The benefit of cinnamon in your health

Cinnamon is a very versatile and widely used spice in the world. In fact, it is the most widely used spice in the world. Its uses range from the preparation of all kinds of dishes in the kitchen to cosmetic products. It is also widely used in medicine because the properties of cinnamon are very broad and effective.

Summary: Cinnamon is a very beneficial spice for health. In addition, it has many uses in the kitchen and in the production of natural cosmetic products. Also, in our shop in Las Rozas de Madrid, we have it available in soaps, creams and in our honey with cinnamon…

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1. What is cinnamon?

Cinnamon is a tree between 10 and 15 metres high, whose bark is used as a spice. There are two varieties of cinnamon; Cinnamomum verum or C. Zeylanicum, which is the so-called true cinnamon native to Sri Lanka; and the Cinnamomum cassia variety, which is similar to the former and comes from southern China and Indonesia. C. verum has a milder colour, sweeter and more delicate taste than C. cassia, with a stronger flavour.

Cinnamon contains antioxidants, such as proanthocyanidins, and various active components.

2. The benefit of cinnamon in your health:

From the scientific literature we expose the following benefits that the consumption of cinnamon brings to our organism:

a) Diabetes:

Diabetes is a chronic disease that is caused by a malfunction of the pancreas, which does not create the hormone insulin in quantity or the latter does not work properly, causing the glucose that reaches the bloodstream is not absorbed by the cells of the body.

Different medical teams, such as the one published in 2000 in the Agricultural Research Magazine, have verified that the consumption of cinnamon increases the sensitivity of the insulin hormone, helping to introduce glucose into cells and maintaining a better regulation of the level of glucose in the blood.

Diabetes Care magazine published research in 2003 that showed that consuming cinnamon reduces blood glucose, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in people with type 2 diabetes. Consequently, cinnamon prevents people with diabetes from reducing their risk of cardiovascular disease.

b) Antimicrobial activity:

Both water-soluble and liposoluble components of cinnamon have antimicrobial effects, which inhibit the growth of many common types of bacteria. In many developing countries cinnamon is used in the fight against bacteria that cause typhoid fever, enteritis and diarrhea.

In developed countries many people self-diagnose their own drugs, causing the bacteria that cause infections to become resistant to antibiotics. The antimicrobial effect of cinnamon can be used to fight these antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

c) Inflammation:

Inflammation is an immune system response to foreign agents, causing the inflamed part of the body to become red, warm and swollen. With inflammation, the process of healing begins and the development of new tissue to replace the damaged tissue.

Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory effects, which inhibit the production by our body of harmful components that can cause damage to cells, such as nitric oxide, cyclooxygenase (COX-2), prostaglandins and other compounds. In addition, cinnamon can influence the genes that activate the development of these compounds, leading to a reduction in inflammation. Therefore, cinnamon can be consumed as a complement to other medical treatments in order to treat arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

d) Cervical cancer:

According to a scientific study conducted in 2010, cinnamon of the species C. cassia may initiate the death of cervical cancer cells. Therefore, cinnamon could be used as a chemopreventive drug against this type of cancer.

3. Interesting benefits of cinnamon and honey

If we unite cinnamon with honey, we are going to achieve a superfood, because the antimicrobial properties of cinnamon and honey are united at the same time.

In our shop specialized in honey in Las Rozas de Madrid you will find this mixture already made, which apart from being very effective against colds and infections, is delicious.

Photo 1: Honey with cinnamon

4. Benefits of coffe and cinnamon and other recipes

The cinnamon pulverized: it is the cinnamon that we find in powder and we throw it directly in the desserts. You can also find it mixed with other foods such as honey.

Cinnamon stick: Cinnamon stick is used to give flavor to desserts by putting it to cook with other foods, such as rice pudding.

We must bear in mind that cinnamon is often used to imitate other flavours. An example of this is in the supposed tigernut milk tigernut milk sold by the best known brands. These tigernut milk and cinnamon are usually added to these tigernut milk in order to replace the tigernut by these other foods much cheaper, even though the real tigernut milk has no cinnamon at all.

Sources:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/