Image credit: Nawalescape
Coconut is a palm tree fruit, which has a pleasant gentle taste and the most valuable properties for the human body. It is an ostrich, but it is mistakenly called a nut. In cooking, medicine and cosmetology, flesh, milk and coconut oil are used.
Because of its shape, the coconut is mistakenly called a nut. But botanists insist that this is a very useful fruit. So what kind of coconut benefit and harm?
Benefit
- Coconut – a real storehouse of health, it is difficult to find an area where it would not be of use. It has essential fatty acids, vitamins. He really is a royal fruit!
- Contains lauric acid is a substance that helps fight against infections, viruses, bacteria. This amount of this acid is only in breast milk.
- Strengthens the nervous system – it has a lot of magnesium, bromine, boron.
It is useful in cardiological problems – it contains a whole complex of vitamins B, E, C. - Well strengthens the immune system.
- It contains unique plant hormones that help the nutrients to flow directly into the cell.
- It is an excellent anti-inflammatory and bactericidal agent.
- Milk has anthelmintic properties.
- Prevents the development of Alzheimer’s disease – due to the presence of a large number of fatty acids.
- Normalizes the work of the entire endocrine system, regulates digestion.
Helps with atherosclerosis. - It works well on the joints.
- Improves blood circulation.
- This is a good aphrodisiac.
- Normalizes the hormonal level.
- Improves skin condition.
- Increases the production of serotonin and endorphin. These hormones are responsible for a good emotional state, do not give rise to depression.
In addition to the pulp of coconut and coconut milk, coconut is also made from oil.
- Useful properties of coconut oil extend not only to cooking or cosmetics. It is also used for massage.
- Coconut oil perfectly heals fine cuts and cracks, well nourishes and moisturizes the skin.
- A tablespoon of coconut oil a day promotes physiologically correct weight loss and weight normalization.
- It is rich in vitamins and very nutritious, which significantly reduces appetite.
- The temperature of its melting is lower than the temperature of the human body, so it is easily digested and not deposited on the walls of the vessels.
- Coconut oil is odorless, it is used as a conductor for massage. At the same time, through the skin, it has the same beneficial effect on the body as if the person had drunk it.
- It destroys the majority of cancer cells in colon cancer.
Harm
- Coconut is a hypoallergenic enough fruit, and most harm does not arise from it.
- But you should not abuse this product. Yet it is very fatty, not suitable for dietary nutrition. It can cause weight gain.
- In large quantities, it can provoke an exacerbation of pancreatitis, cholecystitis, liver disease.
- In large quantities, it can cause indigestion and inflammation of the intestine.
It still sometimes there is an allergic reaction, when a certain amount of substance accumulates in the body. - From coconut oil, harm can only be in case of abuse in the form of a stomach disorder. Which quickly passes.
Contraindications
Coconut rarely causes allergies, but for him there are categorical contraindications.
What is coconut milk
It is a liquid of white color, made from ripe coconut and coconut water. It is sweet enough, but not the way it is from sugar. So that gives coconut milk, the benefit and harm it each determines for itself.
Inside the young coconut contains a colorless liquid, which gradually gets drops of oil. This is coconut water.
This liquid has unique properties, it is very rich in composition, it can be used instead of physiological solution. It is used as a sweetener in diabetes mellitus. Used for urolithiasis.
This liquid is mixed with pulp crushed to a pasty state. So it turns out coconut milk. It can be of varying degrees of density. It is used in oriental cooking and in vegan cuisine.
This milk is useful to give in a dilute form to children with lactose intolerance. In the sale comes as a powder, in a diluted form retains all the properties of the whole and fresh.
How to choose
The choice of a successful coconut has its own characteristics. In order not to be mistaken, it is necessary to know some nuances.
Weigh two relatively similar fetuses on their hands, take the one that is heavier – there are more milk and pulp in it.
Avoid buying fruit, if it is a little wet to the touch – this indicates the presence of microcracks in it, and that the flesh began to deteriorate.
Choose a coconut with a uniform surface, there should be no signs of rot and mold. The fruit with such defects already spoils from the inside, there is no it.
Shake the fruit and knock on it – you should hear the milk in it splashing. If it does not, then the coconut is already old and began to dry out. His flesh was almost inedible. The same, if you hear a deaf sound when tapping.
Look especially at the three black dots at the base of the coconut. Most often it begins to deteriorate from there.
A corrupted coconut loses its properties, it can not be eaten.
How to store
- Coconut is not a product for long-term storage, it can quickly deteriorate. It is necessary to observe certain rules.
- The whole fruit can be stored in a dark cool place for about a month.
- Chopped coconut is kept in the refrigerator no longer than 2-3 days, otherwise it can just sour.
- Milk must be drained and strained – so that the fragments of the shell do not fall. Further it should either be immediately consumed, or stored in a refrigerator in a closed container for no longer than a week. Also it can be frozen – then it will be suitable for about two months.
- Fresh flesh is poured with water and stored in the refrigerator for a week. It will not lose its properties if it is frozen, but becomes more friable.
- The dried chips are stored in sealed containers for about a year.
With what it is combined
This is a universal product that can be added to any dish – from meat and fish to delicious desserts. But best of all it manifests itself in sweets, ice cream.
Coconut is perfectly combined with cocktails and a variety of drinks. it is put in creams and sauces. They sprinkle on pastries. In a word – a coconut will help out any cook.
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