Disclaimer: None of the information in this article constitutes medical advice, and is just the opinion of the writer(s). We recommend that patients follow their doctor’s guidance in regard to diabetes management.
Klinio is a diabetes management smartphone app. It provides food tracking, water logging, weight logging and more. The brand claims to be a “science-based solution for managing diabetes and prediabetes” that “changes the way you approach your food.”
But can a smartphone app actually help diabetic patients reduce blood sugar levels? What diet is associated with the best blood sugar outcomes? What does a Klinio sample menu look like? And how do real users rate and describe the effects of Klinio?
In this review we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we review how Klinio works, and analyze medical studies to share the two best diets for diabetes in our opinion.
We'll feature an unsponsored Klinio user review, discuss a sample menu from the app, and share our thoughts on whether or not Klinio is a waste of money.
How Does Klinio Work?
Klinio’s app provides a number of features, but we want to focus on the diet features as we know from decades of medical research that diet is one of the most important factors for diabetes management and remission.
The brand claims that their app creates a “personalized meal plan” that reduces carbs gradually. Carb intake, specifically refined carb intake (think white bread, pastries, white rice) is associated with worse blood sugar levels in diabetics, so we consider this a reasonable approach.
Klinio suggests that diabetic patients should “make the switch to eating only small amounts of sugar” which we find to be a generally unhelpful statement because it fails to differentiate between different types of sugar.
The blood sugar effects of eating a cake and eating a whole fruit like a cantaloupe are vastly different.
A 2021 medical review found that whole fruit intake is actually associated with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes, so patients with prediabetes may not necessarily need to limit sugar intake overall; just added sugar intake.
We would recommend that prediabetic patients speak with a Registered Dietitian (RD) for specific advice on fruit and sugar consumption rather than use the advice of a smartphone app.
Overall, we believe that Klinio may be effective by shifting diabetic dietary patterns to a healthier model, but we take issue with some of the health claims on their website.
The video below shows how Klinio has worked for a real user:
Can Diet Alone Treat Diabetes?
Intake of refined carbohydrates, and carbohydrates generally, may cause blood sugar spikes in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Therefore it logically follows that diets extremely low in carbohydrates may be beneficial for patients with type 2 diabetes, and may even normalize insulin function and reverse diabetes.
A diet called the ketogenic (“keto”) diet has been studied extensively in clinical trials for its ability to improve and even reverse type 2 diabetes.
A meta-study published in the Cureus journal analyzed data from six clinical trials on the keto diet and blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics.
The researchers concluded the following: “The findings of this review show a significant effect of the ketogenic diet as compared to controls in terms of weight reduction, glycemic control, and improved lipid profile.”
This means that individuals on the keto diet lost weight, improved blood sugar levels and improved cholesterol levels relative to individuals eating their standard diet.
In one of the trials, HbA1c levels, which are a marker of blood sugar, decreased by 16% in only 16 weeks with a diet providing under 20 grams (g) of carbs.
Other medical research has found that a very-low-calorie diet (providing under 1,000 calories per day) reversed type 2 diabetes in over 50% of patients.
It’s notable that the patients in the study were not on insulin so they may have recently been diagnosed with the condition.
This type of diet is unsustainable over long periods of time but may be therapeutic for short durations.
This Good Morning America segment highlights the findings from the above-linked study:
Klinio Sample Menu Analysis
Klinio published a sample meal plan in a blog article on their site.
While we consider the meals on Klinio's plan to be significantly healthier than the average American diet, there are some potential further optimizations in our opinion.
Breakfast is a grilled cheese sandwich which seems to be a somewhat suboptimal choice for a diabetic given that bread can have a high glycemic index, and there isn’t even a specification about what type of bread or cheese should be used.
Whole wheat bread has a lower glycemic index than white bread, which means that it causes lower blood sugar spikes than white bread.
A medical review published in the Frontiers in Nutrition journal found that dairy from grass-fed animals is nutritionally superior to conventional dairy.
Lunch includes turkey and egg with no clarification on whether these should come from pastured animals. In our opinion, for optimal health effects, they should.
We don’t have any major issues with Klinio’s meal plan, but we believe that the recommendation to source animal products from pastured animals, and to use whole wheat rather than white bread, would make it healthier.
Is Klinio a Waste of Money?
In our opinion, Klinio is a waste of money because we cannot identify any medical studies proving it to be superior to simply eating healthier and reducing carb intake.
Most diabetic patients already know that eating broccoli and grass-fed beef is healthier than eating pizza, so we don’t really see much benefit in an app that recommends healthy foods.
We’re not suggesting that the app is ineffective or trying to discourage people from its use. We don’t believe the app is likely to be harmful in any way or worse than eating a standard diet.
Any intervention that can cause diabetic patients to eat healthier will likely improve their blood sugar levels and overall wellness; we just fail to see why Klinio is specifically effective beyond just making healthy lifestyle changes, and until the brand funds clinical research proving their app to cause greater blood sugar reductions than a control group simply eating less refined carbs and more produce, we consider the app somewhat of an inconvenience and will not recommend it.
Our Blood Sugar Support Picks
Illuminate Labs Ceylon Cinnamon Extract is our top herbal blood sugar support pick.
Cinnamon was shown in a medical review published in the Annals of Family Medicine journal to reduce fasting blood sugar levels, total cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels.
Performance Lab Magnesium is our top mineral blood sugar support pick.
Magnesium is a mineral that is clinically shown to improve insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes, and is clinically shown to reduce fasting blood sugar levels.
Both of the products recommended in this section are entirely free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
Pros and Cons of Klinio
Here are the pros and cons of Klinio in our opinion:
Pros:
- Healthier diet model than standard American diet
- Reducing sugar intake should reduce blood sugar levels
- May "gamify" dieting and lead to improved compliance
- No health risks that we can identify
- Affordable (less than $15 per month on a 1-year plan)
Cons:
- Meal plan doesn't distinguish between pastured and conventional animal products
- Meal plan doesn't distinguish between whole wheat bread and white bread
- Doesn't appear to be clinically tested
- May not provide value beyond cutting carbs out of diet
- Hard to find user reviews not published by the brand
