Reduce Blood Sugar Spikes With A Dose Of Cinnamon: Optimize Your Diet Part 6

Recent studies coming from researchers at the University of Lund in Sweden found that cinnamon has the ability to moderate blood sugar in even the most sweetest of desserts. The problem with blood sugar is really only evident in those with diabetes or in those who are pre-diabetic as sugars in food can cause blood sugar in people to become elevated and as a result further worsening the problem.

Spikes in blood sugar levels or, chronically elevated blood sugar levels, can lead to insulin resistance which is something that is all too prevalent in today’s society. High insulin levels and insulin resistance leads to diabetes and diabetes greatly increases your chances of dying from heart disease, stroke, cancer, or simply from the disease itself. Diabetes alone, discounting the resulting previously mentioned ailments is still the number three cause of death nationwide.

See this post for more info on the normal blood sugar range you should fall in.

The "Blood Glucose" Study
In the study led by Joanna Hlebowicz, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in June 2007, researchers tested the blood of 14 patients (small study I know) every 15 minutes for two hours they all consumed a serving of rice pudding. The catch was that half of the subjects desserts contained 6 grams of cinnamon where as the other half did not.

Results: Cinnamon Can Reduce Blood Sugar Spikes

In the end it was determined that the presence of cinnamon actually slowed the digestive process (which has the effect of normalizing blood sugar levels) and it caused the blood sugar levels to moderate even more than a slower digestive process would take anyway. Basically adding cinnamon moderates blood sugar in two different ways thereby making it very effective in keeping you body in better health.

Take Home Piece

I often try to encourage my readers to consider adding things to their routine cooking habits. Spices I’ve found are quite easy to implement. This is no different; if you’re going to be having a meal or dessert which contains a fair to high amount of refined carbs (high on the glycemic index scale) add cinnamon to the ingredient list to at least minimize the potential damage. You don’t have to cut everything from your diet nor do you have to only eat healthy things either. My philosophy is to feel free to eat anything and everything but to do so in smaller quantities and to optimize your diet through food pairings whenever you can. Enjoy life and enjoy your food.

Additionally, if this post strikes you particularly relevant, in that blood sugar spikes and insulin resistance are something you or a loved one deal with, you may find benefit is reading my post a few months ago: 11 Ways To Reduce Insulin Resistance.

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This post has been included in my Optimize Your Diet Series where I identify foods that we all eat already which can be optimized for even greater nutritional benefit. I hope you’ll click back into the archive and read up of some other ways you can optimize your diet.

Source
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2007