New Scientist ^ | November 24, 2003 | Debora MacKenzie
Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day significantly reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics, a new study has found. The effect, which can be produced even by soaking a cinnamon stick your tea, could also benefit millions of non-diabetics who have blood sugar problem but are unaware of it.
The discovery was initially made by accident, by Richard Anderson at the US Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.
"We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar," he told New Scientist. One was the American favourite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. "We expected it to be bad. But it helped," he says.
Sugars and starches in food are broken down into glucose, which then circulates in the blood. The hormone insulin makes cells take in the glucose, to be used for energy or made into fat.
But people with Type 1 diabetes do not produce enough insulin. Those with Type 2 diabetes produce it, but have lost sensitivity to it. Even apparently healthy people, especially if they are overweight, sedentary or over 25, lose sensitivity to insulin. Having too much glucose in the blood can cause serious long-term damage to eyes, kidneys, nerves and other organs.
Molecular mimic
The active ingredient in cinnamon turned out to be a water-soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP. In test tube experiments, MHCP mimics insulin, activates its receptor, and works synergistically with insulin in cells.
To see if it would work in people, Alam Khan, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Anderson's lab, organised a study in Pakistan. Volunteers with Type 2 diabetes were given one, three or six grams of cinnamon powder a day, in capsules after meals.
All responded within weeks, with blood sugar levels that were on average 20 per cent lower than a control group. Some even achieved normal blood sugar levels. Tellingly, blood sugar started creeping up again after the diabetics stopped taking cinnamon.
The cinnamon has additional benefits. In the volunteers, it lowered blood levels of fats and "bad" cholesterol, which are also partly controlled by insulin. And in test tube experiments it neutralised free radicals, damaging chemicals which are elevated in diabetics.
Buns and pies
"I don't recommend eating more cinnamon buns, or even more apple pie - there's too much fat and sugar," says Anderson. "The key is to add cinnamon to what you would eat normally."
The active ingredient is not in cinnamon oils. But powdered spice can be added to toast, cereal, juice or coffee.
Anderson's team were awarded patents related to MHCP in 2002. But the chemical is easily obtained. He notes that one of his colleagues tried soaking a cinnamon stick in tea. "He isn't diabetic - but it lowered his blood sugar," Anderson says.
The group now plans to test even lower doses of cinnamon in the US, and also look at long-term blood sugar management with the spice.
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Here's another that talks of Vinegar, IR, and WEIGHT LOSS
Vinegar as a Sweet Solution?
Janet Raloff
On Dec. 7, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson unveiled a national plan to combat the growing incidence of type 2 diabetes. It's the most common form of this disease, characterized by a growing resistance to the normal effects of the hormone insulin. A primary goal of the new federal program is to increase people's awareness of what they can do to prevent or manage this disorder, which costs the United States some $132 billion a year.
Research by nutritionist Carol S. Johnston of Arizona State University East in Mesa suggests one easy measure that might have a notable impact: Consume more vinegar.
Her studies indicate that 2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal—perhaps, as part of a vinaigrette salad dressing—will dramatically reduce the spike in blood concentrations of insulin and glucose that come after a meal. In people with type 2 diabetes, these spikes can be excessive and can foster complications, including heart disease
In Johnston's initial study, about one-third of the 29 volunteers had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, another third had signs that they could become diabetic, and the rest were healthy. The scientists gave each participant the vinegar dose or a placebo to drink immediately before they ate a high-carbohydrate breakfast consisting of orange juice, a bagel, and butter. A week later, each volunteer came back for the opposite premeal treatment and then the same breakfast. After both meals, the researchers sampled blood from the participants.
Once ingested, carbohydrates—sugars and starches—can quickly break down into glucose that builds up in a person's blood (see The New GI Tracts). That's why people with diabetes frequently have to severely curb their carb intake. High-carbohydrate meals also prompt hunger to return earlier than low-carb meals do. Indeed, such observations spawned the low-carb diet craze (see Counting Carbs).
Although all three groups in the study had better blood readings after meals begun with vinegar cocktails, the people with signs of future diabetes—prediabetic symptoms—reaped the biggest gains. For instance, vinegar cut their blood-glucose rise in the first hour after a meal by about half, compared with readings after a placebo premeal drink. In contrast, blood-glucose concentrations were only about 25 percent better after people with diabetes drank vinegar. In addition, people with prediabetic symptoms ended up with lower blood glucose than even healthy volunteers, after both groups drank vinegar.
In these tests, vinegar had an effect on volunteers' blood comparable to what might be expected from antidiabetes drugs, such as metformin, the researchers reported last January in Diabetes Care. A follow-up study has now turned up an added—and totally unexpected—benefit from vinegar: moderate weight loss.
