Is it necessary to always control diet after gestational diabetes?

Written by Zhao Xiao Dong
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Updated on June 11, 2025
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Women with gestational diabetes should pay attention to diet control and physical exercise even if their blood sugar levels return to normal, and manage their diet and exercise as if they have diabetes. Women with gestational diabetes indicate poor pancreatic function, and generally more than half will develop diabetes after 20 years. Therefore, women with gestational diabetes should maintain long-term blood sugar control after childbirth, control their diet for a long time, avoid excessive consumption of fruits and sweets, and enhance physical exercise, including being active for at least half an hour after meals.

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Written by Tang Zhuo
Endocrinology
52sec home-news-image

Harms of Gestational Diabetes

What is gestational diabetes? Gestational diabetes is a condition of varying degrees of high blood sugar that occurs or is first identified during pregnancy, including impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes that were not identified before pregnancy. Gestational diabetes can endanger the health of both the fetus and the mother. The impacts on offspring mainly include an increased risk of fetal mortality in the womb, i.e., an increased risk of complications from congenital abnormalities, an increased risk of macrosomia, and an increased risk of neonatal hypoglycemia and developing diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance during adolescence or young adulthood.

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Written by Chen Xie
Endocrinology
1min 32sec home-news-image

The dangers of gestational diabetes

The harms of gestational diabetes mainly include two aspects: the effects on the child and the effects on the pregnant woman herself. For the fetus, the early impacts mainly manifest as spontaneous miscarriage, fetal abnormalities, abnormal fetal development, macrosomia, and delayed maturation of fetal lungs. At birth, this may lead to complications such as premature birth and hypoglycemia. Newborns face a higher risk of respiratory distress syndrome compared to healthy infants. The long-term effects on the child mainly include a significantly increased incidence of glucose intolerance and diabetes, increased risk of obesity, and notable rise in cardiovascular abnormalities and neuromotor developmental disorders. For the mother, the impacts mainly manifest as concurrent miscarriage, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia, an increased likelihood of diabetic ketoacidosis. A macrosomic fetus can lead to difficult labor, trauma to the birth canal, prolonged surgical labor, postpartum hemorrhage, and an increased risk of gestational diabetes in subsequent pregnancies, extended hospital stays, and a significantly increased incidence of Type 2 diabetes postpartum.

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Written by Chen Xie
Endocrinology
1min 9sec home-news-image

Gestational diabetes: what kind of milk to drink?

The overall principle of dietary control for patients with gestational diabetes is to manage the total calorie intake and adopt a pattern of eating smaller, more frequent meals. Ideally, the day should be divided into 5 to 6 meals. This approach helps not only in controlling blood sugar levels but also in reducing the occurrence of hypoglycemia. For patients with gestational diabetes, it is recommended to drink pure milk. However, many of the milk and dairy products available on the market contain a large amount of added sugar or have a very high fat content, which can lead to excessive caloric intake and affect blood sugar control. Therefore, for patients with gestational diabetes, it is advisable to drink low-fat or non-fat pure milk, which has relatively lower calories and will not impact blood sugar levels. It is suggested to have a glass of pure milk either two hours after a meal or before bedtime to help reduce the occurrence of hypoglycemia and prevent it during the night.

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Written by Xu Dong Dong
Endocrinology
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What kind of milk should be consumed for gestational diabetes?

Patients with gestational diabetes can drink pure milk, which contains rich nutrients such as protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. Milk protein contains essential amino acids for the human body, and milk fat mostly consists of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids, which are easily absorbed by the human body. Moreover, milk is rich in calcium, making it suitable for pregnant women to supplement calcium. The daily consumption of milk can be 500mL, taken in two to three servings, choosing either pure milk or skimmed pure milk. If unsweetened yogurt is available, it is also acceptable to drink. It is important to note that one should try to avoid buying milk powder, as it often contains some additives that are not conducive to blood sugar control.

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Written by Chen Xie
Endocrinology
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Risk of gestational diabetes in second pregnancy

For women with gestational diabetes, the risk of diabetes in a second pregnancy is higher. Therefore, it is recommended that mothers who have had gestational diabetes undergo fasting glycosylated hemoglobin monitoring at a hospital before becoming pregnant, to rule out the possibility of pre-pregnancy diabetes. Additionally, it is advised to maintain a reasonable diet throughout the pregnancy, exercise regularly, and avoid high-calorie, high-sugar foods, as this can help prevent and reduce the occurrence of diabetes. In fact, for mothers expecting their second child, age is also a major risk factor. As age increases, the risks of hyperglycemia during pregnancy and hypertension during pregnancy become higher, thus the risk of gestational diabetes in a second pregnancy is relatively higher compared to the first.