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Cinnamon: Weight Loss & Other Health Benefits

admin — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:00:54 +0000

How can a “simple” spice like cinnamon help you lose weight and what are its other health benefits? Read on and discover how cinnamon and weight loss go hand in hand…

Disclaimer: the following information is based on human studies and suggested by preliminary evidence. More research about how and when cinnamon works is needed, but the results so far are really promising. This article is purely informational, I am not a doctor.

Cinnamon and Weight Loss

Cinnamon sticks for weight loss, how does that work? Cinnamon will help you lose weight because it has the ability to reduce your blood sugar level.

It does this in 2 ways:

Cinnamon slows down the rate at which your stomach empties after a meal (gastric emptying). As a result your blood sugar increase will be slower than normal and you won’t feel hungry so fast.
One of the working substances in cinnamon is cinnamaldehyde. Cinnamaldehyde improves the effectiveness of your insulin receptors, resulting in a quicker intake of glucose by your cells.

Why is reduced blood sugar good for weight loss?

When we eat carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar (glucose; our main source of energy). Your blood sugar level determines how hungry and how energetic you feel and also whether we store fat or burn it. When we have a high blood sugar level, a lot of insulin is produced and our body thinks there’s plenty of energy and starts storing fat instead of burning it. Another issue is that too much insulin causes too much blood sugar to be removed from our blood. As a result insulin and blood sugar levels drop, which makes us hungry and tired and want to eat.

Cinnamon Health Benefits

There are several other health benefits of cinnamon:

Diabetes type II: a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly. Cinnamon improves the efficiency of the insulin receptors (see above).
Cinnamon decreases cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Cinnamon helps indigestion: this function of cinnamon has been known for thousands of years. The Chinese used and use cinnamon as a cure for diarrhea.
Cinnamon is anti-inflammatory and can be used as a relief for arthritis.
Cinnamon contains a lot of antioxidants (it has the highest dose known in a food substance). Antioxidants terminate chain reactions started by free radicals in your body. These chain reactions damage cells and DNA, causing diseases like cancer and heart diseases.
Cinnamon is antifungal: it can help to fight conditions like candidiasis (yeast infection).
Cinnamon is antibacterial: it prevents tooth decay (when used as an ingredient in mouthwash).
Cinnamon brings relief in case of allergic rhinitis (hay fever).
It is a good source of manganese, an important mineral that is used by a lot of enzymes in our body.

Types of Cinnamon

There are 2 main types of cinnamon:

Ceylon Cinnamon (cinnamomum zeylanicum), also known as “real” cinnamon: cultivated in Sri Lanka.
Cassia Cinnamon (cinnamomum cassia), also known as “fake” cinnamon: cultivated in China, looks darker and doesn’t taste as sweet as Ceylon Cinnamon. It’s easy to recognize because the cassia cinnamon sticks roll up at both sides, like a scroll. Cassia contains coumarin (see below).

In this picture, Ceylon cinnamon is on the left, Cassia is on the right:

It is not clear which of these 2 is the most effective towards weight loss. Some sources say Cassia is the most effective, but no one seems to be sure about that.

There are more types of cinnamon, like Saigon Cinnamon or Burmese cinnamon, but Ceylon and Cassia are the most important and the most readily available.

Cinnamon Side Effects & Dosage

Is cinnamon safe? Cassia Cinnamon contains 2 substances that are toxic to your liver and kidneys, when consumed in high doses: safrole and especially coumarin. Don’t consumer more than 4 grams/day.

Dosage:

Ceylon: 1 to 6 grams/day. About 4 gram works best (one and a half teaspoons).
Cassia: 1 to 4 grams/day. Don’t use more because of the coumarin.

