Sugar Turned On Me

Simple is most often best. I don’t fear saying this, even though I know many good things that are complex, like the deep magic that runs my computer or the byzantine labyrinth of mechanisms that keep my car running. But the best things are usually the most simple, be it in food, work, or in this case, managing one’s blood sugar.

What I’m leading up to with that clever opening paragraph is the discoveries that have been made in the past 5 years concerning cinnamon. Simple ground cinnamon, stuff you probably have in your kitchen right now, has been shown to have beneficial effects on blood sugar as well as cholesterol. There’s a chemical component of the spice called MHCP that increases your insulin sensitivity by mimicking the function of insulin.

The discovery was made by accident, when a group was trying to figure out the effects of common foods in the American diet on blood sugar. As it so happens, apple pie helped lower people’s blood sugar. The culprit was not the sugar or fat in the dish, but the spice.

I’ve been experimenting with it for a few days now and so far the results are positive. A little research turned up that 1 gram a day is sufficient to get the positive effects and more than that doesn’t give much more benefit. I’ve been taking it in a simple capsule form. Putting cinnamon in your food or a stick of it in your tea also helps confer the goodness.

I’m not going to tell you to toss out your insulin and just start eating cinnamon buns (though I will say check with your doctor before adding this or any supplement to your diet) but I do recommend checking it out for yourself. You might find a little shake of the red stuff a simple boon to the complex problem of keeping your blood sugar down.

Check out the following links for more:
The Best of Cinnamon
A New Scientist article on the discovery
And of course, what they say at Wikipedia

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