Video: Young Coconut Smoothies!
Photo courtesy of nadyala.com
Brazilians know what’s up. That’s why coconut water, known there as “água de coco,” is the second best-selling juice after orange juice. Have you ever had young coconut water? Or better yet, a young coconut smoothie? Like, fresh from the coconut? Well if you haven’t, you should, because it is all sorts of awesome. Which is why I have decided to make my video debut (oooch! don’t be too hard on me! i much prefer the other side of the lens!) so I could show you how to make one.
But first, a few facts to inspire you to go pick one up and make yourself said drink…
In case you didn’t know, a young coconut differs from a regular coconut in that it is…younger! It’s picked off the tree while still a wee thing with lots of yummy water in it and tender coconut meat lining the inside. Once it gets older, it gets dried up and hard and crusty, like some people (but probably not the ones drinking coconut water!).Why? Well I’m glad you asked!
One cup-full of coconut water contains more electrolytes than most sports drinks and more potassium than a banana. Besides being highly nutritious, young coconuts have also been exceedingly revered as having medicinal qualities for heart, liver and kidney disorders, as well as being reported to reduce the viral load of HIV.
REVISION:
While coconut smoothies are simply splendid sweet and decadent treats, they are very high in sugar – 15 grams per coconut. So, if you are on a Candida diet, which you should be if you have any sort of autoimmune or chronic condition, you will need to enjoy these as a special occasion treat, not regularly. This paragraph is a revision from my first post, in which I was a bit overly enthusiastic about the joys of coconut smoothies. While they are most certainly joyful, that bliss can turn ugly very quickly if you eat too many and feed those damned Candida buggers in your gut. Because that’s where all sorts of problems begin.
Oh, one more thing…my five-year-old daughter was the “cinematographer” for this endeavor, so the view is a bit shaky. But all things considered, she did a great job, so here’s to Gwen!
So without further adieu…
No related posts.
Looks delicious! Are you concerned about the sugar content i.e. candida? Do you have to first culture the coconut water /flesh per the body ecology diet/Donna Gates recommendation? Wondering if there is a way to culture w/o purchasing her expensive starter. Thanks for the tip on purchasing at an asian market as I have not seen these at our HFS’s or supermarkets where I live. There
is an Asian market so I’ll have to check there. Thanks!
hi selma! that’s a great question about the sugar content. here are the young coconut nutritional stats:
One whole coconut has only 140 calories and provides 17% of the RDA for calcium. The total fat content is 3 grams, all saturated. With a zero content of cholesterol, the young coconut has 50 mg sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrate, 2 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.
that said, i don’t recommend drinking them more than once in a while as a special treat – even that may be too much sugar if you’re on the Candida diet. 15 grams is a lot of sugar. young coconuts have about the same amount of sugar as mangoes, also 15 grams. it always comes down to what you think makes sense for you and your body and how you feel best. yes, on a no-sugar Candida diet it’s probably better to limit your smoothies to once or twice a month.
thanks for asking that question selma – it’s an important part of the equation that i should have covered in my post. awesome!
as for donna gates, i haven’t implemented any of her culturing recommendations just because what i’ve been doing has been working for me. i don’t discount it and i know she is the premier candida expert, i just haven’t personally tried it. if you do, let me know how it goes!
awesome……..thank you Karen.
KUDOS! I’m not sure which part of your video was most pleasurable.. anticipating the “juice” as I did myself as a child years a go..when my father would open a coconut for us; or seeing your personhood and matching that with all your words I’ve enjoyed over time OR: the best of all; your darling daughter doing such a GOOD JOB as camerawoman!
You’re making wonderful memories for her>
and US! THANK YOU AGAIN Karen.
thank you so much jackie! i will pass on the compliment to gwendolyn.
Great vid Karen! Thanks for putting it out there!
Thank you for this tip. I travel to puerto rico frequently and always pass up this coconut water. Now i will drink it and know it is good for me. This time when i travel it will be different a person with MS and a whole different way of eating. This i find challenging at times, Thank you for your very inspiring emails!
thank you jane. just keep in mind that they are very high in sugar which can lead to inflammation. i just edited the post to remind people of this, as i got a bit carried away in the original and didn’t want to mislead anyone about the potential problems of feeding the Candida in your system by drinking too much coconut juice. it’s best to keep it limited to a couple times a month. if you drink it every day it’ll be allowing way too much sugar in your system. and yes, traveling on this diet is definitely a challenge. i will post about that soon. thanks for writing!
Thank you-once last question-what are your thoughts on sat fat and coconuts and avacados being high in that I think maybe excluded from swank and jelnek diets?
hi selma. yes they definitely are both high in sat fat but i eat so little saturated fat and only consume one avocado a day and maybe a coconut smoothie as well. i don’t eat meat or eat anything fried or any snack food. so this is really the only place saturated fat comes from in my diet and it’s in very low amounts, so i am still within the bounds of what the jelinek and swank diets call for. and if you’re going to eat saturated fat, it should be from something like an avocado or coconut, which are the most nutritious options for that. so i say choose these for your sat fats and don’t add too much more to it…
Well that was just a fabulous video. The coconut smoothie looks delicious. Your daughter was so cute. And it was great to get to see you since we have been following you for a long time. Keep up the good work. Pam