Cinnamon, Do You Know What You Are Really Getting?

Cinnamon - Ceylon or Cassia?

I love cinnamon.  I mean what can be better than an apple pie baking and the house filling with the wonderful aroma of cinnamon.  However, I had no idea that all these years I was not even using real cinnamon.

I never gave it any thought at all until I started to see so many posts on Pinterest about the health benefits of honey and cinnamon.  Never hearing about this before, I did what I always do on get right on the internet to see what I could find.

Ceylon or Cassia Cinnamon – What’s The Difference

 To my surprise I found that what I have been consuming all these years is not cinnamon at all.  Most of the cinnamon sold in grocery stores is something called Cassia cinnamon, also known as Chinese cinnamon, which is cultivated mostly in China, Vietnam and Indonesia and comes from a totally different plant call Cinnamomum cassa.

True or real cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon.  It is native to Sri Lanka and comes from the Cinnamomum zeylanicum plant which is relatively unknown to most people.    Ceylon cinnamon is typically more expensive than Cassia, and is what is referred to when talking about health benefits such as involving blood sugar regulation. 

Now, even though cinnamons are cultivated from different plants, they both come from the same plant family, Lauraceae – the laurel family, and the same genus, Cinnamonum.  Studies have shown they do share some of the same and health benefits, such as promting healthy blood glucose levels and is considered antimicrobial. 

The biggest and most important difference is the levels of a naturally occurring substance called coumarin.  This is a naturally occurring plant component containing strong anticoagulant properties, in other words it is a natural blood thinner. 

Ceylon contains a negligible amount, however, Cassia contains an outrageous amount of 1200 times higher.  The levels of cormarin in the Ceylon compared to Cassia is so drastic, that the German FDA has warned against consuming excessive amount of Cassia bark due to the amount of cormarin it contains. 

Consuming Cassia in large quantities or over extended period of time, poses health risks and can do damage to your liver and kidneys due to the high levels of coumarins.

Cinnamon - Ceylon and Cassia

How To Tell The Difference

 Not only in the flavor and aroma, there is also a big difference visually between Ceylon and Cassia.

They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" and this one clearly demonstrates the visual difference between the two.  

You can see the colour difference as well as the texture.  See how delicate real cinnamon looks with all the thin flaky layers, whereas Cassia is solid containing one very strong piece.

Type	Ceylon	Cassia
Cost	more expensive, can be up to 10 times pricier then Cassia	fairly cheap and inexpensive, can be bought in bulk
Convince	hard to find, only being carried by specialty stores or some health food stores	easily available, carried by grocery stores
Colour	tan brown in colour	reddish dark brown in  colour
Appearance	the cinnamon sticks are made up of multiple paper thin layers when rolled up	the cinnamon sticks are composed of a thick bark that is only one layer
Texture	fragile, easily broken up or ground into powder	very tough and difficult, if not impossible, to break up or ground even with an electric grinder
Flavor/Aroma	delicate, sweet with subtle notes of clove	pungent full-bodies taste
Coumarin	Contains a negligible amount	Contains high level, up to 1200 times more than Ceylon

Health Benefits

Health benefits of cinnamon include:

• diabetes
• alzheimer's disease
• cancer
• anti-inflammatory
• anti-microbial

Cinnamon And Honey

The healing benefits of mixing cinnamon with honey comes from the high quantity of sulfur it contains.  Cinnamon is 26% and honey is 33%, combining the two creates a very powerful sulfur combination of 59% making it the reason it is so effective.   

Check out some of  the healing properties cinnamon and honey (a sulfur-based combination):

• heart disease
• arthritis
• bladder infection
• cholesterol
• colds
• upset stomach
• gas
• immune system
• indigestion
• influenza
• longevity
• raspy or sore throat
• pimples
• skin infections
• weight loss
• cancer 
• fatigue
• bad breath
• hearing loss
• toothache
• high blood pressure

Conclusion

If you are going to add cinnamon into your regular health routine, make sure you know what you are getting.  Purchase quality Ceylon form a reputable source.  Your health is worth the extras expense.

Now that's Creative!