We've covered a lot of natural treatments for diabetes here on this blog: everything from Bitter melon to cow urine. The latest natural choice is palatable: cinnamon. Use of the spice is growing popular among diabetics, despite the controversy surrounding it.

He is among a slowly expanding group of physicians who are finding that cinnamon appears to help patients with type 2 diabetes as well as those with moderately elevated blood sugar levels, a so-called pre-diabetic state.

The first inkling that cinnamon could be more than a spice in your muffin arose from studies done by Richard A. Anderson, at the Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Md., an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientists there were testing foods that might boost the efficiency of insulin in type 2 diabetics and found "the champ" to be apple pie.

Insulin helps the body to metabolize sugar.

"We thought it might be the apples. It wasn't," said Anderson. "We analyzed every ingredient of the pie and finally found the cinnamon." Follow-up test tube studies revealed the most active ingredient in cinnamon to be methylhydroxy chalcone polymer, which the researchers said helps convert glucose (sugar) to energy.

Okay, maybe apple pie would've been more enjoyable, but cinnamon is certainly a positive option. Have you tried it?

(Photo Source: CNN)