Honey, Cinnamon, and other pseudoscience

My dear mother, (who doesn't think that dinosaurs were real because they're not specifically mentioned in the bible and she's never seen one) swears by mixing honey and cinnamon together in the morning and at night to lose weight.  I have a hard time believing it.  I did some research and there may be some small merit to it cleaning out the digestive track, and who knows if its true that it may block fat IDK anyways what are some of your favorite diet myths, fails, busts, craziest things you've tried.  Anyone use one of the wrap things, or the ab belt?  I've been told before that I obsess over evidence.  I suppose I do, I like my doctors model of weight loss- burn more calories per day than you take in.  Thoughts?

I'm not sure how it works, but cinnamon is being used by diabetics to help control blood sugar. I bought the cinnamon capsules last year to see what it was all about even though I've never been pre-diabetic.  I was actually hoping it could help with the idiopathic neuropathy in my feet. Long story short, I burped up one of the capsules that had disintegrated and it was like having a mouthful of cinnamon powder and I thought I was going to aspirate it while choking.  To say it was disgusting would be putting it mildly. The supplements went immediately into the garbage can.

I did pick up a diet gadget of sorts at Christmas..a Fitbit Flex. I really like it! It helps you set and achieve daily goals and gives you an "atta girl" when you meet those daily goals. I've kicked around the idea of getting a Fitbit Aria scale that links up with the Flex,  but, at $130 it's too pricey right now. 

Yeah, my mother tried to get me on that cinnamon kick. She swears it keeps her diabetes in control.  Her diabetes is not all that well controlled. Her fasting BS is over 130, her A1c hovers around 7, and she doesn'****ch her diet because she expects her Metformin and cinnamon to just take care of it. Drives me crazy, but it's her life.

I took cinnamon one time...one time.  OMG.  I had the WORST acid reflux EVER. I thought I was gonna die! 

My cholesterol is high, albeit the ratios are good.  I was told by the docs to do fish oil and cinnamon.  Yea, still high. 

Its quite possible that you were using the wrong kind of cinnamon. There are two kinds. One helps control blood sugar and the other just tastes good. The one you are looking for is often called Saigon Cinnamon. I don't recall the exact names but you want the kind of cinnamon that curls from both ends. The other kind (and the one that is commonly called cinnamon) curls from just one end.

I think the real problem is that a lot of cinnamon sold in the US isn't real cinnamon, it's cassia.  

Cassia is the cinnamon that helps to control blood sugar.

Very interesting!  Then those of us who purposefully buy real cinnamon would have the wrong one :)

I too am a believer in Cinnamon for health reasons and buy it at Costco in bulk!  It is great in Coconut Milk! 

Cinnamon challenge! Do one of those, start choking, stop breathing, die, and you'll never have to worry about gaining weight!!

Ugh. There are days when I just want rubber-stamps for Snopes and Quackwatch and PubMed so I can cover Facebook in stamps. Maybe a bonus one for "STFU Dr. Oz and anyone you've ever associated with," because apparently baking soda cures cancer and raw food eliminates ambiguous "toxins" in the body and lotion made with goat foreskins will eliminate every wrinkle you may ever have.

Yeah, I'm grumpy, but such is the life of a data-loving skeptic.