Cinnamon may seem like the perfect spice for fall or winter, but new research once again demonstrated the spice's healthful effects on blood sugar.
by POPSUGAR Fitness
Cinnamon may seem like the perfect spice for fall or winter, but new research once again demonstrated the spice's healthful effects on blood sugar. 
Recent findings indicate adding some cinnamon to your dessert may temper the blood sugar surge that follows a sweet treat. This new evidence, supports earlier findings that cinnamon contributes to controlling blood sugar levels in healthy adults.
Here's how the study worked:
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 this effect is that cinnamon slows the rate at which food passes from the stomach to the intestines, thereby decreasing the rate sugar enters the bloodstream. Cinnamon has been studied recently as a possible means of managing blood sugar for people with Type 2 diabetes, but further studies are required to learn more about the relationship of cinnamon and diabetes.
Fit's Tip: Add some cinnamon into your meals. Flavor your fresh fruit salads and yogurt with cinnamon, or try YumSugar's refreshing cucumber salad that is surprisingly spiced with cinnamon.
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Just because it's a weeknight doesn't mean you can't experiment with new flavors and ingredients. If you've never had hearts of palm, consider making this recipe tonight. With a smooth, firm texture and artichoke-like flavor, hearts of palm look like white asparagus but with no tips. While it's difficult to find hearts of palm fresh, the canned variation is readily available and simple to use. 
