Cinnamon Health Benefits: 10 Reasons why Cinnamon is so Healthy

One of the many cinnamon health benefits is that it can help you to manage your weight. As part of your holistic health lifestyle diet, if used regularly, it will help you to regulate your blood sugar levels, and help to bring about a rise in your body system’s insulin levels. Let’s take a closer look to see how this works.

Cinnamon’s ability to help with weight management

Cinnamon has the ability to help to slow down the rate at which your stomach empties after each meal, which in turn helps to decrease the rise in blood sugar levels. According to research carried out back in 2005, and as reported on the NCBI website, cinnamon slowed the GER (Gastric Emptying Rate) by 2.5%. Okay, that might not sound much, but in percentage terms, the reduction in GER from 37% to 34.5%, represents a slowing down of 6.77%. This leads to an even larger percentage drop in what they call the postprandial blood glucose level, postprandial being “posh” talk for “after dinner” – anyone for a postprandial mint? Hold on – better not – more calories!

Cinnamon helps you to stay feeling fuller for longer

The other advantage with slowing down the speed with which your tummy empties, is that it means that you stay feeling more full up for longer too, which will help to stop any urge for snacking in between meal times.

Cinnamon regulates blood sugar levels

Another of the cinnamon health benefits is the fact that your blood glucose levels are managed more regularly, meaning that you won’t experience urges to eat sweet things so much. Also, when your blood sugar is too high, there is a tendency for your body to store more fat; so managing your blood sugar levels also helps to cut down on fat storage; something that is also facilitated further because cinnamon also has an effect of the way your body metabolizes the glucose, and again this also leads to less fat being created and stored.

Cinnamon health benefits have been used by mankind for thousands of years; in fact it is mentioned several times in the Bible, and was used by the ancient Egyptians as a flavoring for drinks, as well as being used for medicinal purposes. It was also used in ancient Chinese medicine, and by the Indians in Ayurvedic medicine.

Cinnamon’s nutritional value

In terms of its nutritional content, cinnamon is a rich source of the element manganese, a good source of calcium, and an excellent source of fiber. It is can be bought in both stick form and powder form.

So far we’ve talked about the cinnamon health benefits as far as weight management is concerned, but this special spice offers far more than just being a weight control aid.

Cinnamon may lower the risk of colon cancer

One of the cinnamon health benefits we can enjoy when we include this spice in our diets is improved colon health, and possible protection for colon cancer. This is brought about by the action of the calcium and fiber that cinnamon contains. They have the ability to bind onto bile salts which helps them to be removed from your body. Bile salts can damage the cells of your colon and their removal from your body system therefore lessens the risk of developing colon cancer.

Cinnamon can contribute to heart health

Another advantage of removing bile salts from your body is that it helps to promote a reduction in the amount of LDL cholesterol in your blood. Bile is an essential substance of your digestive system so your body produces new bile to replace that which is removed. This process uses LDL cholesterol, so helps to lower the levels of LDL cholesterol in your body, which if left unaddressed, are known to contribute to heart disease.

Another of the cinnamon heath benefits – a cure for a Candida overgrowth

Cinnamon also has anti-microbial properties, and studies using cinnamon extract have shown that these can help to stop the proliferation of some bad bacteria, and may prevent the spread of certain yeast fungi including Candida Albicans.

Cinnamon improves blood circulation

Another of the cinnamon health benefits is that it promotes healthy blood circulation. Cinnamon contains a compound known as cinnamaldahyde. It’s this compound that gives it its characteristic taste and smell. But it can also have an effect on platelets, which are used to help blood to clot, and stop a bleeding wound. If platelets clump together when there is no wound situation, this can interfere with blood circulation.

Technically, in terms of body chemistry, the cinnamaldahyde inhibits the leaching of arachidonic acid from the platelets and also prevent molecules of thromboxane A2 from forming. There’s no need to know the nuts and bolts of the chemistry involved, but it helps to explain yet one more of the cinnamon health benefits.

Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory characteristics – treats arthritic pain

The 2 substances mentioned above, (arachidonic acid and thromboxane A2), are both inflammatory agents. By limiting their production, you bring about another of the cinnamon health benefits which is the limitation of the amount of inflammation in your body. This may explain why research conducted by Copenhagen University, documented that test subjects given half a teaspoon on cinnamon mixed with one tablespoon of honey, reported a significant reduction in arthritic pain.

Cinnamon boosts cognitive function – may help to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s

The aroma from cinnamon is able to boost brain function in several areas. Tests carried out back in 2004 showed that inhaling the odor of cinnamon improved the subjects’ attention spans, improved memory, and boosted recognition ability. Cinnamon was one of 4 odors that subjects were given; the others being, no odor, the odor of jasmine, and the odor of peppermint. Cinnamon returned a significantly higher result than any of the other odors, resulting in another of the cinnamon health benefits - improved cognition function.

Cinnamon may also be able to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, and increase sufferer’s longevity according to research carried out by the University of Tal Aviv using a cinnamon extract.

Cinnamon aids digestion

The last of the cinnamon health benefits we’re going to review here in this article is its ability to aid good digestion. This comes back to something we discussed earlier – the action of calcium and fiber to remove bile salts. This also helps to regulate the gastric juices in your gut, and the anti inflammatory characteristics, (also discussed earlier), help to minimize indigestion.

Help yourself

To avail yourself of the many cinnamon health benefits you can add it to your holistic health lifestyle diet in many ways. You can make an herbal tea with it, sprinkle it on top of coffee, spoon it onto breakfast cereal, oatmeal or fruit, add it as an ingredient to fruit pies, and include it as an ingredient in curries, casseroles and stews.

Sources:

NCBI website: Effect of cinnamon on postprandial glucose, gastric emptying, and satiety in health food subjects – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17556692&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Fitday website: How a Scoop of Cinnamon a Day Can Help You Lose Weight – http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/how-a-scoop-of-cinnamon-a-day-can-help-you-lose-weight.html

The Health Site: Health benefits of cinnamon (dalchini) – http://health.india.com/diseases-conditions/health-benefits-of-cinnamon-dalchini/

WH foods website: Ground cinnamon – http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=68

The post Cinnamon Health Benefits: 10 Reasons why Cinnamon is so Healthy appeared first on Healthy Holistic Living.

Source: Healthy Holistic Healing

Comments