Cinnamon and insulin resistance

I recently came across an article which had some interesting information about the effects of cinnamon on people with type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. It’s not the first time I have seen claims that cinnamon is beneficial to us, both for weight loss and in increasing insulin sensitivity.

The article I read cited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s announcement  in 2000 of  ”preliminary findings that cinnamon may significantly help people with type 2 diabetes improve their ability to regulate their blood sugar and even that it has been shown to increase glucose metabolism 20-fold.” The author of the article also claimed to have had some success in reducing abdominal fat since taking cinnamon on a daily basis. Without photo evidence, however, I need more convincing…

Cinnamon and Type 2 diabetes

The article concentrated initially on the effects of cinnamon on people with Type 2 diabetes – but as we know, this is what insulin resistance can (and very often does) develop into. If cinnamon can have benefits for this advanced stage of diabetes, the implications of what it could possibly do for sufferers of insulin resistance are obvious.

Additional studies found that not only did taking 2 teaspoons of cinnamon a day reduce blood sugar levels and increase the natural production of insulin, it lowered blood cholesterol as well. This finding indicates that cinnamon can help reverse insulin resistance, and in fact may actually prevent the onset of full diabetes.

This is by no means an isolated study. I found this page about a current clinical trial in Louisiana, relating to the effects of cinnamon on insulin resistance and PCOS.

And when I searched YouTube  I found this video, which seems to again back up those claims:

Taking cinnamon to combat insulin resistance

The issue for me is how to take enough cinnamon – it does have a very distinctive taste!  My diet is largely savory and there are not many foods I could add cinnamon to. I’ve tried adding it to green tea and to natural yogurt but in both cases I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work long term. The cinnamon taste is too overpowering.

The answer seems to be cinnamon capsules: I am currently trying to source them online and am definitely considering trying them… have you ever tried them and have you had good results? If there is a link between cinnamon and insulin resistance, it would seem to be worth a try.