With the holidays quickly approaching, many are preparing themselves for lavish feasts and libations. While the holidays are a great time for family time and celebration, it is hard not to gain weight from the festivities. Luckily, one of the season’s most infamous spices, cinnamon, has been shown fight to obesity and new research has been released explaining the mechanism behind it.
The main component of cinnamon that fights against obesity is cinnamaldehyde, the essential oil that gives cinnamon its flavor. In a study done on mice, it was shown that cinnamaldehyde improved insulin sensitivity and increased glucose tolerance (Sartorius et al., 2014).
Insulin is a hormone released in response to elevated blood sugar. When you ingest food, insulin levels increase in order to remove glucose from the blood stream and shuttle it to other tissues. Depending on the location of the tissue, the body will use the glucose to promote anabolic processes that build materials in these tissues. If someone has low insulin sensitivity, the body needs to release more insulin into the bloodstream to normalize blood sugar levels. More insulin in the blood stream leads to increased signals for the body to store the sugar as fat.
New research done at the University of Michigan has shown that cinnamaldehyde also acts directly on fat cells by inducing them to start burning energy through a process called thermogenesis. In the study, human fat cells were treated with cinnamaldehyde. They saw that several genes and enzymes were activated and increased lipid metabolism. They also saw an increase in UCP-1, a metabolic regulatory protein involved in heat generation (Jiang et al., 2017).
This means that cinnamaldehyde not only improves insulin sensitivity, but it also triggers the body to burn fat. With that said, don’t feel too guilty when you reach for that second snickerdoodle. You may be unconsciously improving your health!
References
Jiang, J., Emont, M. P., Jun, H., Qiao, X., Liao, J., Kim, D. I., & Wu, J. (2017). Cinnamaldehyde induces fat cell-autonomous thermogenesis and metabolic reprogramming. Metabolism, 77, 58-64.
Sartorius, T., Peter, A., Schulz, N., Drescher, A., Bergheim, I., Machann, J., ... & Häring, H. U. (2014). Cinnamon extract improves insulin sensitivity in the brain and lowers liver fat in mouse models of obesity. PloS one, 9(3), e92358.
Hi Danny,
ReplyDeleteThis was a really intriguing post, specially since the holidays are coming up and I am really excited to eat a ton. The first thing that I thought of after reading your post was the famous cayenne pepper, lemon, and water diet. This involved that "For 10 days, you drink six to 12 glasses of a water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper tonic. No solid food is allowed' to promote weight loss. This diet may have been reintroduced after studies showed that ingesting cayenne peppers increased energy expenditure which is similar to what this study is suggesting. However, in the studies for the cayenne pepper, the amount of cayenne pepper that cause these changes were above of what people usually consume. Another study found that in those people who already ate spicy food did not have a real change in energy expenditure or increase body temperature suggesting that people can become desensitized to the affects of the pepper. This may also hold true for cinnamon but of course more research should be done before we start a new fad diet. In the meantime I'll enjoy the holiday feast then hit the gym after.
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/110425MattesPepper.html
https://www.livestrong.com/article/120929-cayenne-pepper-diet/
I did some research on cinnamaldehyde and it actually has another use as an insecticide and a fungicide. Apparently, when applied to a root system, it discourages fungus and plants from disrupting plant systems and repels mosquitos as well. I particularly like the scent of cinnamon so maybe I'll start using that from now on. Interestingly enough, it can also be applied on to metal to prevent it from corroding from solutions such as hydrochloric acid. Regardless, it would be interesting if we could somehow harness this essential oil and create an obesity reducing drug.
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