Why is impossible to eat a spoonful of cinnamon

CBS News Have you heard of the "cinnamon challenge"? A person takes one tablespoon of cinnamon and tries to swallow it within 60 seconds. While it seems relatively simple, videos all over the web show people attempting the stunt, coughing up clouds of reddish-brown dust for viewers' amusement.

It can cause an inflammatory reaction. Cinnamon also can trigger asthma flare-ups , making it hard to breathe. The unlucky ones end up in the hospital. Reviewed by: Kate M. Cronan, MD Date reviewed: May Note: All information on KidsHealth is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor. All rights reserved. Find a Doctor. About Us. Community Programs. Cinnamon is deemed safe for consumption as a food additive under the U.

But the FDA is silent on spice inhalation. Cinnamaldehyde rhymes with formaldehyde. The chemical that gives cinnamon its characteristic smell and zing is known as cinnamic aldehyde, or cinnamaldehyde. This means there's a part of the chemical that acts like formaldehyde that binds and has the potential to "fix" human tissue. Do you remember smelling formaldehyde in your high school biology class when dissecting some dead animal?

That's what cinnamaldehyde can do in high concentrations. Okay, I'm being overly dramatic here. It's 3, next, that's the biggest health problem. Cinnamon is ground tree bark. So not only are you inhaling a tissue fixative, you're also inhaling powdered bark. That's why it's difficult to spit out or, more importantly, get out of your lungs. The cellulose matrix of tree bark acts like a sustained release medicine, but in this case releasing a painful and damaging chemical.

Can particles get into your lungs and cause a fatal asthma attack? Also possible, but the worst thing definitively reported in the roughly five years that this has been an Internet trend is someone coughing so hard that their lung collapsed.

That sometimes happens when people cough hard. The journal article concludes: "Although we cannot make a strong statement on documented pulmonary sequelae in humans, it is prudent to warn that the Cinnamon Challenge has a high likelihood to be damaging to the lungs. We of course appreciate caution, but a case for a "high likelihood" they have not made. Every parent should not rush their child to the emergency room or lose sleep looking back at having let a kid try to eat a spoonful of cinnamon.

It doesn't mean they are doomed to future lung disease or won't get into a good college. It does mean they bow to peer pressure or imitate things they see on YouTube, though, which warrants a talking-to.

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