Ingredients: Honey and Cinnamon.

I keep seeing things on Facebook and elsewhere promoting the many health benefits of honey and cinnamon mixed together. I have actually seen claims that it is a “cure-all,” something that if it were true, I’m sure doctors would be prescribing it for all these dying cancer patients, and the rest.

On the surface, I would say that cinnamon is simply a spice, but perhaps it has chemical properties of which I am not aware. And honey? It’s basically sugar. Sugar is the exact opposite of what your body needs to heal. People with hyperglycemia (i.e. diabetics) have wounds that won’t heal because there’s too much sugar in their blood. Too much sugar encourages infections to grow.

But the number one thing I’ve seen “honey and cinnamon” advertised to cure is obesity. “Lose weight with honey and cinnamon!” the ads scream. And I don’t know if that’s true or not. It’s one thing to make a claim like this, but it’s another thing to back it up with evidence. And so my question is this: does anybody know anyone personally who has actually tried this? The claims abound, but I haven’t heard one testimonial. You know, like “I did the honey and cinnamon diet and lost 30 pounds in three months!” “I took their honey and cinnamon advice, and in just a month I lost six pounds!” Something like that. But there’s nothing. On the contrary, current research shows that eating carbohydrates actually leads to an INCREASED risk of cancer. If you’re really interested, here’s this 32 minute video from Dr. Craig Thompson MD, at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in which he states, “You overfeed somebody with carbohydrates and you dramatically increase their cancer rate.”

If this is the first time that you’re hearing the idea that carbohydrates are actually not good for you, I would suggest you either read “Wheat Belly” by William Davis, “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes, or at the very least, the much easier to read “Why We Get Fat”, also by Gary Taubes. If you would prefer to have it spelled out for you in a movie, I would highly suggest you watch the funny and informative documentary “Fat Head” by Tom Naughton.

So, back to the original question: does anybody know someone that tried this honey/cinnamon thing and lost X amount of weight in Y amount of time without changing anything else in their daily routine? Because I’m getting tired of this advice showing up in my Facebook feed. Everybody seems to think it’s a good idea, but nobody’s trying it, at least not that I’ve heard.