When you buy cinnamon tea at the grocery store, it often consists of green or black tea with a touch of cinnamon for flavor. This type of cinnamon tea may not contain enough cinnamon for you to benefit from its natural nutrients. If you make your own cinnamon tea using ground cinnamon, you'll gain manganese, antioxidants and even some fiber.
Cinnamon Tea Basics
You can prepare cinnamon tea by stirring ground cinnamon into hot tea or by steeping pieces of cinnamon stick and removing the chunks before you drink the tea. The problem with stick cinnamon is that you won’t know how much of the nutrients leeched into the water. If you use ground cinnamon you’ll consume all of the cinnamon including its nutrients. Cinnamon is safe in doses up to 6 grams, or about 2 teaspoons daily, reports Drugs.com. Beware of consuming large amounts because cassia cinnamon contains coumarin, which can cause liver damage.
Source of Fiber
Cinnamon comes from the bark of the Cinnamomum tree. Even when it's ground, it still retains natural fiber. While cinnamon sticks have fiber, you won't get any from steeping them in tea. If you add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to your tea, you’ll get 1.4 grams of fiber. This amount provides 6 percent of women’s recommended daily intake, while men get 4 percent of their daily fiber. That might not seem like much, until you consider that plain cinnamon tea takes up less than 1 percent of your daily calorie intake.
Manganese for Metabolism
Manganese helps metabolize carbohydrates and proteins. It’s also essential for healthy cartilage and bones. As cells throughout your body produce energy, they create toxic byproducts. Manganese works inside cells as an antioxidant, neutralizing free radical byproducts before they cause damage. You’ll get 0.45 milligrams of manganese, or at least 20 percent of your daily intake, from 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Plants produce a large group of chemicals called flavonoids, which can contribute to your health because they're antioxidants and they help regulate cellular communication. Ground cinnamon contains several flavonoids called proanthocyanidins. A teaspoon of ground cinnamon supplies at least as much as you’ll get from eating two-thirds cup of two other well-known sources of proanthocyanidins -- grapes and blueberries. The University of Michigan reports that proanthocyanidins are used to strengthen capillaries and to relieve symptoms that occur when veins in the legs don’t work properly.
Balance Blood Sugar
Cinnamon shows promise for regulating blood sugar and lowering cholesterol, which is likely a benefit from its essential oil cinnamaldehyde. A review of 10 studies found that consuming cinnamon every day for four to 18 weeks resulted in lower levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides, according to a report published in the September 2013 issue of the “Annals of Family Medicine.” However, the studies used different doses, ranging from 120 milligrams to 6 grams daily, so the amount of cinnamon that is safe and effective has not been established.
- USDA National Nutrient Database: Spices, Cinnamon, Ground
- Drugs.com: Cinnamon
- Medical News Today: Coumarin in Cinnamon Causes Liver Damage in Some People
- Linus Pauling Institute: Manganese
- Linus Pauling Institute: Flavonoids
- Linus Pauling Institute: Table 2: Anthocyanin, Flavanol and Proanthocyanidin Content of Selected Foods
- University of Michigan Health System: Proanthocyanidins
- Annals of Family Medicine: Cinnamon Use in Type 2 Diabetes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes: Macronutrients
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