Featured food of the day Cinnamon

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Ingredients:
100g ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of melted butter
2 tablespoons of double cream
2 tea spoons of cinnamon

120 grams of pear quarters 

Method:
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Almonds, baking powder and cinnamon.
Melt the butter, I use a Pyrex jug, add the eggs, cream, then add the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour mix into a 6" x 3" micro-wave safe glass dish, cook at 700 watts for 3 minutes. Allow to cool and cut in half. Spread on extra thick cream and add tinned pear quarters, dust with cinnamon powder. Serves four. 

Cinnamon may also significantly help people with type 2 diabetes improve their ability to respond to insulin, thus normalizing their blood sugar levels. Both test tube and animal studies have shown that compounds in cinnamon not only stimulate insulin receptors, but also inhibit an enzyme that inactivates them, thus significantly increasing cells' ability to use glucose. Studies to confirm cinnamon's beneficial actions in humans are currently underway with the most recent report coming from researchers from the US Agricultural Research Service, who have shown that less than half a teaspoon per day of cinnamon reduces blood sugar levels in persons with type 2 diabetes. Their study included 60 Pakistani volunteers with type 2 diabetes who were not taking insulin. Subjects were divided into six groups. For 40 days, groups 1, 2 and 3 were given 1, 3, or 6 grams per day of cinnamon while groups 4, 5 and 6 received placebo capsules. Even the lowest amount of cinnamon, 1 gram per day (approximately 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon), produced an approximately 20% drop in blood sugar; cholesterol and triglycerides were lowered as well. When daily cinnamon was stopped, blood sugar levels began to increase.

More great cinnamon information can be found at theWorlds Healthiest Foods site here. WHF is a not for profit goldmine of great food information.

Eddie