Both findings should come as welcome news during this season when sweet and caloric treats taunt diabetics, who face true health risks from indulging in too many carbs.
In a pickle
Why vinegar? A nutritionist, Johnston was looking for possible diet modifications that would make meals less risky for people with diabetes. While reviewing research published earlier by others, she ran across reports from about 2 decades ago that suggesting that vinegar limits glucose and insulin spikes in a person's blood after a meal.
A few research groups had conducted limited follow-up trials. For instance, Johnston points to a 2001 paper in which researchers at Lund University in Sweden evaluated pickles—cucumbers preserved in vinegar—as a dietary supplement to lower the blood-sugar rise in healthy people after a meal. The Swedish team, led by Elin M. Östman, reported that pickles dramatically blunted the blood-sugar spike after a high-carb breakfast. Fresh cukes didn't.
"I became really intrigued," Johnston says, because adding vinegar to the diet would be simple "and wouldn't require counting how many carbs you ate." t first, she attempted to replicate findings by others, focusing specifically on people with diabetes or prediabetic symptoms.
When these individuals showed clear benefits from vinegar after a single meal, Johnston' group initiated a trial to evaluate longer-term effects. It also explored vinegar' effect on cholesterol concentrations in blood. The Arizona State scientists had hypothesized that by preventing digestion of carbs in the stomach, vinegar might cause carbohydrate molecules to instead ferment in the colon, a process that signals the liver to synthesize less cholesterol.
So, in one trial, Johnston had half of the volunteers take a 2-tablespoon dose of vinegar prior to each of two meals daily for 4 weeks. The others were told to avoid vinegar. All were weighed before and after the trial.
As it turns out, cholesterol values didn' change in either group. To Johnston' surprise, however, "here was actually about a 2-pound weight loss, on average, over the 4 weeks in the vinegar group." In fact, unlike the control group, none in the vinegar cohort gained any weight, and a few people lost up to 4 pounds. Average weight remained constant in the group not drinking vinegar.
Johnston would now like to repeat the trial in a larger group of individuals to confirm the finding, but that study is currently on hold.
Why? To no one's astonishment, the study volunteers didn't like drinking vinegar straight—even flavored, apple-cider vinegar. Indeed, Johnston says, "I would prefer eating pickled foods or getting . . . vinegar in a salad dressing."
Now, the scientists are developing a less objectionable, encapsulated form of vinegar and testing its efficacy. Although there are commercially available vinegar dietary supplements, Johnston notes that they "don't appear to contain acetic acid," and based on studies by others, she suspects that's the antidiabetic ingredient in the vinegar.
References:
Johnston, C.S., C.M. Kim, and A.J. Buller. 2004. Vinegar improves insulin sensitivity to a high-carbohydrate meal in subjects with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 27(January):281-282. Available at http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/27/1/281 .
Östman, E.M., H.G.M.L. Elmståhl, and I.M.E. Björck. 2001. Inconsistency between glycemic and insulinemic responses to regular and fermented milk products. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 74(July):96-100. Available at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/74/1/96 .
I'm thinking...wouldn't be amazing it PCOS could simply be controled from your kitchen? sure would be nice....
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When I was a little kid, my uncle, who is from a small town in Mexico, and used folk remedies for everything, would have us drink vinegar, with a small amount of honey and lemon when we where sick. He said it helped to rebalance the body. Just maybe he wasn't my crazy old uncle!
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If you don't like the taste of straight vinegar, try Mount Olive No Sugar Added bread and butter pickles or sweet pickle relish. They contain vinegar in a more pleasing way
It's actually the acid in vinegar that gives it it's blood sugar/insulin reducing property; lemon juice works just as well. Fermented foods also reduce glucose levels (that's why sour dough bread has a fairly low GI). Acidic foods work by slowing the speed in which your stomach empties.
A woman I know from another board experimented with fermentation of foods to help manage her mother's diabetes. She wrote to Dave Mendosa (who runs the mendosa.com diabetes site) about it and he published her info on his site. Here it is:
Lacto-Fermentation
Kay Schmidt suggests a similar way to reduce the blood glucose levels of some fruits and vegetables. It uses a process called lacto-fermentation, which she explains:
“I manage my insulin dependent type 2 mom, using Dr. Richard Bernstein’s philosophy of low carb. Mom misses some of her favorite foods, and I have been searching for ways to make it possible to let her enjoy some foods again.
“Recently, I learned about lacto-fermentation (pickling using whey instead of vinegar), and its health benefits. I made lacto-fermented pickled beets, apple slices, zucchini, and yellow summer squash. I then had mom eat samples—about 1/4 cup each—and checked her blood sugars every 1/2 hour for 2 hours. I could not believe the results. The pickled beets and apples did not budge mom’s sugars. Ordinarily, beets and apples will cause mom’s sugars to spike too high. I even cooked the fermented apples into an apple sauce, and this didn’t budge mom’s blood sugar. Zucchini and yellow summer squash normally has only a small effect on mom’s sugar, but the lacto-fermented samples didn’t budge her blood sugar.
