How is cinnamon good for u

Read More. Not all cinnamon is created equal. There are two basic types of cinnamon. Ceylon, or Cinnamomum verum, is grown in Sri Lanka.

Cassia has the stronger flavor and odor of the two and, due to its much lower cost, is what we buy in the store to sprinkle on our food.

But it's the more expensive Ceylon version, with a milder, sweeter flavor, that might be the best for your health. Is coconut oil healthy? Cassia can contain relatively high concentrations of coumarin, a plant compound that can damage the liver.

A study of 91 cinnamon samples from various stores in Germany found 63 times more coumarin in cassia cinnamon powder than Ceylon powder. Cassia sticks, which look like a thick layer of rolled bark, also contained 18 times more coumarin than Ceylon sticks, which have thin layers. Is wine healthy? That problem also plagues research on cinnamon. Scientists have used different doses, species and compounds of the spice for their research.

That's the problem with translation of all of this work. Even when we find positive results, how do we come up with the correct compounding and dosage for maximum safety? Keep that in mind as you read on about where science stands on cinnamon. Diabetes and cholesterol. Apple cider vinegar and diabetes.

Stockert co-authored a small study of 18 people with type 2 diabetes that showed the cassia species of cinnamon was more effective than diet alone in lowering blood glucose levels.

In fact, her study found that it was comparable to oral diabetes medications. Another study of 60 people with type 2 diabetes found that small doses of cinnamon reduced blood sugar levels and improved LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol. The Food and Drug Administration's recommended limit is 6 grams a day. But while the future looks promising, the American Diabetes Association urges caution. If that had gone down, I'd be more impressed.

One-month sugar detox: A nutritionist explains how and why. Still, if you want to see whether cinnamon works for you, Maryniuk suggests that people with type 2 diabetes do a self-test. Some countries in Europe set a tolerable daily intake for coumarin. In Germany, this number is 0. An average teaspoon of cinnamon weighs about 2. At these levels, a single teaspoon per day could put many average sized adults at risk of liver damage.

This is especially true for individuals who already have pre-existing liver disease. Parents should also be careful, because a small child could ingest too much coumarin from consuming a relatively minor quantity of Cassia cinnamon.

For example, an 18 kg, 5-year-old child would only need to consume 1. While this is safe if it happens occasionally, regularly serving your child food with cinnamon could be dangerous. Early studies in rodents found that coumarin could lead to cancerous tumours. However, there are no indications that this is true for humans, because of differences in the ways the two species metabolize coumarin. Studies show that this spice and its antioxidants have potent anti-inflammatory properties 8 , 9.

The antioxidants in cinnamon have anti-inflammatory effects, which may help lower your risk of disease. In people with type 2 diabetes, 1 gram or about half a teaspoon of cinnamon per day has been shown to have beneficial effects on blood markers. More recently, a big review study concluded that a cinnamon dose of just mg per day can have these effects. In animal studies, cinnamon has been shown to reduce blood pressure 3.

Cinnamon may improve some key risk factors for heart disease, including cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure. This is known as insulin resistance , a hallmark of serious conditions like metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The good news is that cinnamon can dramatically reduce insulin resistance, helping this important hormone do its job 12 , By increasing insulin sensitivity, cinnamon can lower blood sugar levels, as discussed in the next chapter.

Cinnamon is well known for its blood-sugar-lowering properties. Apart from the beneficial effects on insulin resistance, cinnamon can lower blood sugar by several other mechanisms.

First, cinnamon has been shown to decrease the amount of glucose that enters your bloodstream after a meal. It does this by interfering with numerous digestive enzymes, which slows the breakdown of carbohydrates in your digestive tract 14 , Second, a compound in cinnamon can act on cells by mimicking insulin 16 , This greatly improves glucose uptake by your cells, though it acts much slower than insulin itself.

For more information on how you can lower your blood sugar levels, check out 15 easy ways to lower blood sugar levels naturally. Cinnamon has been shown to reduce fasting blood sugar levels, having a potent anti-diabetic effect at 1—6 grams or 0. Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by progressive loss of the structure or function of brain cells. However, human research is lacking. Overall, the evidence is limited to test-tube and animal studies, which suggest that cinnamon extracts may protect against cancer 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , It acts by reducing the growth of cancer cells and the formation of blood vessels in tumors and appears to be toxic to cancer cells, causing cell death.

A study in mice with colon cancer revealed that cinnamon is a potent activator of detoxifying enzymes in the colon, protecting against further cancer growth These findings were supported by test-tube experiments, which showed that cinnamon activates protective antioxidant responses in human colon cells Whether cinnamon has any effect in living, breathing humans needs to be confirmed in controlled studies.

For a list of 13 foods that could potentially lower your risk of cancer, you might want to read this article. It also plays a role in traditional medicine for treating bronchitis. According to the U. Department of Agriculture , a teaspoon of ground cinnamon weighing 2. It also contains traces of vitamins B and K and the antioxidants choline, beta-carotene , alpha-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin.

Antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress and may help prevent cancer, type 2 diabetes, and many other conditions. In food, people usually eat only a small amount of cinnamon. Therefore, the nutrients it contains will not play a significant role in the diet. Cinnamon is the bark of a tree. People can put small pieces of bark in stews, desserts, and other dishes, or they can use ground cinnamon, for example, in cakes or on buns.

There are two main types of cinnamon: Ceylon cinnamon Cinnamomum verum and cassia, or Chinese, cinnamon Cinnamomum aromaticum. Ceylon cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka. Cassia is cheaper than Ceylon cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon is very expensive, so most foods in the U. People can use cinnamon in sweet or savory dishes.

Get some more tips for using cinnamon powder here. In the short term, consuming moderate amounts of cinnamon as a spice or as a supplement seems to be safe for most people. However, cinnamon contains coumarin. This is a natural flavoring, but it also plays a role in creating warfarin, the common blood-thinning drug. Consuming too much coumarin can lead to liver damage and affect coagulation.

Therefore, people should speak to their doctor before adding cinnamon or cassia to their diet if they:. Cassia cinnamon powder, a common ingredient in foods in the U. A German study from found that coumarin content varies widely, even in samples of cinnamon from the same tree.

Cassia cinnamon was particularly high in coumarin.