New Delhi, 13 Jul 2024 (GBNEWS): Cinnamon has been shown to deliver a one-two punch to diabetes and high cholesterol.
The finding is encouraging because the two conditions often go hand-in-hand. Diabetes damages the lining of your arteries. This means it’s more likely that cholesterol will stick to them, making them narrow or even blocked.
If you have diabetes, you will usually have lower levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and higher levels of LDL/non-HDL cholesterol.
This is the “bad” type that raises your risk of heart disease.
A study of 60 middle-aged Britons published in the journal Diabetes Care found cinnamon improved blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
The participants were divided into three groups and given one (half a teaspoon), three or six grams of cinnamon a day respectively.
Three other groups were given placebo capsules corresponding to the number of capsules consumed for the three levels of cinnamon.
The cinnamon was consumed for 40 days. This was followed by a 20-day “wash out” phase where no pills were taken.
The researchers found that cinnamon cut cholesterol by about 18 percent and blood sugar levels by 24 percent.
They concluded that the “inclusion” of cinnamon in the diet of people with type 2 diabetes will reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Other studies support this conclusion.
Researchers found that ingesting a daily supplement of cinnamon lowered abnormally high blood sugar levels in prediabetics over two weeks.
Another study, cited in the Agricultural Research Magazine, found that consuming just one gram of cinnamon per day can increase insulin sensitivity and help manage or reverse type 2 diabetes.
In addition, a 2007 analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that six grams of cinnamon slows stomach emptying and significantly reduces blood sugar spikes after meals.
Furthermore, 2019 research review suggests that cinnamon helps lower fasting blood glucose levels.
