Thursday, March 19, 2009

Spice It Up With Cinnamon

Myth or Fact? Cinnamon Has Health Benefits

FACT. Cinnamon is a unique and flavorful seasoning, exotic to the taste buds. But besides being a perfect enhancer to some great dishes, cinnamon is also good for you! Cinnamon has lots of healthy attributes besides being able to give your palate something to smile about.

One of the first human studies on cinnamon was published in 2003 in a medical journal called Diabetes Care. Sixty people with type 2 diabetes took 1,3, or 6 grams of cinnamon in pill form daily, an amount roughly equivalent to ¼ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. After 40 days, all 3 amounts of cinnamon reduced fasting blood sugars and the bad ‘LDL’ cholesterol.

Besides reducing blood sugar and lowering bad cholesterol, many studies have revealed other potential health benefits of cinnamon:

  1. Cinnamon acts as a natural preservative for food
  2. Is a good source of manganese, iron and calcium
  3. May aid in treating some bacterial infections
  4. May help reduce inflammation

Cinnamon often gets a bad rap… because cinnamon buns, cinnamon toast or pumpkin pie are the foods that may come to mind. But cinnamon can be included in our daily diet in a much more healthy way. The best part of cinnamon is that it’s easy to add to foods you already eat. All you need is a ½ teaspoon a day.

Try these tricks to get some more spice in your life:

  1. Add some cinnamon to hot oatmeal or cold fiber cereal
  2. Mix some into 1 tbsp of peanut butter and spread onto celery sticks
  3. Stir some into plain yogurt
  4. Sprinkle some over baked sweet potatoes or carrots
  5. Add some to a store-bought rub to go on grilled chicken
Sprinkle some straight into your coffee, skim latte or skim cappuccino

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Just found your site/blog. As an RD I find it a refreshing. I agree that Cooking Light a great mag. The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger is my favorite cookbook.
Chelsea Walther