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Saturday, March 15, 2025

The truth about coconut Water

by

20110429
Mayaro SEA graduates display their certificates of participation at the end of their vacation camp at the bpTT Mayaro Resource Centre last week.

Mayaro SEA graduates display their certificates of participation at the end of their vacation camp at the bpTT Mayaro Resource Centre last week.

It's known all over the world, and is a big splash with celebs (like Madon­na.) Here are the re­al facts about this wa­ter craze.

The talk It: speeds up your me­tab­o­lism

The truth: "This is an ur­ban leg­end," said Liz Ap­ple­gate, PhD, di­rec­tor of sports nu­tri­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia in Davis. "There is no valid re­search prov­ing it." An­oth­er, al­beit con­tra­dic­to­ry, myth: Co­conut wa­ter makes you fat. This bad rap came from co­conut milk, which is made from pressed co­conut meat and packs 445 calo­ries per cup, most from sat­u­rat­ed fat. The wa­ter (the flu­id in young co­conuts) has on­ly 46 calo­ries per cup. Of course, for a tru­ly trim­ming sip, opt for ze­ro-calo­rie wa­ter, cof­fee or tea.

The talk: It's na­ture's sport drink

The truth: It's a fine post­work­out chug for the av­er­age ac­tive Jane, but it falls short for more hard-core ath­letes. The gist: When you ex­er­cise, you sweat out a lot of sodi­um and some potas­si­um. You should re­place both af­ter in­tense sweat ses­sions (more than an hour a day), so your mus­cles con­tract prop­er­ly. Co­conut wa­ter is a potas­si­um pow­er­house, de­liv­er­ing rough­ly 600 mil­ligrams per cup, about 175 mg more than a ba­nana does and 13 times what most sport drinks of­fer.

"The prob­lem is that it has on­ly about 30 mil­ligrams of sodi­um per cup; we lose much more than that dur­ing a long work­out," Ap­ple­gate said. Thus, se­ri­ous ath­letes may need a sport bev­er­age with a high­er sodi­um-to-potas­si­um ra­tio, such as Gatorade or Pow­er­ade Ion4; lighter ex­er­cis­ers can re­hy­drate with what­ev­er they like best, in­clud­ing co­conut wa­ter or plain H2O.

The talk: It makes you look younger

The truth: Co­conut wa­ter con­tains cy­tokinins, plant hor­mones shown to slow the ag­ing process in plants and fruit flies, ac­cord­ing to a study in Mol­e­cules. Alas, the ben­e­fits aren't yet proven in hu­mans. The search for the foun­tain of youth con­tin­ues.

The talk: It's a hang­over helper

The truth: There's a rea­son the morn­ing af­ter a ben­der is so painful: Al­co­hol de­hy­drates you, lead­ing to nau­sea and headaches. Like any drink, co­conut wa­ter re­fills your H2O stores, but plain wa­ter does the job just as well, not­ed Samir Za­khari, PhD, di­rec­tor of the Di­vi­sion of Me­tab­o­lism and Health Ef­fects at the Na­tion­al In­sti­tute on Al­co­hol Abuse and Al­co­holism.As for elec­trolytes, our kid­neys pre­serve them when we drink, so there's no need to re­place them with co­conut wa­ter. If the taste lifts your post­spir­its spir­its, go for it; but you can save cash (and calo­ries) with the tap.

The talk: It pro­tects your tick­er

The truth: Di­ets high in potas­si­um can help low­er blood pres­sure and pro­mote heart health, said An­drea Gi­an­coli, RD, spokes­woman for the Amer­i­can Di­etet­ic As­so­ci­a­tion. Co­conut wa­ter is a good source of the min­er­al, but it's bet­ter to get it from whole foods like veg­gies (spinach, sweet pota­toes) and low­fat milk, which sup­ply ad­di­tion­al heart-healthy nu­tri­ents such as fiber and vi­t­a­min D.

Three more ways to crack this nut

• Co­conut milk: A sweet al­ter­na­tive to reg­u­lar dairy, co­conut milk is de­rived from the white meat of a ma­ture co­conut, and it pro­vides al­most as much healthy potas­si­um as co­conut wa­ter does. But be­ware its high sat­u­rat­ed-fat con­tent: One cup has about 43 grams.

• Co­conut milk bev­er­age: Di­lut­ed with wa­ter, it con­tains about five times few­er calo­ries than con­ven­tion­al co­conut milk.

It tastes rich­er than co­conut wa­ter.

• Shred­ded co­conut: Co­conut meat isn't as high in potas­si­um or sodi­um as co­conut wa­ter, and it has about 388 calo­ries and 22 grams of sat­u­rat­ed fat per cup. If you're tempt­ed to cov­er yours in choco­late, opt for a snack-sized can­dy bar dipped in an­tiox­i­dant-rich dark choco­late, which has on­ly 80 calo­ries and 3.5 g of sat­u­rat­ed fat.


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