HEALTHY BODY MAKES HEALTHY MIND
Sangeetha
30 FOODS FOR HEALTHY BODY
CINNAMON (3)
Cinnamon may help regulate blood sugar levels after meals,which may reduce the amount of fat stored.It may also have antioxidant effects,decrease inflammation and fight bacteria.
HEALTH BENEFITS:
Over the thousands of years cinnamon has been around, it’s been used in many different applications, such as:
• Reduces mold growth in bread products (is a fungicide)
• Can increase resistance to and help fight the common cold by battling congestion and inducing perspiration
• Reduces body temperature due to fever
• Alleviates mental stress
• Improves memory and attention
• Relieves joint pain due to arthritis
• Reduces headaches and migraines
• Can treat diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and flatulence
• And will freshen your breath when chewed
Cinnamon also has been shown to improve fasting blood glucose levels, lean body mass, blood pressure and gastric (stomach) emptying in people with and without type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Overall, there’s not enough solid evidence to make definite conclusions about cinnamons ability to prevent or treat diabetes, but it does show much promise and there are several ways it can potentially modify one’s risk factors for this disease. Some of the mechanisms include:
• Delayed stomach emptying which can reduce the rate of absorption of glucose from food and prevent increases in blood triglycerides (excess blood glucose is converted to fats within the liver)
• Flavanoid-supressed glucose absorption – the compounds in cinnamon can reduce food sugar uptake intrinsically (to an extent; it won’t work if you take in excessive amounts of sugar)
• Polyphenols in cinnamon can mimic the effects of insulin on cellular blood glucose uptake through a number of different pathways.
Weight loss advantages:
cinnamon given therapeutically can improve glucose use and blood concentrations, which are known to favorably influence body fat levels (causing body fat levels to decrease – which is much of the premise of lower carbohydrate and lower glycemic index diets).
If you choose to use food-sourced cinnamon, buy a high quality brand of cinnamon sticks (correctly called quills) or powder, and keep it in an air-tight container away from light.
