Cinnamon intake significantly reduces body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and fat mass in adults, and can be recommended as a supplement for obesity management.
Various online search engines such as PubMed, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library were trawled to find relevant articles on the impact of cinnamon consumption on obesity measures. The data from these articles was then combined and expressed as weighted mean difference and 95% confidence intervals utilizing the random-effects method. The potential non-linear association was appraised via fractional polynomial modeling.
The study incorporated 12 trials from an initial pool of 679 records, bringing together a total of 786 participants. The aggregated outcome demonstrates that cinnamon intake can significantly decrease body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and fat mass in adults. The impact on body weight was particularly pronounced in subjects under 50 years old and those with a higher baseline body mass index (≥30 kg/m). Daily dosages of cinnamon at or above 2 grams, and administered for 12 weeks or more resulted in significant reductions in fat mass. There was a non-linear reduction in body weight and waist circumference with the administration of cinnamon over the study period.