Coconut meat, the flesh that you find inside the coconut
shell, is rich in potassium, manganese and copper. The coconut meat inside a
tender coconut will be juicy and soft, and inside a mature coconut will be
solid and crunchy. It becomes tougher as the coconut becomes more mature.
Coconut oil is extracted from mature coconut.
Coconut is found in tropical regions, and people who live in
such regions include coconut in anything and everything they cook. There is a
lot of buzz currently on the health benefits. Earlier, doctors used to advise
not to include coconut meat and coconut oil in your diet as there was a wrong
notion that coconut is full of bad cholesterol. On the contrary, now people
around the world have come to realise the innumerable health benefits of them.
Doctors have started advising to eat them both daily as they have many positive
effects on your overall health.
Coconut and the products derived from it like coconut meat
were considered unhealthy because of its high saturated fat content. However,
recent studies show that medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), a type of fat that
is essential for the body, is there in it.
The MCTs in the coconut meat are straight away converted
into fuel. So the MCTs are not getting deposited as fat in fat tissues in the
body. Those who are trying to reduce weight should include coconut products in
their diet as they will only aid weight loss.
By eating coconut your body gets energy and also helps brain
development. Brain makes use of glucose as energy source. When the brain's
ability to make use of glucose is severely impaired, it leads to neurological
disorders like Alzheimer's. You need medium-chain triglycerides to alleviate
the symptoms of such neurological disorders and for that you must eat coconut
meat.
Cardiologists were dead against including coconut in your
diet a few years ago as they thought it will cause heart diseases. But now they
advise their patients to eat coconut meat as studies have proved that it will
prevent heart disease and stroke as well. Apparently, new studies have found
that it has certain amounts of vitamins A and E, and polyphenols and
phytosterols. They will lower bad cholesterol in your body. LDL cholesterol or
bad cholesterol is fats that stay in the blood and skin tissues. If LDL
cholesterol is high in our body it can lead to cardiovascular diseases. It has
even been found that people who include coconut in their food has lower
incidence of stroke and heart diseases.
It is easy to include it in your diet. You can even eat it
in its raw form or you can grind it and use the milk that you get from the meat
to prepare curries. Shredded coconut meat is used to make sweets and even
salads. By including it in any dish you can make it really tasty. Nothing can
beat the taste of freshly made coconut chutney with raw mango and green chilly.
So include coconut meat in your diet and stay healthy.