Side effects: Cinnamon doesn’t have any side effects, but there are some conditions in which you can’t use cinnamon:

Pregnancy/Breastfeeding: don’t use cinnamon when you’re pregnant or breastfeeding because cinnamon has abortion inducing effects.
Some people have a cinnamon allergy or are hypersensitive to cinnamon, although this is rare. Symptoms are skin rash, acne, inflammation of tongue and lips, mouth sores, etc
Don’t use cinnamon if you have kidney problems.
Don’t use cinnamon if you take blood thinners, because cinnamon is a blood thinner as well.
Don’t use cinnamon oil, it’s toxic and not meant for consumption.

Honey and Cinnamon Cures

A lot of books and websites prescribe cinnamon and honey tea as a solution to lose weight. I see the health benefits of cinnamon, but I don’t see the benefits of honey and cinnamon. Honey is healthier than table sugar because it contains more minerals and vitamins, but it’s still sugar. I can’t see how sugar or honey can help weight loss so I don’t believe in a honey and cinnamon diet.

Cinnamon Supplements

You can buy cinnamon in bulk or as sticks, but cinnamon powder is also available in the form of capsules.

Cinnulin-PF is a water soluble extract of cinnamon. The advantage of cinnamon supplements like these is that toxic substances like coumarin are filtered out.

How Many Calories Should You Eat To Lose Weight?

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:30:17 +0000

Here’s a trick to calculate how much calories you should eat to lose weight:

Ideal weight (in kg) x 30 = Calories

Take your ideal weight and multiply it by 30. This should be the amount of calories you can eat a day. Of course this is not very precise because it doesn’t take important factors like lifestyle and gender into account.

Factors that influence how many calories you should eat:

Male/female
Active/sedentary life style
Age
Height
Weight

The US Department of Health and Human Services recommend the following numbers:

Sedentary lifestyle (less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity/day)

Male 18-30 yo: 2400 calories
Female 18-30: 2000 calories
Male 31-50: 2200 calories
Female 31-50: 1800 calories
Male 50+: 2000 calories
Female 50+: 1600 calories

More active lifestyle (more than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity/day)

Male 18-30 yo: 2600-3000 calories
Female 18-30: 2000-2400 calories
Male 31-50: 2400-3000 calories
Female 31-50: 2000-2200 calories
Male 50+: 1800-2200 calories
Female 50+: 2200-2800 calories

These numbers will maintain your current weight.

To lose weight you should increase your physical activity and reduce your caloric intake. Try to eat 400 calories less than you are used to and you will soon start losing weight.

Does Water Really Help You Lose Weight??

Is Agave Nectar a Health Scam?

admin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:25:56 +0000

Agave nectar aka agave syrup came of the shelves of your local health shop to the mainstream supermarkets and grocery stores. It’s easy to see why, it’s sweet as hell, tastes good and this supposedly without the disadvantages of refined sugar.

But is agave really safe to use?

Here are the claimed health benefits of Agave and my thoughts about them:

Agave nectar is ~~natural~~ and ~~organic~~. Not! Agave syrup is filtered and hydrolyzed into a complex form of fructose. It is a highly processed form of sugar. Depending on the processing, agave nectar can contain between 55 to 90% fructose, the rest is glucose.
Agave syrup has a low glycemic index. This is true in some cases because agave nectar contains so much fructose and fructose has a low glycemic index. But this doesn’t mean that agave syrup is healthy, fructose contributes to increased food intake and weight gain.
Agave nectar is ~~low~~ calorie. Not! It contains 16 calories/teaspoon, about the same as white sugar.

Here are some other dangers of fructose:

Fructose malabsorption: digestive disorder of the small intestine. People with fructose malabsorption don’t digest fructose well, leading to general ill health, poor skin and hair, anaemia (deficiency of red blood cells), osteoporosis, fatigue, …
Decreased glucose tolerance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Increased levels of uric acid, which can lead to heart diseases.
Processed fructose has been stripped from all minerals, vitamins and enzymes. To assimilate itself, it robs your body from these nutrients, which can lead to loss of zinc, iron, magnesium and calcium.

