Coconut Water – Everything You Need To Know

These days you don’t need a trip to the tropics to get your coconut water fix. The supermarket shelves are brimming with the stuff bringing the tropics to you! But is coconut water, all that its cracked up to be? I have everything you need to know is right here.

What is coconut water?

Simple, its the clear liquid from inside a baby coconut.

What are the benefits of coconut water?

Coconut water is billed as a super healthy alternative to high sugar sports drinks. It is said to contain five essential electrolytes that are vital for the normal function of our cells and organs. It is cholesterol free, 99% fat free, low in natural sugars, and has less than 20 calories (or 100 kilojoules) per 100ml.

Apart from being nature’s own sports drink, fans claim drinking coconut water has loads of other health benefits including:

• Slowing down ageing – Its a source of cytokinins and lauric acid, which promote the growth and regulation of cells and help battle free radicals which speed up ageing and skin damage.
• Heart health – It  is loaded with potassium, which can promote blood flow, lower your blood pressure, and increase HDL (good) cholesterol.
• Aiding digestion – It is composed of naturally occurring bioactive enzymes that can aid your digestion and boost your metabolism.

And how about this to blow your mind…

The composition of coconut water is so close to human plasma that it can be used intravenously for hydration when regular medical saline is not available. How cool is that?

How does it taste?

It has a slightly sweet, salty, nutty, extremely difficult to put your finger on, taste, which is not going to be everyones cup of coconut. You can buy yummy flavoured coconut water, but these affect its nutritional value and reduce its benefits.

But if you don’t like the taste of coconut water , all is not lost. Take it from me, it makes a great base for smoothies. Let’s be honest, sometime times spinach and kale in a smoothie tastes…well a little too green! But I found the addition of coconut water really boosted the flavour and made green smoothies taste more clean than green!

A word on real coconuts…

You know how you thought it would be cool to drink water out of a real coconut, just like when your in Bali. Have you ever tried to open one?  Those things are a biatch for the uninitiated! Now I have done some research I believe striking the coconut with a meat cleaver may have been a better strategy,then getting my husband to open it with a saw (true story!). There are also a host of tools you can buy on the Internet to make the perfect coconut cut- genius!

Have you guys tried coconut water? What did you think? Tell me in the comments below.