When I first saw this task, I had some serious praxis-block. I really wanted to complete it, but nothing was coming to me...until a few days ago. I submitted it once, but after some dialogue with a fellow SF0er, I decided to unsubmit and do some editing and some more research before finally putting forth the results. After the reconsideration, I give you version 2.0 of my natural version of an artificial product.

First, I needed to figure out just what is meant by natural and artificial, and by that I mean I need to define it for myself. Artificial as a word comes from artifact and artifice, which has to do with anything made by the hands of a human. Obviously, I have to make this item, so that definition makes this task impossible. I decided to start with defining natural instead, and will say that an item is natural if it is "made from items that would occur without human interference." The opposite is then true for something artificial, and that would be something "made from items that could not occur without human interference."

Now, onto the task at hand. Recently, I found out that some well respected research has been done by a variety of groups dealing with cinnamon and diabetes. It seems that cinnamon has a certain set of compounds that cause cells to be more sensitive to insulin. In test tube studies the glucose metabolism of fat cells increased twenty fold with the introduction of these compounds. This would mean that a cinnamon supplement could be used in place of an insulin supplement for patients with diabetes, as it would boost the efficiency of the insulin in the body rather than flood the body with more insulin to make up for the inability to correctly use it.

Something you may ask yourself is, "Isn't insulin natural?" It can be, but the insulin that anyone takes as prescribed from a doctor is not. Despite the fact that insulin is a naturally existing hormone in most types of living beings, the current way to produce an insulin injection is through synthetics, as the production is less expensive for the pharmaceutical companies. This process of creating a cheap synthetic insulin was created by Eli Lilly, and has been advanced upon by companies like Novo Nordisk.

As a result of this discovery, I have decided to approach this task by creating a beverage that would replace the need for a synthetic insulin injection in diabetes patients. Furthermore, the cost of cinnamon is so incredibly cheap in the world (because it is one of the most used and easily produced spices in the world) that this is not only a natural version of a medicine for diabetes, but a feasible one if the procedure of making a cinnamon based medicine can be standardized in a less expensive way than the current synthetic medicine.

As a note of caution, I am not a scientist or a doctor, so this is not FDA approved or a sure fire way to replace artificial insulin injections. Please do not try this at home until your doctor says that this is an approved method of dealing with diabetes.

That being said, I bring to you a cinnamon and milk based beverage with unsweetened chocolate and vanilla for flavoring, inspired by the hope of a natural medication for diabetes that encourages the insulin that is naturally occuring in the body rather than overloading the body with synthetic versions.