Cinnamon

To the left is cassia or Chinese cinnamon. This is the most common cinnamon in the USA you can find in the grocery store, Cinnamomum aromaticum.

To the right is the real cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon, C. verum. It has a more subtle aroma than cassia, and it’s not so sharp.

The powder you see is Vietnamese, Saigon cinnamon, C. loureiroi. It’s intensely sweet and very spicy, and much redder than the other two.



Cinnamon's have a balance of warming and stimulating and soothing qualities, they’re excellent for people with cold complaints. Now a use for cinnamon is for people with cold hands and feet, a reminder of cinnamon’s powerful stimulating effect on blood circulation.


Here is a list of some of the medicinal uses of cinnamon:

• Diabetes (lowers blood sugar)
• Weight Loss and Weight Control (With each cup you drink, you can burn up to 90 extra calories)
• Athlete's Foot
• Indigestion
• Cold and Flu
• Helps the immune system
• Memory Enhancer
• Diarrhea
• Menstrual Problems
• Digestive Problems
• Yeast Infections
• Arthritis
• Boosts metabolism

There are several ways you can take cinnamon.
Add a pinch of the ground spice to your favorite tea. Or, add it to the food you eat. Just remember that less is more. You should not consume more than 1/4 tsp. a day or else you could develop problems such as mouth inflammation or digestive distress. You can also try adding a pinch to your morning coffee.
One way to get extra cinnamon is to infuse it into honey. You simply take 2 to 3 whole cinnamon sticks and put it into the honey jar. After a few days the cinnamon infuse with the honey.

Fresh ground cinnamon doesn't just have more flavor than prepackaged ground cousin, it also is more medicinally potent. One of the reasons why cinnamon is so effective is because of the volatile oil present in the spice. If the cinnamon is old, the volatile oil begins to evaporate. If it is ground fresh, more of the oil is present. To grind your own cinnamon you can use a coffee grinder to grind a cinnamon stick down. If you plan on doing this a lot, make sure you have a separate grinder for coffee and a separate one for herbs. Otherwise, the coffee flavor will affect the flavor of the herbs.