Is Cinnamon Good For Weight Loss?
Is cinnamon good for weight loss?
Yes, the legends are true. Cinnamon does help with weight loss in a number of ways!1You’ve heard absolutely no myths or legends about cinnamon because you’re not living in the ancient world when it was common practice among traders to claim something special about the spice to justify its scarcity and price (and also because people were pretty fucking stupid and believed anything, which can still be said about people today), but just play along with me here with my attempt to be dramatic! Sheesh!!!
With your question now answered, we can both merrily go on with the rest of our day.
…
Oh, I suppose you’re still standing there because you want me to run down some of the ways that cinnamon can help you lose all that weight you have to lose.
Alright, if you insist!
REDUCES APPETITE
One teaspoon of cinnamon contains 1.4g of fiber, a nutrient that helps slow the movement of food through the gut, resulting in you feeling fuller longer and not devouring whole planets between meals like you were Galactus or something.2Galactus is a cosmic entity in Marvel Comics whose power has to do with eating. Yeah, you eat a lot too, but no one hails you as a real-life superbeing. I know, life just isn’t fair!
IMPROVES INSULIN SENSITIVITY
Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that’s responsible for the storage of fat. As you eat, the body releases it in proportion to the amount of carbs consumed to help regulate blood sugar levels as those carbs get broken down into glucose. When there’s less glucose, less insulin gets released. And when less insulin gets released, your body is less likely to store fat, something you already have more than enough of. Cinnamon helps this preferred scenario play out by enhancing insulin signaling and increasing glucose uptake so more glucose gets stored in the skeletal muscle for immediate fuel rather than as fat in adipose tissue for future use.
BOOSTS METABOLISM
Researchers have reason to believe that the essential oil that gives cinnamon its distinctive taste can work directly on fat cells to activate thermogenesis, an educated term for when the body burns calories to produce energy.3The essential oil is cinnamaldehyde, a very funny word that you’re trying to enunciate right now and are sounding funny as hell butchering to death.4NOTE: Research supporting this fat burning aspect of cinnamon has been conducted on animals and on animal and human cells in vitro. That means the effect of cinnamon on lipid metabolism in actual humans is theoretical.
HOW MUCH CINNAMON?
Add 3 to 6 grams of cinnamon to water, tea, cocoa, coffee, oatmeal, toast, yogurt, pudding, smoothies, protein shakes, pancakes, waffles, bacon, chicken, chili, rice, curry, marinades, apples, sweet potatoes, genitals during foreplay, etcetera.5Wait, I was just seeing if you were paying attention! Do not — I repeat — DO NOT sprinkle cinnamon on anyone’s privates!!! No, use cocaine instead!
Cinnamon sure looks like a superfood, huh?
That’s why you’re looking forward to dousing the shit on everything and waking up a brand new person in a day or two. Hold off on that for a minute, though.
I’m well-known for dashing people’s dreams, so it’s par for the course that I now ruin your hope of there existing a particular food that will help you get in the best shape of your life.
*ahem*
There isn’t a superfood on Earth that’ll help you achieve that alone with minimal effort on your part.
Maybe in a galaxy far, far away.
But here on Earth?
Nope!
Instead, rather than relying on cinnamon for your weight loss efforts, you should use it to do nothing but supplement those efforts, as all the Cinnabon and Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the world won’t do shit if you’re not in a caloric deficit, whether via diet, exercise, or a combination of both.
NOTE: To make things perfectly clear, you should meet your cinnamon needs by way of cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon, not by way of Cinnamon Toast Crunch or the Cinnabon kiosk at the mall. Yeah, as if finding out that you can’t use cinnamon for quick weight loss results without having to do a damn thing about your eating habits wasn’t already enough of a bummer!
Glossary: adipose, caloric deficit, calories, diet, exercise, fat, hormones, metabolism