Getting diagnosed with gestational diabetes (GD) can feel like your pregnancy just got a manual—and no one translated it. What to eat, when to eat it, how to move, how to care for yourself and your baby? Overwhelming doesn’t begin to cover it.

At Chiyo, we wanted to make things simpler. So we created an end-to-end nutrition program specifically for GD—and we tested it, too.

Before launch, we conducted a pilot study to see just how our meals impacted blood sugar levels in real pregnancies. Here's what we found.

Our biggest takeaway? The meals worked.

In our first research study of the Chiyo GD Prenatal Nutrition Program, we saw a clear trend: participants were able to manage their blood sugar with the support of our meals.

Within an average of five weeks:

• Fasting glucose dropped from 90 to 86 mg/dL (statistically significant, p = .0057)
• Post-meal blood sugar stayed well within clinical targets
• Most participants never needed to add medication
  

This was all during the third trimester, when insulin resistance usually goes up, not down. In other words—if nothing had changed in their routine, we would have expected glucose levels to rise. Instead, our meals helped bring them down.

Understanding GD 

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, women with gestational diabetes should aim to maintain a blood sugar level between 60 mg /dL to 95 mg/dL to be considered healthy (2). We saw participants drop right into the target zone when nourishing with Chiyo’s GD Prenatal Program. 

70-85% of gestational diabetes cases can be effectively controlled through diet & lifestyle interventions, without prescription drug intervention (1).

Insulin resistance typically increases across pregnancy (3), so without any intervention, we would expect to see all glucose metrics increase across this period of pregnancy. Instead, throughout the program, post-meal blood sugar stayed in target ranges (1 hour-post prandial average at 121 mg/dL compared to target range of <140 mg/dL and 2 hour post-prandial average at 108 mg/dL compared to target range of <120 mg/dL).

The Data: Glucose Metrics Snapshot

Each line represents a participant. Purple dotted line = study average.

And here’s the chart that stopped us in our tracks:

About the Study

We enrolled 9 participants, all 30–36 weeks pregnant. Each received:

• Ready-to-eat meals from Chiyo’s GD Prenatal Program
  

• Optional support from a Chiyo dietitian
  

• Simple surveys to log blood sugar, food timing, and lifestyle

Most completed nearly 5 weeks of the program. The majority managed their blood sugar without medication.

No guesswork. No nutrition label math. No scrambling to figure out what’s safe. Just meals that balance blood sugar and nourish pregnancy.

What real moms told us

“Thanks to Chiyo I am told that I am able to avoid a lot of life-threatening risks for my baby girl and I.”
— Cynthia, 35 weeks

“My blood sugar seems to be stabilizing on the meal plan and it’s taking the worry from whether or not I am helping or hurting my baby.”
— Sally, 31 weeks

“It’s so hard to eat noodles on this diet [with GD], so it’s great to have a mix of zucchini noodles and sweet potato noodles to get that texture fix.”
— Michelle, 35 weeks

Why this matters

Gestational diabetes isn’t a niche issue—up to 1 in 5 pregnancies are impacted. And while 70–85% of cases can be managed through diet, finding what works isn’t easy.

Chiyo’s GD Program is designed for real life. Our meals balance carbs and protein, support nutrient needs (folate, omega-3s, choline, and more), and—most importantly—taste like actual food.

This is food as medicine. With evidence to back it.

Download our Guide

Want the full results and methodology? Get our complete GD Research Study here.