As An Antioxidant

Experts do not yet agree on the health benefits of cinnamon, though it is agreed that cinnamon is full of antioxidants. The plant from which cinnamon is derived, C. zeylanicum, contains a host of various antioxidants making it a potentially viable food usable for managing oxidative stress. This could mean that cinnamon has a role to play in treatment of several chronic diseases associated with free radical damage. One of the easiest ways for people to utilize cinnamon in their diet is by making tea from its bark.

Some of the particular antioxidants that make up the Health Benefits of Cinnamon are caffeic acid, camphene, coumaric acid, epicatechin, gamma-terpinene, isoeugenol, linalyl-acetate, mannitol, methyl-eugenol, myrcene, phenol, proanthocyanidins and vanillin.

Pregnant women should keep away from excessive amounts of cinnamon and shouldn't take it as an herbal supplement.

Diabetes Alternative

Cinnamon is a prevailing inducer of insulin responsiveness making it a potentially effective treatment for Type II diabetes. Although the reports on cinnamon have shown significant pharmacological properties in treating Type II diabetes, the actual plant utilized in those studies was from a related plant called cassia. Read on for more about cassia.

One of the earliest published studies about the human health benefits of cinnamon came out in the journal, Diabetes Care in 2003. A group of sixty participants with Type II diabetes were given 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon in pill form each day, an amount approximately equal to 1/4 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Forty days after the study began, all three dosages of cinnamon proved to reduce fasting blood glucose levels by 18-29 percent. LDL cholesterol was reduced by 7-27 percent, triglycerides by 23-30 percent and total cholesterol from 12-26 percent.

Cinnamon and Cassia

The name cinnamon is the proper term for Ceylon cinnamon which is alternately called "true cinnamon".

The related plant, Cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum), Cinnamomum burmannii and Saigon Cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureiroi), are usually promoted as true cinnamon, or sometimes differentiate from true cinnamon as "Indonesian cinnamon", "Chinese cinnamon" or "Vietnamese cinnamon".

Ceylon cinnamon, uses only the slim inner bark, and is considered to be not as strong as cassia. Cassia has a much stronger (harsher) taste than cinnamon.

In US supermarkets, powdered cinnamon sold is really cassia. Cassia is the "cinnamon" normally found in supplements. It physically contains a compound known as coumarin.

Coumarin is present in other plants like parsley and celery, chamomile and sweet clover. It is toxic in large amounts. That is why European health agents have warned against consuming cassia in large quantities. Coumarin has been known to cause kidney and liver damage when taken in large concentrations. True cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon, has trivial levels of coumarin.

Check with your health care professional before making any changes to your diet.