3 Ways to Use Cinnamon to Help With Diabetes - Method1 Incorporating Cinnamon Into Your Diet

Cinnamon is not only a spice packed with healthful antioxidants. It can also be used to help diabetics control their blood glucose levels. While it should not completely replace other treatments, consult your physician about adding to your treatment regimen.

Method1 Incorporating Cinnamon Into Your Diet

1 Use cinnamon to replace sugar. Because cinnamon is so flavorful, it can often replace small amounts of sugar in stove-top recipes, sauces, meat, and vegetable dishes. Replacing a sweetener with this spice can help reduce the amount of sugar you consume and improve your blood glucose levels.

• Cinnamon is considered safe when used in the amounts normally found as foods-- this works out to roughly ½ to 1 teaspoon or about 1000 mg per day.

2 Add cinnamon to your breakfast. For instance, stir cinnamon and a small amount of agave nectar into oatmeal in the morning, adding berries and nuts to make it an even more nutritious breakfast. Or top off buttered whole grain toast with a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of a crystallized sweetener like Stevia or Splenda.

• Cinnamon also goes well with peanut butter or sugar-free jam on toast.

3 Use cinnamon in meat sauces. Cinnamon pairs well with poultry, pork, and beef spice rubs as well as Asian-themed dishes, marinades, and salad dressings. Mixing to taste, replace some of the sugar or brown sugar with cinnamon for homemade barbecue sauces, pulled pork marinade, berry compotes, and even marinara sauces.

4 Replace sugar in vegetable dishes. Use cinnamon in place of brown sugar or regular sugar in candied vegetable dishes, such as candied yams, baby carrots, or sweet stir fry. Cinnamon lends a complex, sweet flavor without the spike in glucose.

5 Use cinnamon in baking. Baking is perhaps the easiest way to incorporate more cinnamon into your diet. If you enjoy homemade breads, muffins, breakfast bars, cookies, or pies, cinnamon can be easily added to virtually any recipe you love.

• Stir cinnamon into baked good recipes. Extra cinnamon mixes best with dry flour, and you should mix thoroughly to prevent clumping. If a recipe already calls for some cinnamon, try doubling the amount or reducing the amount of a spice like nutmeg to replace it with cinnamon.
• Use cinnamon to dust baked goods. If cinnamon has already been incorporated into a baked good recipe, try using a baker’s brush or sifter to lightly dust the top of the muffin, cake, or bread with cinnamon while it is still warm from the oven.

6 Add cinnamon to sweet and savory canning recipes. Canning fruits and vegetables offers an easy way to sneak cinnamon into snacks and sides that otherwise would be free of cinnamon. When used appropriately, cinnamon can make an excellent addition to sweet and savory canning recipes.

• Use cinnamon heavily in recipes like apple or pumpkin butter, canned apples, and applesauce.
• Add a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to each large Mason jar of other fruits, like canned peaches or strawberries.
• If you are canning or pickling savory foods, consider adding cinnamon with cucumbers, green beans, onions, beets, and even bell peppers.

7 Use cinnamon in drinks. Try adding a little cinnamon to your coffee grounds in the morning to get a cinnamon-flavored cup of caffeine, or mix it into smoothies, diet shakes, and dairy-based blended drinks to get an extra dose of cinnamon in your day.