Conclusion: agave nectar is a scam –> avoid it at all costs!

A better, more healthy sweetener: Blackstrap Molasses

New Research: Eating Fat Increases Your Hunger

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:47:22 +0000

A recent American study shows that eating fat food increases the desire to eat more food. Fat foods trigger the release of a hormone called ghrelin. This hormone is produced in the stomach and pancreas and stimulates hunger, increases food intake and fat mass. You usually have higher levels of ghrelin before meals and lower levels after meals.

Until recently it was thought that ghrelin kicked into action in case of an empty stomach, but this theory seems to be obsolete. The new study shows that ghrelin only increases while eating fat food. Our brains then get the signal to store these fats.

Not all fats trigger ghrelin production though. Like you now, there are good fats and there are bad fats. ghrelin production is only triggered by saturated fats (the bad ones, think butter, ground beef, chocolate, fats in fast food, …). Unsaturated fats (Omega 3, think fish oil, linseed oil, butternuts, …) have no impact on ghrelin levels.

So, a good tip for fat loss: go easy on saturated fats…

Are You a Tofi?

admin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:29:13 +0000

"Tofi = Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside"

Tofis are people who appear thin, but have lots of internal fat. Too much internal fat (aka visceral fat) is hazardous to your health because it is situated around the organs. Tofis look healthy, but are not…

What are the causes?

Not enough exercise. Although they appear slim, most tofis have little or no exercise.
Bad eating habits. They say that some people can eat all they want without getting fat. Well, it may appear this way, but now we know this is not always the case. It’s not always over-eating though, even people who are underweight can have lots of internal fat. The key is to change your diet: eat healthy and regularly.
Doing crash diets.
Genes. Not a lot you can do about this…

Tofis need to worry about their health, because the hidden fat around the organs is of a dangerous kind. Situated around the heart, the muscles, the liver, …, this kind of fat is more dangerous than fat that is under the skin and can lead to diabetes, heart problems and cancer.

This also means that BMI is not a good method of measuring fat in relation to health. The important thing to know is where the fat is situated. Sumo wrestlers, who have a lot of external fat, are generally healthy people with low cholesterol, low insulin resistance and a low level of fatty acids. That is because although they have a lot of fat under their skin, they hardly have any internal fat. That is because, besides eating up to 5000 calories/day, they have a lot of exercise.

Once again it comes down to 2 basic things: a healthy diet and lots of exercise…

The "Eat Clean" Diet

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:32:15 +0000

There’s a "new" diet in town and it’s becoming a hype because people like Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry picked it up. It’s called the eat-clean diet. I apostrophized the word "new" in the first sentence because this diet is nothing new in my eyes, it’s just common sense and boils down to what most health practitioners have been advising the last couple of decades.

The Eat Clean diet was developed by Tosca Reno and is meant to give you more energy and a shiny appearance.

Here are some of the basic guidelines:

Eat 6 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and 3 in-betweens. This helps to promote a higher metabolism.
Drink 2 to 3 liter of water a day.
Avoid processed food: sugar, white bread, potato chips, blue apples …
Eat whole grains. Remember that most brown bread is not made of whole grains.
Eat lean proteins like fish or chicken.
Eats lots of fruit and vegetables
Once in a while you can eat something sweet, but choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and don’t eat the whole thing, just a piece of it.
Choose biofood

Do you see anything new here??

Does Water Really Help You Lose Weight??

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:31:08 +0000

Does water help you lose weight? To be short: yes, there is a relation between drinking water and weight loss.

How does it work?

Water Increases Your Metabolism

That’s right, water increases your metabolism.

What exactly is this “metabolism” you might wonder (in relation to weight loss)…

Your “fat” metabolism is the amount of calories your burn while being in rest.

This is also called the metabolic rate. Obviously, the more calories you burn, the more weight you will lose. It’s your liver’s job to burn fat and turn it into energy. Drinking water helps your liver (and kidneys) do their job more efficiently and thus speeds up your metabolism.

