CINNAMON

MAKES YOU THINNER

Scientists have found that an ingredient in cinnamon could help fat-burning in humans. Cinnamaldehyde is an essential oil that helps give the spice its distinctive flavour and has been proven to protect mice against obesity in previous studies. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have claimed that the oil also activates thermogenesis, a metabolic bodily process which burns calories to produce heat. This process can help kickstart weight loss, leading the study’s authors to conclude that cinnamon could boast a series of metabolic benefits. Lead author Jun Wu, research assistant professor at the Life Sciences Institute, was aware of the benefits of cinnamaldehyde thanks to previous studies and wanted to further examine its effect on the body. Wu and his team tested the fat cells from a range of volunteers and noticed an increased expression of the genes and enzymes that enhance lipid metabolism after they’d been treated with cinnamaldehyde. This led him to believe that when ingested by humans, cinnamaldehyde and therefore cinnamon could help provoke thermogenesis and subsequent fat-burning processes in the body.