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2007-06-21 19:02:31
Spoonful of cinnamon helps blood sugar stay down
Wed Jun 20, 3:31 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding some cinnamon to your dessert may temper the
blood sugar surge that follows a sweet treat, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Malmo University Hospital in Sweden found that adding a little
more than a teaspoon of cinnamon to a bowl of rice pudding lowered the
post-meal blood sugar rise in a group of healthy volunteers.
The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to
evidence from past studies that cinnamon may aid in blood sugar control.
However, it's too early to prescribe cinnamon as a therapy for diabetes, a
disorder in which blood sugar levels soar because the body cannot properly use
the sugar-regulating hormone insulin.
Dr. Joanna Hlebowicz and her colleagues based their findings on 14 healthy
volunteers who had their blood sugar measured before and after eating a bowl of
rice pudding; each volunteer was tested after eating plain rice pudding and
after having a cinnamon-spiced version.
Post-pudding blood tests, which were taken repeatedly over 2 hours, showed that
volunteers' blood sugar rose to a lesser degree when they had the cinnamon
dessert.
One reason for the effect seems to be that cinnamon slows the rate at which
food passes from the stomach to the intestines, according to Hlebowicz's team.
Using ultrasound scans, they found that the volunteers showed a slower rate of
"gastric emptying" when they ate the cinnamon rice pudding.
Whether people with diabetes should start spicing their diets with cinnamon
remains to be seen. One small study, Hlebowicz and her colleagues note, found
that when people with type 2 diabetes added cinnamon to their diets for 40
days, their blood sugar and cholesterol levels tended to dip.
On the other hand, a recent study found no such benefits among people with type
1 diabetes.
Further studies focusing on people with diabetes are still needed, Hlebowicz
and her colleagues conclude.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2007.