Water Helps You Feel “Full”

2 ways water helps in this regard:

It lessens your feeling of hunger. Every time you feel like getting a snack, try to drink a glass of water first.
It lessens your thirst and keeps you from drinking juices and soda (which make you fat)

How Much Water Should You Drink To Lose Weight?

8 to 12 glasses/day is safe, 8 is recommended. I say safe because you can get an overdose of water and die as a result of it. Don’t overdo it!! The optimal amount of water intake depends on your level of physical activity and the climate you live in. You’ll need to drink more if you’re a marathon runner in the Sahara dessert, less if you have a desk job on the North Pole…

The key is to make drinking enough water a part of your lifestyle. Drinking water won’t help you lose weight if you only do it for 2 weeks, you need to keep drinking water the rest of your life, only then it will make a difference.

Note: coffee is not water! Coffee is diuretic, it drives the water out of your body…

Some people don’t like the taste of water… I’d say: grow up or add a slice of lemon

A “Green” Note

Please don’t buy water in plastic bottles, they are a menace to our environment. Buy a water filter, it’s easy and much cheaper!

How To Get Rid Of A Double Chin

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:56:17 +0000

If you want to skip reading and go straight to the action, here’s a good program: Get Rid Of Your Double Chin

I’ve never really worried about getting fat, I’m a healthy eater and I do a lot of sports, but I’m not getting any younger and while watching the pictures of our latest holiday trip (to India, which was amazing btw) I noticed I’m developing a double chin. It’s not a floppy double chin yet, but let me tell you that I’m not very pleased with that observation, so time to do something about it…

How to get rid of a double chin? I’m not going to give those that are in the same boat as me false hope: although double chins can be reduced by loosing weight and doing facial exercises, complete removal of your double chin requires surgery. Although this cosmetic surgery procedure is moderately priced and not very painful, I don’t think it’s the way to go, I’m not a fan of cosmetic surgery (maybe I’ll be talking different when I get older). Liposuction is not sexy.

That being said, there are other ways to reduce your double chin.

Let’s first have a look at the reasons your double chin exists:

Genetic tendency. There’s not much we can do about that unfortunately…
Fat and fluid build-up. There’s something we can do about that…
Lack of exercise. Idem.
Another thing that promotes double chins: excessive tanning: tanning is bad for the elasticity of your skin.

The first thing you should ask yourself: are there other places on your body with excess fat (the belly is the first thing that comes to mind). If you have to answer yes to this question, the solution is relatively simple: you need to loose weight. You will tighten your double chin if you loose fat, weight loss helps tremendously.

You more or less know loosing fat involves:

Healthy food
Regular meals
Go easy on alcohol, sugar and fats
Lots of exercise
Enough sleep (7-8 hours a night)
If you need more help in this area, I can recommend Fat Loss 4 Idiots

Besides that, there are a couple of hacks you can try:

Don’t have long hair that finished at the level of your chin, it will draw attention to it. Have a look at some hairstyles that don’t emphasize your chin (short hair mostly).
Don’t wear tight dog collars, it also draws attention to your chin area. The same goes for earrings and necklaces.
Wear an open neckline. Ladies have the advantage that they have something not far below the double chin they can emphasize to distract the attention.
The ladies can also use makeup to cover up the double chin. Ask a makeup artist for tips.

That being said, these are all just cover ups and not solutions, the diet and exercise will be a lot more help, also for other areas of your body.

Besides getting the usual aerobic exercise (running, biking etc.) and anaerobic exercise (weight lifting), there are also some double chin exercises you can do. They don’t do wonders, but they sure help.

