last saved your data, and of when something changed since, so it can remind you to save. Before you restore saved data, it keeps a copy of what was on your device, so you can undo the restore. Both stay on your own device and are never sent to us or anyone else. Delete my data on that page deletes everything Health Shelf has saved on your device.
Embedded video. Some pages include videos hosted by YouTube (owned by Google) or Vimeo, for example the 28 Day Plan page and the Science and Practice of Metabolic Health webinars. Each video is shown as a click-to-play preview that is part of our own page. Until you press play, nothing is loaded from YouTube or Vimeo, no information about you is sent to them, and they cannot set cookies.
When you press play, the video loads in the provider’s privacy-enhanced mode: YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (from youtube-nocookie.com) or Vimeo’s “do not track” mode. These are designed to limit tracking and profiling, but they do not stop it entirely. Once a video is loading, the provider receives technical information such as your IP address and browser details, and may store information on your device, using cookies or similar technologies such as local storage, to deliver the video, keep the service secure and measure how it is played. This is controlled by YouTube or Vimeo, not by us. You can read how they use it in Google’s Privacy Policy and Vimeo’s Privacy Policy.
Your choices and how to manage cookies
You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings, and set your browser to block cookies or to warn you before one is stored. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the site — such as embedded video — function. If you do not want YouTube or Vimeo to receive information about you or set cookies, do not press play on embedded videos: nothing is loaded from them until you do.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy if the cookies we (or embedded third parties) use change. The “last updated” date below shows when it was last changed.
Related
Last updated: 23 October 2026.