Ground Cinnamon

Food · Vegetable · Food, Typed Supps

A warming spice with modest, inconsistent evidence for blood sugar, and a caution most people have never heard of.

Stage by stage

Intake (Bark compounds released): Chewing and cooking release cinnamaldehyde and other active compounds from the powder.
Stomach (Digested with the meal): Cinnamon moves through digestion alongside the rest of the food.
Small intestine (Partial absorption): A portion of the active compounds is absorbed into the bloodstream.
Liver (Coumarin processed): The liver metabolizes coumarin, present at higher levels in cassia cinnamon than Ceylon cinnamon.

Timing

Stirred into a meal in normal culinary amounts.

Time to effect

Weeks: Any modest blood sugar effect seen in studies required daily intake sustained over several weeks.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.

Environmental footprint

0.5 kg CO2e and 108 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Other vegetables" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Pricey — roughly £18 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 240
Protein: 4g
Carbohydrate: 27.5g
of which sugars: 2.2g
Fat: 1.2g
of which saturated: 0.6g
Fibre: 53.1g
Sodium: 10mg

Food vs. supplement

Cinnamon’s per-100g calcium and iron figures look striking, but a real serving is a teaspoon, so the practical contribution is small. Its blood-sugar research mostly used extract doses well above ordinary cooking use.

Kitchen tip

Prefer Ceylon cinnamon over cassia if you use cinnamon daily in real quantity — it carries far less coumarin.

Common myth

"Cinnamon meaningfully lowers blood sugar, so it can stand in for medication." In reality: Some small studies show a modest effect on fasting blood sugar, but results are inconsistent and far too small to replace prescribed treatment. Separately, cassia cinnamon — the common type — contains more coumarin than Ceylon cinnamon, worth knowing if you use it daily in real quantity.