Tuesday 7 August 2012

The health benefit of coconut

Drinking coconut water has many benefits. Coconut Water is naturally:
  • Low in Carbs
  • 99% Fat Free
  • Low in sugars
Coconut water contains organic compounds possessing healthy growth promoting properties that have been known to help




  1. Keep the body cool and at the proper temperature.
  2. Orally re-hydrate your body, it is an all natural isotonic beverage.
  3. Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells.
  4. Naturally replenish your body's fluids after exercising.
  5. Raise your metabolism.
  6. Promote weight loss.
  7. Boost your immune system.
  8. Detoxify and fight viruses.
  9. Cleanse your digestive tract.
  10. Control diabetes.
  11. Aid your body in fighting viruses that cause the flu, herpes, and AIDS.
  12. Balance your PH and reduce risk of cancer.
  13. Treat kidney and urethral stones.
  14. Boost poor circulation.

Coconut Water Benefits

Coconut water is incredibly healthy and one of the best drinks to hydrate the body. Besides helping to remove toxins from the body and aiding digestion, coconuts have amazing anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties that help to cure the diesease.
The English name coconut, first mentioned in English print in 1555, comes from Spanish and Portugese word coco, which means "monkey face." Spanish and Portugese explorers found a resemblance to a monkey's face in the three round indented markings or "eyes" found at the base of the coconut. On the Nicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean, whole coconuts were used as currency for the purchace of goods until the early part of the twentieth century.




Coconuts are the fruit of the coconut palm, botanically known as cocos nucifera, with nucifera meaning "nut-bearing." The fruit-bearing palms are native to Malaysia, Polynesia and southern Asia, and are now also prolific in South America, India , the Pacific Islands , Hawaii and Florida. The light, fibrous husk allowed it to easily drift on the oceans to other areas to propagate. In Sanskrit, the coconut palm is known as kalpa vriksha, meaning "tree which gives all that is necessary for living," since nearly all parts of the tree can be used in some m anner or another. The coconut itself has many food uses, including milk, meat, sugar and oil as well as functioning as its own dish and cup. The husk was also burned for fuel by natives, but today a seed fibre called coir is taken from the husk and used to make brushes, mats, fishnets, and rope. A very potent fermented toddy or drink is also made from the coconut palm's sap. Coconut oil, a saturated fat made from dried coconut meat, is used for commercial frying and in candies and margarines, as well as in non-edible products such as soaps and cosmetics.
Although it takes up to a year for coconuts to mature, the trees bloom up to thirteen times a year, so fruit is constantly forming yielding a continuous harvest year-round. An average harvest from one tree runs about 60 coconuts, with some trees yielding three times that amount. The coconut's name is a bit of a misnomer, since it is botanically classified as a drupe and not a nut. It is the largest seed known.
If you've ever opened a fresh coconut, you will have seen the thin, opaque almost clear coconut juice or water which has a slight almond flavor. Contrary to popular belief, this is not the coconut milk. However, the water is consumed as a drink fresh from the coconut by many, and it can also be used in recipes.

Health Benefits of Coconut Water

"It's a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It's the fluid of life, so to speak." In fact, during the Pacific War of 1941-45, both sides in the conflict regularly used coconut water siphoned directly from the nut to give emergency plasma transfusions to wounded soldiers.
Most coconut water is still consumed fresh in tropical coastal areas - once exposed to air, the liquid rapidly loses most of its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics, and begins to ferment.




  • Coconut Water is more nutritious than whole milk - Less fat and no cholesterol.
  • Coconut Water is more healthy than orange juice - Much lower calories.
  • Coconut Water is better than processed baby milk - It contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother's milk.
  • Coconut water is naturally sterile. Water permeates though the filtering husk.
  • Coconut water is a universal donor. It is identical to human blood plasma.
  • Coconut Water is a Natural Isotonic Beverage - The same level that we have in our blood.
  • Coconut water has saved lives in 3rd world countries thru Coconut IV.
"Coconut water is the very stuff of Nature, biologically Pure, full of Natural Sugars, Salts, and Vitamins to ward off fatigue and is the next wave of energy drinks BUT natural", according to Mortin Satin, Chief of the United Nation's Food & Agriculture Organization.
  • Coconut water contains more potassium (at about 294 mg) than most sports drinks (117 mg) and most energy drinks.
  • Coconut water has less sodium (25mg) where sports drinks have around 41mg and energy drinks have about 200 mg.
  • Coconut water has 5mg of Natural Sugars where sports and energy drinks range from 10-25mg of Altered Sugars.
  • Coconut water is very high in Chloride at 118mg, compared to sports drinks at about 39mg.

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

How is Lauric Acid Used by our body?

The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia. As a result of these various health benefits of coconut oil, though its exact mechanism of action was unknown, it has been extensively used in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicinal system. The Coconut Research Center has compiled various references on scientific research done on coconut oil.
Before we move on to the benefits of coconut oil in detail, let us understand its composition.

Composition of Coconut Oil:

Coconut oil consists of more than ninety percent of saturated fats (Don’t panic! First read to the last word. Your opinion may change), with traces of few unsaturated fatty acids, such as monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Virgin Coconut Oil is no different from this. Let us have a bit detailed study of this.




  • The Saturated Fatty Acids: Most of them are Medium Chain Triglycerides, which are supposed to assimilate well. Lauric Acid is the chief contributor, with more than forty percent of the share, followed by Capric Acid, Caprylic Acid, Myristic Acid and Palmitic.
  • The Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: Linoleic Acid.
  • The Monounsaturated Fatty Acids: Oleic Acid.
  • The Poly-phenols: Gallic Acid, which is phenolic acid. These poly-phenols are supposed to be responsible for the fragrance and the taste of Coconut Oil and Virgin Coconut Oil is rich in these poly-phenols.
  • Certain derivatives of fatty acid like Betaines, Ethanolamide, Ethoxylates, Fatty Esters, Fatty Polysorbates, Monoglycerides and Polyol Esters.
  • Fatty Chlorides, Fatty Alcohol Sulphate and Fatty Alcohol Ether Sulphate, all of which are derivatives of Fatty Alcohols.
  • Vitamin-E and Vitamin K and minerals such as Iron.