Holiday Spice Melts Stubborn Fat
Dear Reader,
Snickerdoodles.
Pumpkin pie.
Eggnog.
Some of the tastiest holiday treats have one spice in common: cinnamon.
If you’re a fan of this flavorful spice, you probably don’t need another reason to load up this holiday season.
But I’m going to give you one anyway.
Because a recent study showed that eating more cinnamon could hold the key to preventing holiday weight gain.
Previous studies have shown that the same chemical that gives cinnamon its flavor—it’s an oil called cinnamaldehyde—also has properties that help combat obesity…in mice.
The big question was, would those same properties hold true in people, too?
The latest research says yes!
When scientists studied the impact of cinnamaldehyde on human cells, they found that it has a direct impact on fat.
It essentially triggers your body to burn fat through “thermogenesis,” which is how your body burns calories for energy.
Fat cells store energy in the form of fat. This storage process was great for our ancestors, who didn’t have access to the constant food supply that we do.
When food was scarce or the weather turned cold, having those fat stores to draw from was literally a matter of life and death.
Obviously, we don’t rely on those energy stores for our survival the way our ancestors did—but our bodies don’t know that.
So anytime we consume more calories than we need, we still hold on to those stores like a squirrel collecting its nuts for the winter.
To get rid of excess fat, we have to get our bodies to turn on the fat-burning processes.
And according to this latest study, that’s exactly what cinnamon does.
I’m not advocating tossing healthy eating out the window as Christmas approaches.
But if you’re going to indulge in something this holiday season, cinnamon is just the thing.
To a brighter day,
Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.
