Catherine Saxelby's Foodwatch | Super foods, the ultimate health foods – Cinnamon

Super foods, the ultimate health foods – Cinnamon

If you have room for only one spice in your kitchen, cinnamon is it! I love it for its aroma and flavour, but now research has revealed that small amounts of cinnamon taken each day can lower blood sugar levels for those with diabetes. It adds flavour to food without having to use extra sugar or fat.

 

Blood sugar control

Researchers from Pakistan took 60 men and women with type 2 diabetes and supplemented their diets with 1, 3 or 6 grams of cinnamon a day. Over the 40 days of the study, blood sugar levels dropped on average 20 per cent compared to those in the control group who were given a placebo (a similar-looking powder without any cinnamon).

Half a teaspoon a day may keep the doctor away!

The amount of cinnamon found to be effective was around half a teaspoon (3 grams) a day. Surprisingly, levels stayed low 20 days after cinnamon intake was stopped and blood triglycerides and cholesterol also showed a decrease.

Enjoy!

So you can be generous with the cinnamon in your desserts such as creamy rice, baked custard, apple crumble, apple strudel and stewed pears. Cinnamon is not the only spice with such good news. Other spices like cloves and nutmeg may well turn out to have similar benefits. Already we know that most spices are extremely rich in nutrients such as beta-carotene, certain B vitamins and natural antioxidants but in the tiny amounts used in cooking, they are not usually significant sources of nutrition.

 

Easy ways to enjoy more cinnamon

• Sprinkle cinnamon over your breakfast porridge - be generous, you'll need a lot to bump up your intake significantly
• Mix cinnamon with caster sugar and sprinkle over hot toast to make cinnamon toast
• Top vanilla ice cream or plain yoghurt with lots of cinnamon for a quick dessert
• Pop a cinnamon stick (quill) into your next cup of tea or coffee to give it a new flavour

Nutrition stats

Cinnamon has negligible counts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, fibre or kilojoules (calories).

 

Cinnamon in the news

Cinnamon lowers fasting blood glucose
A water-soluble extract of cinnamon improved antioxidant variables - by as much as 13 to 23 percent - and improvement in antioxidant status was correlated with decreases in fasting glucose. This suggests that the antioxidative compounds in cinnamon could help reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and heart disease, according to a study led by US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Read more.