Cinnamon, the unofficial aroma of the holidays, is a surprisingly complex spice.
It’s not just its sweet and fiery flavour. Nutritionally, it is both unremarkable and packed with potentially healthy compounds.
Cinnamon helped inspire the voyages of European explorers Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, and wars and conquests around the globe.
In the 2010s, videos of young people attempting what was called the “Cinnamon Challenge” went viral. The task involved trying to eat an entire tablespoon of ground cinnamon in 60 seconds or less, without drinking any fluids.
According to a 2013 study titled Ingesting and Aspirating Dry Cinnamon by Children and Adolescents: The Cinnamon Challenge, published in the medical journal Pediatrics, the videos often “raised concerns of choking, aspiration, and pulmonary damage” as the “fibres and other components of cinnamon can also cause allergic and irritant reactions”.