Keep your jaws busy: chew some sugar-free chewing gum will keep your jaw muscles working.
Exercise the platysma muscle (the muscle that’s responsible for the downward movement of your jaw): pull your bottom lip over your bottom teeth and move your jaw up and down.
Another double chin exercise: slap your chin with the back of your hand in a steady rhythm for a couple of minutes.
Press your palm on your forehead while resisiting with your head for 10 counts. Repeat with your hand on the back of your head and on the sides.
This is also a good exercise for a double chin: lie down on your back and tilt your head of the floor. Move your head up and down as if you were saying YES, without touching the floor. Repeat this a couple of times. Then move your head to the sides as if you were saying NO, also without touching the ground.
Hold your head in a natural position. Open your mouth as far as you can and stick out your tongue as far as you can. Repeat.
Stretch your jaw muscles by tilting back your head (gently) while keeping your mouth shut. Press your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
Tilt back your head and turn it to the left. Then move your lower jaw forward. Repeat on the right side

The last two double chin exercises are explained in this video (the women are slightly annoying, but it’s a good explanation):

Besides weight loss, surgery and exercises there are of course a lot of commercial products that claim to eliminate your double chin. Most of them come in the form of gel or cream. Velform chin wrap is an example of such a product. I never tried any of those and I’m not planning to either, I don’t believe in short-term remedies.

Diet for a Better Body

admin — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:05:13 +0000

There are a lot of different diets on the market today. There are so many – in fact – that it’s very smart to read up on diet reviews before you start any weight loss plan or diet. This way, you do not pick the wrong diet to suit your lifestyle and way of living. What’s nearly worse than being overweight and unhealthy is trying hard at dieting and failing miserably.

Luckily, there are several diets out there that offer a lot of great information on dieting and health tips for weight loss. It’s best to choose a diet that is natural since it’s best to only put natural ingredients into your system so that you do not fall a victim to side effects or further health complications that artificial ingredients and preservatives may cause you.

Having a perfect body or achieving a perfect body is not always an easy thing to do. If you want a good body, you’ll have to work hard at it. You will need to be working hard at changing your eating habits and living routine so that you can transform your body into what you love. If you already have a great body – maintaining it may also be of a challenge that requires a whole lot of work. But with proper dieting and exercise, you’ll be able to change your life, sculpt your body – and achieve weight loss success much easier than ever.

Why Weight Loss Pills, Supplements and Diets Won’t Help You

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:05:57 +0000

I have touched on this subject before but I have seen it appear in recent times and I really want my readers to understand that products like weight loss pills won’t work for you and I will tell you why.

It makes me really upset when I see personal trainers, health experts and the like promoting some exercise machine or speciality diet to get people to lose weight. To me they are traitors to there profession and should have a good long look at themselves.

These products are not purely marketing hype and many of them will actually assist you to lose weight. But the issue remains that these products are targeted at the wrong people and appeal to the wrong wants of the consumer. I am sure you have seen those "quick weight loss diet without exercise" or "exercise machines that works so well you don’t need to diet".

This kind of marketing ensures that no real improvements will be kept long term. Many of these products will lead to positive short term results but all of them fail to address the underlying issue that caused the weight gain in the first place. It is similar to replacing the wood in a house but never exterminating the termites. Short term you have fixed the problem but unless the underlying issue is addressed you will be back at the beginning sooner rather than later.

So if you are looking at using one of these products to lose weight fast, be sure to compliment it with a long term plan that addresses the weight issue to begin with. So if you eat too much junk because of a busy lifestyle ensure that you have adequately planned to create healthy meals during and after the use of a weight loss product. If you do not get enough exercise make sure you join a sporting team or a gym before you begin your weight loss.

Really, here’s the only and best way to lose weight:

Eat healthy, fresh and natural food at least 3 times a day.
Exercise at least 3 times a week.
Have enough sleep (minimum 7 or 8 hours)

If you make no fundamental changes to your lifestyle, after you lose the weight guess where you will be in the next 6 to 12 months? That’s right you will be back where you started or possibly even worse because your body may have adapted to your smaller calorie intake.