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Healthy LivingNutrition

Cinnamon – Surprises and Cautions

By September 26, 2022February 14th, 2023No Comments

Cinnamon has been beloved for as long back as we can look. It has such a lovely scent, packs a substantial medicinal punch and can be used, safely, on a regular basis.

The idea that cinnamon is associated with warmth isn’t coincidental. Herbalists around the globe use a system of energetics to ascribe traits to both human health and disease, as well as the herbal medicines which can be used to support them. We have herbs which are hot, cool, damp, dry, and anything in between. While energetics can be challenging to discern energetics at times, there are those herbs, like cinnamon, which are undoubtedly warming. Warming herbs pair beautifully with cool constitutions and health conditions which might be a bit stagnant or cold, but with the gentle warming nature of cinnamon it can be applied in most any situation. Cinnamon may be sweet and tasty, but don’t let the simplicity or amicability of cinnamon fool you into thinking it isn’t strong medicine – because the sweet and spicy bark is a veritable medicine chest in itself.

1. A Daily Dose
Even if you don’t take cinnamon every day, studies suggest that regular dietary use has a positive effect. So, you can focus on using cinnamon in your food and skip the encapsulated supplements – using cinnamon a few times per week in a therapeutic dose is easy as pie. Several studies have shown that a single gram of cinnamon has beneficial effects (a gram is a heavy sprinkle, and teaspoon of cinnamon is about 5 grams) so it’s simple to get the medicinal dose with a generous sprinkle on your oatmeal, apples, fruit, yogurt, or anyway you like it. If you haven’t tried cinnamon in savory foods it can add a lot to roasted meats or veggies.

2. A Pinch of Prevention
If you, or your ancestors, have health conditions which involved a blood sugar imbalance (such as diabetes or metabolic syndrome) cinnamon might be just what you are looking for in the way of prevention. Cinnamon has been shown in a number to studies to improve HA1C levels (an indicator for blood sugar stability). You don’t have to have a metabolic health condition or a blood sugar imbalance for it to be helpful. In fact, if you have concerns about diabetes or other metabolic conditions in your family it can be a great opportunity to add it into your daily family meals for household prevention. A shaker of cinnamon left out on your table or counter might encourage you to cook with it more or top your food with it. Even morning cereal, toast, or oatmeal can be easily given an extra medicinal punch by topping with some cinnamon. Just be sure to choose the correct type!

3. Finding the Balance
We know that blood sugar balance can be implicated in many different health conditions, but are you familiar with the role blood sugar plays in health conditions experienced by people with a uterus? A number of conditions, such as PCOS (and even menstrual cramps), have been shown to be related to blood sugar balance. Several studies have looked at the role cinnamon can play in glycemic levels in people with PCOS. PCOS has significant metabolic factors, and a regular dose of cinnamon can be helpful for maintaining a healthy blood sugar balance in these conditions. A recent meta-analysis found Cinnamomum zeylanicum eases menstrual pain, which is convenient, as this warming herb can be lovely in a tea or other tasty preparation you can enjoy at that “time of the month”. Ceylon cinnamon has even shown positive results in several trials of people suffering from dysmenorrhea, so you can plan to increase your monthly dose of cinnamon and see if it might make some of your difficult cycle days a bit less difficult.

4. Working it Out
Do you enjoy a hard workout? While your workout might be great for your heart, the associated muscle soreness can indicate quite a bit of inflammatory markers in your body. In a 2013 six-week, double-blind randomized controlled trial of 60 healthy female martial arts athletes, aged 13 to 25 (mean age 19) they measured the effects of ginger, cinnamon, and placebo on muscle soreness. Pre- and post-study plasma levels of pro-inflammatory marker Interleukin 6 (IL-6) were taken, and perceived muscle soreness was also assessed via a Likert Scale model. Participants were given a daily dose of 3 grams of ginger, cinnamon, or placebo for six weeks, with no other dietary changes. Both ginger and cinnamon reduced the IL-6 plasma levels, and ginger also significantly reduced muscle soreness. So, you can try taking cinnamon a few hours before your usual workout, or just make a daily habit of it.

5. Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon?
But is that bottle of “cinnamon” in your spice cabinet even the “real thing”? What you might not be aware of is cinnamon’s many species, each with a different phytochemistry, coumarin content and associated medicinal properties. With types of cinnamon, you want to maximize the compounds with health benefits while avoiding those which can be harmful in higher doses. In some species of cinnamon, there are high levels of coumarins, which can be harmful if taken regularly over time in larger doses. Coumarins possess strong anticoagulant properties and can have potentially toxic effects on the liver.

Depending on the desired outcome, it’s important to choose the right cinnamon for the job at hand, and avoid taking too much of the wrong one, so you’ll want to source your cinnamon from a place with more detailed information on the label so you can accurately assess the genus and species, or at least the type, in the bottle.

Cinnamomum cassia is the most common species sold in North America and has a strong, trademark cinnamon smell. It contains high levels of coumarins, it’s best used to flavor food and not regularly for therapeutic purposes. If it doesn’t say otherwise, you can assume it is Cinnamomum cassia.

The cinnamon you are looking for with optimal medicinal properties is sometimes called “true cinnamon” or “Vietnamese cinnamon” and has a sweeter taste with a more delicate aroma, and is technically known as Cinnamomum verum. You can find true cinnamon at many spice stores and online retailers, as well as in stores with a wider variety of quality spices.

6. So Many Ways to Take It
Like many herbs, a therapeutic dose of cinnamon can take many forms, but unlike many herbs, the pleasurable and delicious options are plentiful. You can strike out with something new, such as experimenting by adding cinnamon to savory Asian dishes such as in an “five-spice” powder which can be used in a variety of Asian meat and vegetable dishes and is a combination of sweet and savory containing cinnamon. You can create your own super red hot cinnamon syrup to add to your cinnamon tea, or you can call on a bit of nostalgia and make some cinnamon toast with perhaps a quality butter, whole grain bread, and a high cinnamon to raw-sugar ratio.
Of course, cinnamon can also be taken in more traditional herbal preparations. It can be taken as a tea by boiling cinnamon chips or sticks in water for five minutes and drinking hot or cold. It can be used as capsules if you aren’t a fan of the flavor, and it is a sweet and delicious tincture which can even flavor less pleasant herbal extracts. In fact, cinnamon is often added in tinctures not only for its medicinal properties but as a catalyst or synergist to help the body assimilate the tincture as a whole.

7. Lore on Cinnamon
Well, maybe you won’t fall for the tales of the magic and wonder of cinnamon and the challenge of its acquisition, but explorers and traders in the past lapped right up the lore of cinnamon which kept it being precious and sought after. Aristotle and Herodotus both waxed on about the rare and enormous cinnamon bird, with bat-like wings, who built its nests of cinnamon twigs high on the side of a sheer cliff. The harvesters lured these beasts away with carrion and other temptations in order to risk their lives and collect the twigs.

Of course, cinnamon was gathered from mere tree bark, but given the distances and exotic locations, the traders and harvesters undoubtedly risked their lives and had tales to tell. Even without these stories story, we make a bee line for cinnamon as the weather turns cold, and now you can understand why our bodies crave this wonderful medicinal spice!

Article adapted from Mother Earth Living.

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