coconut magic warning:long read

this was sent to me via email and my friend says she has found all of it to be true as far as she has been using coconut!

Tropical Delicacy -- The Magic of Coconut

 

Coconut hasn't been so top-of-mind for me since I was a teen, when I would slather on scented tanning oil for sunbathing (not something my daughters will be doing, now that we know better). Yet, I saw coconut listed as a superfood in the new book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth by nutritionist Jonny Bowden. Given how much saturated fat this formerly forbidden food contains, I was surprised to see that.

THE FACTS ABOUT COCONUT FAT

Coconuts are high in saturated fat, but studies dating back to the 60s showed that heart and kidney disease were rare in people living in the Pacific Islands whose diets were high in coconut. Coconut oil has also been shown to be protective against digestive problems and has been suggested to be protective against colon cancer. We now know that's because the fat in coconut oil is rich in a healthy form of saturated fat called MCT, according to Esther Blum, RD, MS, CNS. While it is indeed a form of saturated fat, MCT (which stands for medium-chain triglycerides) has some unique properties, she told me, making it especially digestible for people with digestive problems, like Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis or irritable bowel syndrome. Lauric acid, the MCT predominant in coconut oil, has antiviral and antimicrobial properties, said Blum, which is why it's considered effective for supporting the immune system.

Coconut has a reputation for being a fat-burning food too, with research studies showing that the medium-chain triglycerides it contains may help people lose weight, Blum said.

101 WAYS TO EAT COCONUT

All forms of coconut are healthful, whether you eat the meat (shredded or in chunks), cook or dress salads with the oil or drink the "water" extracted from the nut before it is crushed or cracked. There are many kinds of coconut milks and creams. Coconut "milk" is made from the expressed juice of coconut meat and water, and coconut "cream" is pressed from the meat. Young coconuts (with a green shell) have more liquid and a softer meat... the flesh of a "mature" coconut has more oil and twice as much protein (coconuts actually contain six different isolated proteins, the most nutritionally important being the one associated with "coconut skim-milk"), nearly 10 times as much fat and fiber, more potassium, and less vitamin C and sugar.

Coconut oil has a light and delicate flavor and aroma, and is among the healthiest of all oils, but all varieties are not created equal. It's worth paying more for organic virgin coconut oil and products labeled "not processed" to avoid those processed by chemical extraction.

I asked Blum for her advice on the best way to incorporate coconut into the diet. "Really simple," she said. "You can pour the oil over salads or rub chicken with it before baking, and it's also great to use as a cooking oil for sautéing." Another virtue of coconut, Blum said, is stability. "You can heat it to high temperatures and it doesn't break down nor change its chemical composition to create trans fats or other undesirable compounds." She likes to sprinkle dried unsweetened coconut flakes on her morning oatmeal or roll fish in coconut flakes as you would with bread crumbs. Many supermarkets and health food stores stock chopped coconut meat, and some even sell the water right out of a coconut shell complete with straw. Blum also admitted to a weakness for coconut macaroons -- but her favorite way to enjoy coconut? "Eat some of the raw coconut meat straight up, with some high-quality antioxidant-rich dark chocolate on the side. It's so pure and delicious!"

 

Source(s): Esther Blum, RD, MS, CNS, a registered dietitian and a board certified nutrition specialist in private practice in New York. She specializes in nutritional approaches to medical problems that are not responding to conventional treatments. She is author of Eat, Drink and Be Gorgeous: A Nutritionist's Guide to Living Well While Living it Up (Chronicle Books).