Health Nutrition & Diet 5 Healthy Reasons to Sip Cinnamon Tea Spoiler: It tastes good and it's good for you. By Nicole Clancy Nicole Clancy Nicole Clancy has been a freelance health and wellness writer since 1990. She is the founder of Health Your Way Online, and her column, Simply Fit, was a regular feature in the Santa Barbara Newspress for 14 years. Nicole's articles have been internationally syndicated in Vogue, Glamour and Easy Living. She's also contributed to Real Simple, O, Rachael Ray, Reveal, Country Living, Reader's Digest, Fitness, Oxygen, Yoga Journal, Shape, Runners World, Trail Runner, Body and Soul, SELF, Redbook, Prevention, Cosmopolitan, Better Homes & Gardens, Parents, Her Sports, Good Housekeeping, Girls Life, Triathlete Magazine, Santa Barbara Magazine and Woman Magazine, as well as various health/fitness trade publications. Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines Updated on November 3, 2022 Fact checked by Isaac Winter Fact checked by Isaac Winter Isaac Winter is a fact-checker and writer for Real Simple, ensuring the accuracy of content published by rigorously researching content before publication and periodically when content needs to be updated. Highlights: Helped establish a food pantry in West Garfield Park as an AmeriCorps employee at Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center. Interviewed Heartland Alliance employees for oral history project conducted by the Lake Forest College History Department. Editorial Head of Lake Forest College's literary magazine, Tusitala, for two years. Our Fact-Checking Process Share Tweet Pin Email Consider cinnamon tea your next easy (and delicious) health boost. To make cinnamon tea at home, Tara Coleman, CN, a clinical nutritionist, recommends simmering 1 cinnamon stick in 1 cup of water for 15 minutes. Strain out the cinnamon and enjoy. "Add a slice of lemon and a little honey if you want a sweeter drink," she says. No time to simmer? You can also find cinnamon tea bags at your grocery or online. The best part about cinnamon tea isn't even how good it tastes. From hydration to anti-inflammation, there are myriad health benefits. 5 Spices That Not Only Taste Good, They're Good for You 01 of 05 Provides Serious Antioxidants "Cinnamon tea may offer numerous health benefits, at least in part due to its rich polyphenol antioxidant content," explains LeeAnn Smith Weintraub, MPH, RD, a nutrition counselor and consultant. Polyphenols are micronutrients found in plants that are packed with antioxidant properties, which help protect your cells against damage caused by free radicals, fight inflammation, and prevent disease. 6 Healthy Perks of Sipping Ginger Tea (Iced or Hot), According to RDs 02 of 05 Reduces Inflammation Cinnamon is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent, and sipping it as tea offers those benefits, too. As one study notes, out of 115 foods tested, Sri Lankan cinnamon was found to be one of the "most potent anti-inflammatory foods." Research published in the Journal of AOAC International found that cinnamon's high volume of phenolic compounds help reduce inflammation in the body. 03 of 05 Manages Blood Sugar Whip up a cup of cinnamon tea to keep your blood sugar even. "[Cinnamon] has a compound that acts similar to insulin and helps move sugar from your blood into the cells," explains Coleman. There Are Many Types of Healthy Herbal Tea, but These Are the 4 Dietitians Love Most 04 of 05 Delivers Nutrients More Quickly It might sound obvious, but the water in cinnamon tea plays a significant, beneficial role as well, and many additional health perks come from the fact that tea is water-based. For one, water helps nourish your gastrointestinal (GI) tract—so everything flows through your system more easily. "Many health-promoting compounds in cinnamon are water soluble, and it's safe to say, tea is an optimal way to ingest cinnamon," Weintraub says. Water soluble is just a fancy way of describing something that dissolves in water, making cinnamon tea an ideal way to deliver cinnamon's nutrients to your body. 05 of 05 Helps Hydrate Most health experts recommend people drink two liters or eight 8-ounce cups of water per day to stay hydrated, and that one cup of tea counts as one cup of hydration for the day. The Top Heart-Healthy Reasons to Drink More Tea Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources Real Simple is committed to using high-quality, reputable sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts in our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact check our content for accuracy. Hamidpour R, Hamidpour M, Hamidpour S, Shahlari M. Cinnamon from the selection of traditional applications to its novel effects on the inhibition of angiogenesis in cancer cells and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, and a series of functions such as antioxidant, anticholesterol, antidiabetes, antibacterial, antifungal, nematicidal, acaracidal, and repellent activities. J Tradit Complement Med. 2015;5(2):66-70. doi:10.1016/j.jtcme.2014.11.008 NCCIH, Antioxidants: In Depth. Date Accessed June 25, 2022. Gunawardena D, Karunaweera N, Lee S, et al. Anti-inflammatory activity of cinnamon (C. zeylanicum and C. cassia) extracts - identification of E-cinnamaldehyde and o-methoxy cinnamaldehyde as the most potent bioactive compounds. Food Funct. 2015;6(3):910-919. doi:10.1039/c4fo00680a Jiang TA. Health benefits of culinary herbs and spices. J AOAC Int. 2019;102(2):395-411. doi:10.5740/jaoacint.18-0418 Hamidpour R, Hamidpour M, Hamidpour S, Shahlari M. Cinnamon from the selection of traditional applications to its novel effects on the inhibition of angiogenesis in cancer cells and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, and a series of functions such as antioxidant, anticholesterol, antidiabetes, antibacterial, antifungal, nematicidal, acaracidal, and repellent activities. J Tradit Complement Med. 2015;5(2):66-70. doi:10.1016/j.jtcme.2014.11.008 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Your Digestive System & How It Works.