“Lacto-fermentation is different than just eating acidic foods. The lacto-fermentation process actually uses carbs in the food, converts it to lactic acid, and lowers the carb content. Fermented foods are a condiment, not a side dish, and so large amounts are not eaten at a time. Despite the seemingly small serving size, the fermentation adds enzymes and nutrients. Canned, cooked, or frozen vegetables and fruits lose nutrients. Most lacto-fermented foods are still considered raw food, so enzymes and nutrients are retained, and have the added benefit of nutrients being added back in by lacto-fermentation. Pickled beets are an exception…The beets are dry baked in the oven first before pickling. Not all foods are suitable for lacto-fermentation. I tried doing fruit juice, but it was ineffective for controlling the post-prandial sugar spike.
“It is easy to lacto-ferment veggies and suitable fruits. Wash thoroughly, cut into slices or small pieces, and pack tightly into a jar or crock. If using quart jars, add 4 tbs whey, 1 tbs natural sea salt (not iodized), spices, and water—filtered or distilled (not plain tap water). Water should to be added to within an inch of the top. Jars need to be sealed tightly...just a canning lid and ring…but it doesn’t have to be put in a canner or water bath...just tightly sealed. Set in a warm place for 2-3 days, then store in a dark, cool place. It’s not uncommon for the ‘brine’ to bubble and hiss as the fermentation process continues.
“The food needs to be kept submerged in the liquid. Foods tend to float up, and the top part is no longer in the brine, which is not an ideal situation. I haven’t figured out a good way when using quart jars to prevent this from happening. I guess that’s why crocks are used…the opening is large enough to put some sort of weight on top of the food to keep it below liquid level. And, there are specially designed crocks now that have lids that create an airtight seal using water. The one drawback with this crock design, the water needs to be carefully watched so it can be replenished to maintain the airtight seal.
“Vegetables will last a long time…a year and more. Fruit should be eaten within a few months, because they can become ‘hard’ fairly easily. Lacto-fermentating of fruit juice can easily cause it to become vinegar.
“One way to obtain whey is by draining yogurt. One quart of yogurt will produce about a pint of whey, and the yogurt used should have live cultures. It takes about 24 hours for yogurt to fully drain. When the whey is drained out of yogurt, yocheese is made as a ‘by-product,’ which can be used in place of cream cheese in recipes, or eaten, flavored with Davinci syrups, or even without flavoring. I’m not necessarily advocating yogurt or yocheese for people with diabetes. With this, YMMV on how one’s blood sugar responds.
“Lacto-fermentation seems to augment the effect of the spices. People need to experiment with quantity to suit their taste buds. Also, one can use any spices in their favorite recipes when lacto-fermenting.
“Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions, (NewTrends Publishing, 1999) is an introduction to lacto-fermentation. Other books include Klaus Kaufmann and Annelies Schoneck’s Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home (Alive Books, 2002), and Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2003).”
__________________ dx pcos 1984, type II diabetes 2001, also hypertension
Met 2000mg since 2001, started Glucophage XR 4/22/04, then switched to Met ER 6/04; also: multi, Vit. C, Vit. E, B12/folic acid combo, fish oil & borage oil combo, garlic capsules, cinnamon, Vitex, calcium with magnesium/zinc, biotin, CoQ10, selenium,iron
Other meds: Verapamil and Altace(for blood pressure)
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From my understanding it's the acetic acid that's responsible for the effect and lemons don't have acetic acid, they have citric acid.... I'd be very interested in seeing some studies with other forms of acid !!! It sounds really interesting!!! ..... Also, It'd get pretty expensive to use two tablespoons of lemon juice twice a day and much more work.
I love the studies on vinegar because they allow you to just drink it down and eat your lunch or dinner. No other foods to mess with and it's the measured amount in the studies...easy to control what you're getting.
That Lacto-fermentation is interesting. Unfortunately, for me I couldn't use it because I'm allergic to the casien protein in milk and whey is a milk product. I love canning though. My husband and I make Wild Plum Jam.
Thanks for posting this! Good to see other methods being looked into!!
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OMG i can drink vinager plain no problem LOL I love it! I make cucumbers with vinager and salt and pepper and eat the cukes and drink the vinager. Dh thinks i am nuts but my moms side of the family is the same way from my grandpa and grandma and all her sisters and some of my cousins. I dont mind it one bit.
Its also good with olive oil vinager salt and pepper on a salad YUM!
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Vinegar and IR????? 
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I love canning though. My husband and I make Wild Plum Jam.
