GCSH Health

Cinnamon is one of those spices which everyone loves but through research & anecdotal evidence has been shown to have benefits far from your average spice! Cinnamon has been shown to raise the ‘good’ HDL cholesterol which helps to remove the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol from the body.

Cinnamon may also help to treat Type 2 Diabetes by reducing blood pressure & insulin resistance. Cinnamon may also lessen the effects of high fat meals by slowing the increase of blood sugar levels after eating.

So picking the right cinnamon is important. There are over a dozen different types of cinnamon but there are only 4 varieties which are commonly used: Ceylon Cinnamon, Cassia Cinnamon, Saigon Cinnamon & Korintje Cinnamon. But which is the right type to use?

Ceylon cinnamon is the ‘True’ cinnamon & is known by two botanical names: Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum. This species is from Sri Lanka. Cassia Cinnamon is derived from a related species of cinnammon & is also known as Chinese cinnamon. Some research shows thats Cassia cinnamon can be toxic if taken in large doses.

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The art of traditonally made foods such as cultured butter is making a comeback. Cultured butter is made by adding live cultures to cream before it is churned to make butter. The advantages of cultured butter over regular butter is that the added cultures aid digestion. The cultures also add lactic acid which can give the butter a tangier taste as well as producing a higher fat content which gives the butter a silkier texture and richer flavour.

Before the industrialisation of food production most handmade butter was made with a natural active culture. Fresh cream straight from the cows would be allowed to sit at room temperature overnight so that the cream would rise to the top and the milk settle to the bottom. This would allow the natural cultures to ferment the milk, creating a nutty and tangy cream which was then churned by hand.

Once pasteurisation of dairy products began the natural cultures were killed and our taste for tangier nuttier style butter went with it. Interestingly, in Europe the practice of adding live cultures following pasteurisation became standard practice and this is what food manufacturers (and health foodies!) are now rediscovering.

Traditionally made food such as cultured butter is something that is encouraged by a global movement called Slow Food. Slow Food was founded in Italy 1989 by Carlo Petrini and a group of activists who were concerned that local food cultures and traditions were rapidly disappearing due to massive food production. Starting small at a grass roots level, Slow Food has now grown to over 160 countries.

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