How much turmeric and cinnamon is too much?
Oxalates in Cinnamon
Like soy, the spice turmeric may also suppress human fat cells, and not only have an antiproliferative effect on cancer, but may prevent cancer metastases by inhibiting cancer cell invasion. The main turmeric compound is even being considered as a leading treatment for multidrug-resistant breast cancer.
If it’s so good for you, though, why not take a lot of it? Not some extract, but actual turmeric, the whole food, but just in large doses—three grams; six or seven capsules a day. Is that a bad idea? Does it not matter either way? Or, the more the better?
Unfortunately, it turns out turmeric has too much oxalate to take that kind of daily dose, which would increase our risk of kidney stones. And anyone who thinks kidney stones aren’t a big deal has never passed an oxalate kidney stone out through their urethra. So keep it under a teaspoon of turmeric a day.
Notice the title, though: what about cinnamon? Like turmeric, cinnamon seems to have all sorts of amazing benefits, but also like turmeric, is high in oxalates. In fact, cinnamon has the same amount of oxalates that turmeric does. So, is a spoonful of cinnamon too much, too? Harmful, harmless, or helpful?
Even a few spoonfuls a day is not too much, because it’s not what you eat, it’s what you absorb. And while cinnamon and turmeric have the same amount of oxalates, more than 90% of the turmeric oxalates are soluble—versus less than 10% of those from the cinnamon.
To get the benefits, though, we’ve got to eat cinnamon every day. After just a single day of eating a daily teaspoon of cinnamon, you can see, with the dotted line, how well it blunts the blood sugar spike you get when you eat a whopping load of sugar. On day 15, they stopped eating cinnamon, though, and you can see how, by the next day, the effect was gone. So we have to keep it up.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Y.K. Lee, W.S. Lee, J.T. Hwang, D.Y. Kwon, Y.J. Surh, & O.J. Park. Curcumin exerts antidifferentiation effect through AMPKalpha-PPAR-gamma in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and antiproliferatory effect through AMPKalpha-COX-2 in cancer cells. J Agric Food Chem, 57(1):305-310, 2009.
- S. Yodkeeree, W. Chaiwangyen, S. Garbis, & P. Limtrakul. Curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin differentially inhibit cancer cell invasion through the down-regulation of MMPs and uPA. J Nutr Biochem, 20(2):87-95, 2009.
- M. Labbozzetta, M. Notarbartolo, P. Poma, A. Maurici, L. Inguglia, P. Marchetti, M. Rizzi, R. Baruchello, D. Simoni, & N. D’Alessandro. Curcumin as a possible lead compound against hormone-independent, multidrug-resistant breast cancer. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1155:278-283, 2009.
- M. Tang, D.E. Larson-Meyer, & M. Liebman. Effect of cinnamon and turmeric on urinary oxalate excretion, plasma lipids, and plasma glucose in healthy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr, 87(5):1262-1267, 2008.
Image thanks to Cinnamon Vogue via Flickr.
Like soy, the spice turmeric may also suppress human fat cells, and not only have an antiproliferative effect on cancer, but may prevent cancer metastases by inhibiting cancer cell invasion. The main turmeric compound is even being considered as a leading treatment for multidrug-resistant breast cancer.
If it’s so good for you, though, why not take a lot of it? Not some extract, but actual turmeric, the whole food, but just in large doses—three grams; six or seven capsules a day. Is that a bad idea? Does it not matter either way? Or, the more the better?
Unfortunately, it turns out turmeric has too much oxalate to take that kind of daily dose, which would increase our risk of kidney stones. And anyone who thinks kidney stones aren’t a big deal has never passed an oxalate kidney stone out through their urethra. So keep it under a teaspoon of turmeric a day.
Notice the title, though: what about cinnamon? Like turmeric, cinnamon seems to have all sorts of amazing benefits, but also like turmeric, is high in oxalates. In fact, cinnamon has the same amount of oxalates that turmeric does. So, is a spoonful of cinnamon too much, too? Harmful, harmless, or helpful?
Even a few spoonfuls a day is not too much, because it’s not what you eat, it’s what you absorb. And while cinnamon and turmeric have the same amount of oxalates, more than 90% of the turmeric oxalates are soluble—versus less than 10% of those from the cinnamon.
To get the benefits, though, we’ve got to eat cinnamon every day. After just a single day of eating a daily teaspoon of cinnamon, you can see, with the dotted line, how well it blunts the blood sugar spike you get when you eat a whopping load of sugar. On day 15, they stopped eating cinnamon, though, and you can see how, by the next day, the effect was gone. So we have to keep it up.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Y.K. Lee, W.S. Lee, J.T. Hwang, D.Y. Kwon, Y.J. Surh, & O.J. Park. Curcumin exerts antidifferentiation effect through AMPKalpha-PPAR-gamma in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and antiproliferatory effect through AMPKalpha-COX-2 in cancer cells. J Agric Food Chem, 57(1):305-310, 2009.
- S. Yodkeeree, W. Chaiwangyen, S. Garbis, & P. Limtrakul. Curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin differentially inhibit cancer cell invasion through the down-regulation of MMPs and uPA. J Nutr Biochem, 20(2):87-95, 2009.
- M. Labbozzetta, M. Notarbartolo, P. Poma, A. Maurici, L. Inguglia, P. Marchetti, M. Rizzi, R. Baruchello, D. Simoni, & N. D’Alessandro. Curcumin as a possible lead compound against hormone-independent, multidrug-resistant breast cancer. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1155:278-283, 2009.
- M. Tang, D.E. Larson-Meyer, & M. Liebman. Effect of cinnamon and turmeric on urinary oxalate excretion, plasma lipids, and plasma glucose in healthy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr, 87(5):1262-1267, 2008.
Image thanks to Cinnamon Vogue via Flickr.
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Oxalates in Cinnamon
LicenciaCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
URLNota del Doctor
For more on oxalates, check out these videos:
Asparagus Pee
Who Shouldn’t Consume Curcumin or Turmeric?
And check out my other videos on spices.
Also, for more context, check out my associated blog posts: The Best Detox; Breast Cancer and Diet; Fighting Inflammation With Food Synergy; Dr. Greger’s Natural Nausea Remedy Recipe; Cinnamon for Diabetes; and Nutmeg Toxicity.
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