I am freaking a little, so I'm reaching out to see if anyone else has done this and what effects they felt or otherwise experienced. I have gotten into making customized natural Protein shakes with a lot of different ingredients. One such ingredient is CINNAMON...1 TABLESPOON of it. I tried it for the first time this morning, and then thought that maybe that was too much, so I looked it up. OMG...most recipes call for like a 1/4 teaspoon and there are articles of cinnamon actually causing liver damage. I know I have only done this once, but clearly I wouldn't want to damage my liver and I am wondering if others in the WLS community have experience with consuming too much cinnamon and have any feedback.

I use a teaspoon in every AM shake I make.

It depends on your taste, but a tablespoon would be really strong.

I also like PB2 powder at times as a flavor switch.

I still take shakes daily because of my early AM workouts and then straight to work. Changing up flavors keeps it from getting boring.

For anyone curious, I built on someone else's recipe and came up with the recipe below. I'm probably going to reduce the cinnamon from 1TB to 1/4 TSP to reduce liver damage risk associated with Cassia-based Cinnamon.

6 oz Unsweetened chocolate Almond Milk

3 Tbsp Peanut Butter Powder (100% peanuts)

2 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (100% Cacao)

1 banana

4 Strawberries

1 Tsp Matcha Powder (this is ground up green tea leaves)

12 Spinach Leaves

1 Tsp Coconut Oil

1 Tbsp Cinnamon (switching to 1/4 Tsp)

1 Cup of Crushed Ice (added after blending all of the above ingredients for roughly 2 min)

I had never heard of an issue with cinnamon being toxic, so I did a little research. There is no solid research about it, but the cassia cinnamon (which is cheaper than "true" cinnamon - Ceylon) does have a toxic substance in it, and there's no regulation about the quantity. It appears that not everyone is as sensitive to the toxin as others, so there's no "safe" amount of cassia cinnamon defined. For most casual flavoring such as in breads and such, I doubt it matters a whole lot. But after reading the articles I could find on it, I will say that I'll be spending a bit more to get Ceylon cinnamon from now on, for all my cooking/baking. If I were doing smoothies or something similar, I'd be certain that I had Ceylon cinnamon for it, which has a great deal less of the troublesome toxin. It's available on Amazon, and I would suspect at organic food suppliers or higher end baking suppliers. Maybe even at the regular grocery store, I'll be checking.

Thanks for tipping me off to this! And while I adore cinnamon, I would agree that 1 tsp for an individual serving of anything would be WAY too much for good taste. I'd reduce it regardless of if it was cassia or Ceylon. However, several of the articles I read also said that the Ceylon cinnamon has a less sharp and more balanced flavor. I'll be interested to see how it changes my baking.

Ceylon Cinnamon is the safer cinnamon. There are a lot of cinnamon out there but all except the "Ceylon" is liver damaging when consumed in large quantities. If you google "real cinnamon" you will get more information that can help you decide. Cinnamon in all actuality is very good for you. As long as it's "Ceylon"???? By the way I found a Ceylon that is absolutely delicious.

See below.....

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Edited January 10, 20179 yr by savyourdvine1

I think Ceylon tastes better too. Less bitterness.

Ceylon Cinnamon is the safer cinnamon. There are a lot of cinnamon out there but all except the "Ceylon" is liver damaging when consumed in large quantities. If you google "real cinnamon" you will get more information that can help you decide. Cinnamon in all actuality is very good for you. As long as it's "Ceylon" By the way I found a Ceylon that is absolutely delicious.

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Amazon has a large amount of choices.

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Edited January 10, 20179 yr by savyourdvine1