Little Step No. 25
What to do:
Want to reduce your sugar intake? Add cinnamon to your diet.
Why this step works:
One core change I often help clients with is around reducing sugar intake. A typical Western diet, high in refined, sugary, processed foods and often low in nutritious whole foods, good quality protein and fats can often lead to a daily rollercoaster of energy highs and lows, irritability, unstable mood, feeling anxious and jittery, stress intolerance, cravings for sugary or caffeinated drinks and snacks and even disrupted sleep. In the longer term, this type of sugary rollercoaster may also affect metabolic and heart health, inflammation, weight gain, gut health, brain health and hormone balance. In fact, reducing sugar is always an important step for any hormone-related health issues such as PMS or for supporting the menopausal transition. Unfortunately, sugar can be addictive and whilst it is completely possible to reduce intake, it’s not always that easy, especially when you’re starting out.
So little step no 25 is here to help. It's simply to try adding some cinnamon into your diet because it can be a great ally for helping to weed sugar out.
There’s two main reasons for this:
1. Cinnamon adds extra flavour to your food / drinks, thus engaging your taste buds with an alternative to the sweetness of sugar.
2. Research has shown that cinnamon may help to influence the way the body handles sugar and so it may even help to reduce sugary cravings.
Ways to add cinnamon to your diet
Cinnamon works equally well in fruity or savoury dishes. I like to add it to curries, sprinkle on top of a breakfast bowl of blueberries, natural yoghurt & crushed walnuts, add to a berry-based smoothie, to stewed apples, or simplest and arguably best of all I always keep a box of these ‘cinnamony’ tea bags in my cupboard - Classic Blend by Yogi Tea - and an occasional cup of this is a very easy and surprisingly tasty way to get more of this supportive spice into your diet.
Think of cinnamon a bit like an extra helping hand, especially if you’re in the early days of weeding sugar out of your diet. It’s a powerful spice so you don’t need to add much to get the taste and potential benefits.
A little helping hand, we all need those from time to time x