How Coconuts Fit into Your Health and Fitness Plan

After a dark history, coconuts are now a popular food for weight loss and improving overall health. Discover how coconuts help your health.

Vilified for decades for being high in “evil” saturated fats, coconuts have finally been redeemed and are coming back with a vengeance. Today, eating coconuts — and coconut oil, in particular — is a must not only for losing excess weight but also for strengthening the immune system, healing digestive and skin disorders, regulating hormonal imbalances, restoring kidney and liver functions, and promoting healthy teeth and bones.

Coconuts Make Low-Carb Diet Plans Easy to Maintain

Coconuts are rich in lauric, caprylic, and capric acids. These medium-chain fatty acids (MCTs) are what make coconut fat nutritiously superior to other vegetable fats. MCTs are very easy to digest as they don’t require bile salts and go straight to the liver to be converted into energy rather than being stored as fat deposits.

The inclusion of coconut foods is particularly advisable for low-carbohydrate diets to facilitate weight loss, increase satiation, and help resist cravings. Due to a rich nutritious profile, coconut products nourish dieters’ bodies and improve various bodily functions.

Different Ways of Eating Coconuts

You can consume coconut flesh, coconut oil, coconut milk or cream, and coconut water, all of which have different uses and benefits.

  • Coconut water is a delicious rehydrating tonic that is full of electrolytes. It is great after a workout or sauna, or as a midday pick-me-up beverage. It is also a nice base for your smoothies and shakes.
  • Coconut flesh is rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. It’s used best as a crunchy, refreshing snack.
  • Coconut milk and cream are used in cooking to give dishes like stews, soups, and curries a smooth and creamy texture.
  • Coconut oil is the most versatile in its uses and is purported to have the most benefits for increasing metabolic rate. Being stable even at high temperatures, coconut oil can be used for baking, sauteing, and frying. It blends nicely in smoothies and shakes as well as in hot beverage concoctions like bulletproof coffee or tea.

Smart Way of Incorporating Coconuts Into Your Diet Plan

As wonderful as coconuts are, the principle of moderation still applies. After hearing about the incredible benefits and healing powers of some food, many of us go overboard and start consuming that magic ingredient with every meal. This scenario is typical for those of us who are struggling to get in shape or battling some health issue. It doesn’t help that the internet is swarming with fad diets promoting a particular approach or some popular ingredient.

Coconuts are no exception. Coconut fasts, cleanses, and diets promise anything and everything under the stars — from losing weight and healing cancer to reaching an enlightenment and becoming a math whiz.

While coconut products are highly nutritious, consuming them in massive amounts could negate any benefits, at best. Going on a coconut water fast to shed some weight quickly, for instance, is an extreme and unhealthy approach that depletes your body of essential elements and making it harder to maintain weight in the future. Instead of giving our bodies a balanced diet with all the nutrients it needs, diets like this restrict them to a single ingredient or food group. This puts our bodies under major stress, and then they need to be nurtured back to health.

So how to find that golden middle? Just remember that food is our medicine, so individual foods must be consumed like a medicine — i.e., in small amounts. To reap the most benefits from coconuts, make various coconut products a small addition to your existing diet plan. Whether you fancy a ketogenic or Mediterranean diet, whether you need to lose weight or build muscle, eating coconut oil or drinking coconut water could take your diet plan to next level.

Due to their versatility, coconuts are an easy addition to any diet. Take a free test on our site to determine the best diet plan for you.

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