Cinnamon extract fed to rats along with a high-fructose diet prevented the development of insulin resistance in the animals, researchers report. Researchers fed the rats a high-fructose diet for three weeks with our without 300 mg/kg cinnamon extract per day added to the drinking water. A group of rats fed a normal diet served as controls. The researchers then analyzed the animals ability to use glucose and insulin.
The results indicate that cinnamon extract impacted various aspects of glucose metabolism. Cinnamon appeared to block the development of insulin resistance in the animals.
Because the administration of L-arginine blocked the beneficial effects of the cinnamon, researchers theorized that cinnamons effects were due at least in part by influencing the nitric oxide pathway in skeletal muscle, since L-arginine stimulates the production of nitric oxide.
Reference: Qin B, Nagasaki M, Ren M, Bajotto G, Oshida Y, Sato Y. Cinnamon extract prevents the insulin resistance induced by a high-fructose diet. Horm Metab Res. 2004 Feb;36(2):119-25.
Cinnamon is found in VRPs GluControl™, which also contains Goats Rue, the herbal prototype of the antidiabetic drug Metformin.