Cinnamon addition to food may lower triglycerides and LDL cholesterol

Cinnamon is as a popular aromatic spice and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfast cereals, snack foods, bagels, teas, hot chocolate and traditional foods.

Quiet a few research shows cinnamon may be good for people with diabetes. It may also lower cholesterol in people with diabetes. However it’s a debatable as many of the studies don’t indicate what type of cinnamon was used or have other problems that make their findings uncertain. Lack of research on the dose-response relationship between cinnamon and glycolipid indicators in type 2 diabetic patients might be one of the reasons for uncertain results.

A recent study in Nutrients journal Cinnamon addition in diet may be beneficial in lowering triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels while enhancing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, and the dosage of the intervention was an important factor in influencing the TG and LDL-C levels.

Researchers conducted the dose-response meta-analysis to explore the effect of the cinnamon intervention on glycolipid metabolism. They conducted a comprehensive database search for literature published before November 2022. Nonlinear models were used for dose-response relationship analysis.

The key findings of the study are

• They identified that a cinnamon intervention was effective in controlling triglyceride (TG) levels (mean difference = -7.31; 95%CI: -12.37, -2.25, p = 0.005) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (mean difference = -6.78; 95%CI: -11.35, -2.22, p = 0.004) in type 2 diabetic patients.

• It also was able to increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in patients with type 2 diabetes (mean difference = 1.53; 95%CI: 1.01, 2.05, p < 0.001).

• However, the cinnamon intervention had no significant effect on the level of fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), or total cholesterol (TC) levels.

• They found a significant effect of the cinnamon intervention dose on the TG level (p-nonlinearity = 0.016) and LDL-C (p-nonlinearity = 0.019) in the nonlinear dose-response analysis.

• In the subgroup analysis, we found a hypoglycemic effect with the cinnamon dose ≤1200 mg (mean difference = -11.1, 95%CI: -14.64, -7.58, p < 0.001).

Yu and team concluded that “Cinnamon intervention may be beneficial in lowering TG and LDL-C levels while enhancing HDL-C levels, and the dosage of the intervention was an important factor in influencing the TG and LDL-C levels.”

Reference: Yu, Tingqing, et al. "The Effect of Cinnamon On Glycolipid Metabolism: a Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials." Nutrients, vol. 15, no. 13, 2023.