Fall Spices Benefit Blood Sugar

By Kelley Herring

Great news for cinnamon lovers! New research presented at the Experimental Biology meeting in San Francisco found that cinnamon and cloves - spices high in nutrients called polyphenols - boost insulin function while lowering cholesterol. In fact, as little as a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, taken two times per day, can stimulate insulin-like activity in the body while lowering triglycerides, cholesterol, and glucose levels by 10 to 30 percent.

So go ahead and sprinkle some cinnamon in your coffee or tea, or mix a healthy helping into a baked sweet potato. You'll delight your taste buds and balance your blood sugar as well.

[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet, a multimedia company that educates the public on how foods promote health and protect against disease, and is editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series, including Eat to Fight Cancer.]

It's Good to Know: Who Works the Most?

If you get to the end of your regular work week feeling exhausted, just be glad you don't live in Korea.

According to 2004 and 2005 figures listed in "A Chartbook of International Labor Comparisons," U.S. workers toil away for about 1,804 hours a year - or about 45 40-hour weeks. But that's nothing compared to Mexico and Korea . Despite making less per hour than people in any of the other 21 countries surveyed, Mexicans work an average of 1,909 hours a year... and Koreans top the list with 2,394 hours a year. At 1,300 hours a year, Norwegians work the least, and people in The Netherlands are a close second at 1,367 hours a year.

(Source: U.S. Department of Labor)

Word to the Wise: Tawdry

Something that's "tawdry" (TAW-dree) is gaudy and cheap. The word is associated with St. Audrey, who supposedly died from a throat tumor that she considered to be God's punishment for the showy necklaces she wore in her youth.

Example (as used by James P. Rubin in a New York Times review of The Blair Years by Alastair Campbell): "Thousands of words in this diary are devoted to the tawdry trivia that drive a tabloid culture."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2173, 10-15-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.