Real User Stories
Chef Pulido turns the tables on diabetes management with Dexcom
Feb. 28, 2025 • 6 min read
The content in this article should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult with your healthcare provider regarding your individual health needs.
Few workplaces are as challenging as a restaurant’s kitchen. Pots and pans clang in the sweltering hot environment. Chefs move like whirling dervishes, relentlessly barking out commands to the sous chefs and line cooks. The orders never stop, and the timing must be perfect to get plates out to the demanding diners at the front of the house.
Reputations are on the line, the food must be perfect and there’s little room for error.
The head chef conducts this chaotic symphony. But when that head chef must juggle a new diabetes diagnosis, with fingersticks* and frequent interruptions, it can be a recipe for disaster.
That was the life for chef Gina Pulido of Sous Chef at Superfrico by Spiegelworld (inside the Cosmopolitan).
Misdiagnosis a dish served cold
The 41-year-old proud Filipina says her passion for food is in her DNA, though her path to the kitchen began in the fashion world, of all places. Working in the design industry, she’d prepare themed dinners for meetings, which became a big hit. One day, her boss pulled her aside and told her it seemed she loved cooking more than designing. And after self-reflection, she realized she didn’t love design the way she loved the kitchen. When her husband Brian, then in the U.S. Army, was deployed, she headed to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, California, graduating in 2009.
“I was the biggest nerd,” she laughed. “I was there three hours early, I joined every club and everything just clicked.”
In 2013, she and Brian moved to an Army base in Colorado and she went in for a routine physical to establish a relationship with a new doctor. Two hours after the visit, the doctor called her and told her to rush back.
“They told me I had Type 2 diabetes and put me on 10 medications and insulin,” she said. “For about a year and half, I was on these medications and logging my diet, then I passed out on the kitchen line [the main cooking area in the kitchen] and was brought to the emergency room. I was hospitalized for a week, and after testing, they found out I was misdiagnosed and was actually Type 1.”
Adjusting to a diabetes diagnosis is hard enough, but learning it was misdiagnosed added another level of confusion and frustration. She switched doctors after learning she had Type 1.
“I was upset, like, how did you have me logging my diet for an entire year and a half and on all the wrong medication?” she said. “And it doesn't occur that maybe I'm not a Type 2? The Metformin had me nauseated and I felt horrible for more than a year, as if I was sick all the time. It was a nerve-wracking thing when I was diagnosed with Type 1, because I knew I would have to switch to a new routine. But it was also kind of a relief, because at least now with the right diagnosis, I could better manage it and know I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
A diabetes diagnosis often comes with doctor’s orders to adjust diet and lifestyle, which can be particularly challenging when food is your career. As a chef, Gina is on her feet for long hours, tasting a variety of foods, some not exactly good for maintaining steady glucose levels. It felt like diabetes was taking her passion away.
“When I was wondering if I could still be a chef, it was honestly also an issue of the time it took to walk off the line and check my glucose and then take insulin if I needed, or sit down and take a break,” she said. “Because in the industry, you are on your feet constantly, and I was wondering if I could still physically do the job. I was a pastry chef for a couple of years, and when I was tasting all that stuff, I was kind of worried. Will this make my glucose spike? And then I’ll have to walk off and fingerstick*, and then I'm going to have to take insulin and then I'm going to have to take more breaks.”
A better recipe for diabetes management
About five years ago, she reached “diabetes burnout,” and added a new ingredient to her diabetes management routine – a Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system.
“I saw my doctor, and when she walked in, she was just like, ‘Do you have a death wish?’,” Gina said. “You’d think I would learn from that, but like I said, I was in 100% burnout. A year later, I was feeling really bad, and she told me I hadn’t learned my lesson from going into ICU. I just cried, and she finally referred me to an endocrinologist, and they put me on Dexcom G6. That was a game-changer.”
Knowledge drives control, which empowers a healthier tomorrow. Armed with better knowledge about what her body was doing using her Dexcom G6, and now Dexcom G7, the impact was dramatic and immediate for Gina.
“Right after I got Dexcom G6, my husband and I went to lunch at a really nice restaurant, and almost the whole time I was on my phone and he was getting kind of upset,” she said. “’Why are you on your phone† the whole time?’ But I was like, ‘I can see my glucose right now!’ Any time I want I can just pull down my screen and see my levels. This is amazing! And then I knew what I could order and what I couldn't, and we were just both so impressed with it.”
When she was first diagnosed, her A1C was 13%. After a few months using a Dexcom CGM, she got that down to 5.5%‡. Today, it hovers between 5.5% and 6%.
With her diabetes now under much better control, she enjoys the Dexcom G7 quick warm-up time, smaller size and easier application process. Not to mention, the Share feature and Follow app§.
“The Follow app§ has always been great,” Gina said. “Sometimes if I'm on the line and I'm busy, I'll hear the beep. But my husband, when he's at work, he gets the alert before I start beeping and he’ll text, ‘Your sugar's low’. It's great to have someone else there helping.”
Her colleagues in the kitchen have also jumped in to help, even if they sometimes don’t truly understand diabetes. She sets her low alarm to 80 mg/dL.
“Once it gets to 80, I can just take care of it before it beeps a bunch, and the whole kitchen kind of freaks out, because I kind of tell them if they hear a beep to tell me I need sugar, soda or juice,” she said.
“Once they hear a beep, four different cooks come to me, ‘Hey chef, here’s another cookie, here's a soda, here's a glass of juice!’ And I can't have all of this because my sugar will spike then, and they don't really understand it. So, if I just get the one warning, I can get on top of it before everybody freaks out and asks a bunch of questions!”
The best thing for her as a chef is not having to stop when the kitchen is slammed, which is frequent.
“I don't have to walk off the line, go to my locker for my purse and grab my glucose kit and fingerstick* to test my blood,” Gina said. “My phone's† right on me and it’s also connected to my Fitbit, so I can just look at my watch|| and then I know my glucose. Now it's so much more convenient to manage my diabetes.”
Now armed with more knowledge about her glucose, Gina’s is excited about her health and her future. Her healthier tomorrow includes dreams of one day opening her own restaurant.
“I want to do a modern, more upscale version of Filipino-fusion food,” she said. “A lot of Filipino restaurants are kind of like a Chipotle, where you point to a bunch of different things and you get a combo thing, and it's all good. But I'd like to showcase how I would present and elevate Filipino food.”
Healthier Tomorrows begin with Dexcom G7
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with diabetes and are not using CGM, talk to a doctor about Dexcom G7. We can help you get started with a free benefits check. Fill out a quick form to send us some basic information and we’ll take it from there.
* Fingersticks required for diabetes treatment decisions if symptoms or expectations do not match readings.
† Smart devices sold separately. For a list of compatible devices, visit dexcom.com/compatibility.
‡ Individual results may vary
§ Separate Follow app and internet connection required.
|| Smartphone required to display readings on watch.
† Smart devices sold separately. For a list of compatible devices, visit dexcom.com/compatibility.
‡ Individual results may vary
§ Separate Follow app and internet connection required.
|| Smartphone required to display readings on watch.
BRIEF SAFETY STATEMENT: Failure to use the Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitoring System and its components according to the instructions for use provided with your device and available at https://www.dexcom.com/safety-information and to properly consider all indications, contraindications, warnings, precautions, and cautions in those instructions for use may result in you missing a severe hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) or hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) occurrence and/or making a treatment decision that may result in injury. If your glucose alerts and readings from the Dexcom CGM do not match symptoms, use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. Seek medical advice and attention when appropriate, including for any medical emergency.