Cranberry helps eradicate the cancer and ulcer causing bacteria, H. pylori in women.

177 patients with Helicobacter pylori infection were treated with triple therapy (omeprazole, amoxicillin, and clarithromycin or abbreviated OAC) with or without 250ml of Cranberry juice or placebo twice a day for one week and then stayed ion the juice or placebo without the drugs for an additional two weeks. A third group of 712 patients with the infection served as the control group receiving OAC alone for one week. In women on cranberry juice the success rate was 95.2% vs. the placebo group where the rate was 86.8% and those on OAC only where the success rate dropped to 80%. The study appears in the June 2007 issue of the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

Cinnamon slows the rate of sugar absorption after a meal and also lowers blood sugar levels

Previous studies of patients with type 2 diabetes shows that cinnamon lowers fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and total cholesterol. In this new study researchers from the University of Lund in Sweden gave healthy subjects 10 ounces of rice pudding with or without 6 g of cinnamon after they went through an 8-hour fast. Adding cinnamon to the rice pudding significantly slowed the gastric emptying rate; this slows the absorption of sugar into the blood allowing for better blood sugar control. The level of sugar in the blood after the meal was also reduced by the addition of cinnamon. The study is published in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.