HEALTH Spice up your health with Cinnamon

Spice up your health with cinnamon


Nurturing
Sabine Hiller

Winter has definitely arrived, and it is time for mulled wine, spiced biscuits and gingerbread with their delicious smells and tastes of fragrant aromatic spices…
Aromatic spices such as cinnamon, ginger and cloves are known as stable foods in the food industry, for the simple reason that microbes don’t have much joy in attacking them. This preservative property of spices is due to the presence of anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant compounds, which also account for some of the medicinal uses of these plants.
Cinnamon is particularly interesting (as is ginger, which I’ll come back to another day). A very old herbal medicine, it was a precious item of trade in Roman times, much used by pharmacists and doctors in the Middle ages – one Christoph Goller wrote a dissertation on its uses as early as 1709.
This interest is not surprising: Cinnamon is strongly anti-oxidant, which means it is very good at scavenging a variety of ‘free radicals’ – compounds that can cause damage in your body, and which cinnamon helps to neutralise. Cinnamon is also extremely active against a long list of bacteria that often contaminate and spoil food items. As if this wasn’t enough – Cinnamon has an anti-fungal action as well. It is no wonder that cinnamon extracts are currently being investigated by the food industry as a potential protective food additive.
Cinnamon essential oil is also being investigated as a cheap and effective agent in combating MRSA, and the research looks very promising. Cinnamon oil has been shown to inhibit the growth of several antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus as well as drug-resistant Candida species.
But this is not all – recent clinical studies have repeatedly shown that cinnamon is effective in controlling blood-sugar levels in people with type 2 (non-insulin dependent) diabetes and may reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In addition, some research indicates that cinnamon may help to protect the liver from toxins.
Potential anti-tumor effects are reported from preliminary in-vitro and in-vivo research – cinnamon increases the anti-tumor activity of human immune cells (so-called CD8(+)T cells) by increasing their cytotoxic activity, which means it enhances their ability to kill cancer cells. Cinnamon may also inhibit the expression of pro-angiogenic factors in melanoma. This means tumors are prevented from creating new blood vessels for themselves (angiogenesis is the creation of new blood vessels), which effectively starves them and thereby limits tumor growth. 
Cinnamon has long been popular as a remedy for colds and flus and recent research is providing the evidence for such uses. Cinnamon has been shown to inhibit the replication of various strains of influenza virus, including avian flu. In addition, through its anti-oxidant action, cinnamon helps to limit the damage that these viruses can do to the lungs.
And never mind all these fantastic medicinal effects, it also tastes delicious! There are many ways of including cinnamon in your diet all year round: sprinkle some on your porridge in the morning, add it to couscous dishes, fruit salads and curries. If your kids demand sugar on their pancakes or rice pudding, try giving them cinnamon-sugar instead: just mix equal amounts of cinnamon powder and castor sugar, and sprinkle this mix on desserts. This will immediately reduce the amount of sugar they are taking, while at the same time give them something beneficial!

Mulled Orange Juice
Cinnamon works really well in hot drinks – be it in mulled wine, hot port, spice tea, or in this simple recipe for mulled orange juice
1. Heat one litre of orange juice with 1-2 cinnamon sticks, 2-3 cloves, a few slices of fresh ginger, 8-10 crushed cardamom pods (optional) and lemon peel from ½ lemon.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
3. Stir in extra cinnamon powder if you like, and adjust the taste with a little lemon juice and honey or agave syrup. Serve hot and enjoy!