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Cinnamon - Its Origins and Uses
Cinnamon is one of the spices that fueled the Spice Trade from the Orient to the West. It has been considered a desirable product for hundreds of years. Other spices that travelled the spice routes are cardomom, ginger and turmeric.
The cinnamon you sprinkle on your cereal, toast or in the Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe recently featured, is actually ground bark! What's more, this bark is harvested after the mother plant is two years old -- and beheaded! Little suckers come up all around the decapitated plant from the root below. It is the inner bark of these little suckers that are stripped, dried and ground into powder. Now how did someone ever figure out that one??
There are various species of cinnamon: Sri Lankan, Chinese, Padang, Saigon, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. However, only one species is considered 'true' cinnamon. The spice trade from the Orient brought Cinnamomum verum (verum = true) to the Western world. C. verum has an alternate name, C. zeylanicum, which takes its name from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
What's more, the majority of cinnamon sold on the U.S. market is actually a cousin of true cinnamon, called Cassia. Botanically, Cinnamomum cassia, it is nominally known as Chinese cinnamon or Bastard cinnamon. It is stronger and sharper in its flavor, but is often a ready, and cheaper, substitute. The concern regarding Cassia is that it contains a large amount of coumarin, which can be dangerous to heart health.
Cinnamon is also a well-known antioxidant, a lesser-known mild antifungal agent (if applied directly to the fungus!) and reputedly a modifier of blood sugar spikes for people with diabetes, although a 2008 study casts doubt on that.
The reports about cinnamon being an antifungal actually reference cinnamon oil that has tested successfully. And, just sozya know, the testing has been in the lab. Still, it is interesting science and may prove helpful in the future. We just didn't want you sprinkling your athlete's foot with cinnamon powder! (Although you'd smell delicious!)
As an antioxidant, cinnamon oil reigns supreme. However, that is the oil form that gets the acclaim and requires as much as two teaspoons to garner the effects noted in some of these studies. Be a bit skeptical of the antioxidant claims that accrue to cinnamon on the boards and read the particulars. Assuredly, cinnamon can help keep foods from decaying as a bacterial inhibitor, but that's not why we eat it.
On the other hand, Chinese medicine has used cinnamon as a calming tea for many centuries. Simply inhaling its odor scores very high on enhancing the brain's memory and cognitive functions. The chemistry involved with this may not be available yet, but the results remain positive for us humans and is pretty much all we care about!
Cinnamon has made the news recently about the ability to control blood sugar spikes in diabetics. www.DLife.com has the "Last Word" about cinnamon's capacity to modify these spikes. The result is a resounding, "NO"! To quote:
"In the five controlled trials, a total of 282 people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, were given either a placebo or varying doses of cinnamon, ranging from 1 to 6 grams, for a period of 3 months. In the report, published in the January 2008 issue of Diabetes Care, lead author William L.. Baker, PharmD, BCPS, writes: "Cinnamon does not appear to improve A1C, [fasting blood glucose], or [cholesterol] in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.."
And yet, a web search yields 'results' on both sides of cinnamon's ability to reduce LDL and A1C blood sugar levels in diabetics. So, since it can't hurt and might help, we vote for the happy use of cinnamon the way your mother always did: in wonderful pastries.
The cinnamon you sprinkle on your cereal, toast or in the Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe recently featured, is actually ground bark! What's more, this bark is harvested after the mother plant is two years old -- and beheaded! Little suckers come up all around the decapitated plant from the root below. It is the inner bark of these little suckers that are stripped, dried and ground into powder. Now how did someone ever figure out that one??
There are various species of cinnamon: Sri Lankan, Chinese, Padang, Saigon, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. However, only one species is considered 'true' cinnamon. The spice trade from the Orient brought Cinnamomum verum (verum = true) to the Western world. C. verum has an alternate name, C. zeylanicum, which takes its name from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
What's more, the majority of cinnamon sold on the U.S. market is actually a cousin of true cinnamon, called Cassia. Botanically, Cinnamomum cassia, it is nominally known as Chinese cinnamon or Bastard cinnamon. It is stronger and sharper in its flavor, but is often a ready, and cheaper, substitute. The concern regarding Cassia is that it contains a large amount of coumarin, which can be dangerous to heart health.
Cinnamon is also a well-known antioxidant, a lesser-known mild antifungal agent (if applied directly to the fungus!) and reputedly a modifier of blood sugar spikes for people with diabetes, although a 2008 study casts doubt on that.
The reports about cinnamon being an antifungal actually reference cinnamon oil that has tested successfully. And, just sozya know, the testing has been in the lab. Still, it is interesting science and may prove helpful in the future. We just didn't want you sprinkling your athlete's foot with cinnamon powder! (Although you'd smell delicious!)
As an antioxidant, cinnamon oil reigns supreme. However, that is the oil form that gets the acclaim and requires as much as two teaspoons to garner the effects noted in some of these studies. Be a bit skeptical of the antioxidant claims that accrue to cinnamon on the boards and read the particulars. Assuredly, cinnamon can help keep foods from decaying as a bacterial inhibitor, but that's not why we eat it.
On the other hand, Chinese medicine has used cinnamon as a calming tea for many centuries. Simply inhaling its odor scores very high on enhancing the brain's memory and cognitive functions. The chemistry involved with this may not be available yet, but the results remain positive for us humans and is pretty much all we care about!
Cinnamon has made the news recently about the ability to control blood sugar spikes in diabetics. www.DLife.com has the "Last Word" about cinnamon's capacity to modify these spikes. The result is a resounding, "NO"! To quote:
"In the five controlled trials, a total of 282 people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, were given either a placebo or varying doses of cinnamon, ranging from 1 to 6 grams, for a period of 3 months. In the report, published in the January 2008 issue of Diabetes Care, lead author William L.. Baker, PharmD, BCPS, writes: "Cinnamon does not appear to improve A1C, [fasting blood glucose], or [cholesterol] in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.."
And yet, a web search yields 'results' on both sides of cinnamon's ability to reduce LDL and A1C blood sugar levels in diabetics. So, since it can't hurt and might help, we vote for the happy use of cinnamon the way your mother always did: in wonderful pastries.
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2. Smoothie recipes
How? It's easy!
Privacy policy:
Your email address is safe;
we NEVER share our list.
