Cinnamon: The Super Spice For Weight Loss

Are you trying to look for ways to cut down those extra pounds? Don't go out looking for expensive gyms and personal trainer; the weight loss remedy is in on your kitchen shelf. A common household spice, cinnamon, is the perfect weight loss remedy. Cinnamon boosts body metabolism and uses the fat cells burn energy.

Cinnamaldehyde, the essential oil of cinnamon which gives cinnamon its flavour helps in improving metabolic health. It acts directly on the fat cells and also induces them to start burning energy.

"Cinnamon has been part of our diets for thousands of years, and people generally enjoy it," Jun Wu, the Research Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan said.

Also read: You Just Can't Miss These Health Benefits Of Cinnamon

"So if it can help protect against obesity, too, it may offer an approach to metabolic health that is easier for patients to adhere to," he added.

Cinnamon is widely used in the food industry. As a result, it is easier to convince people to stick to a cinnamon-based diet than opting for a regular drug-based treatment, Wu explained.

This study, which appeared in the Metabolism journal, explained that when the human cells were treated using cinnamaldehyde, a number of genes and enzymes spiked which improved body metabolism.

Researchers added that a spike in Ucp1 and Fgf21 (metabolic regulatory proteins) was also noticed by researchers during thermogenesis.

Usually, energy is stored by Adipocytes in lipid form, which can be used by the body in times of shortage or in days when the temperature is too low. Then this energy is used to produce heat to keep the body warm.

But with the increasing incidence of obesity, researchers are trying to get the fat cells to activate the thermogenesis process and induce fat-burning processes again.

"Cinnamaldehyde may offer one such activation method," Wu said. 

With inputs from IANS