Coconuts in Thailand
You will find them everywhere in Thailand: coconuts. The coconut (Maphrao in Thai) is a fruit with special properties. When you are in Thailand, definitely buy a coconut and drink the fresh coconut juice (or coconut water) as a healthy thirst quencher.
In Thailand you see many coconut palms on the beach, but there are also special plantations such as on Koh Samui where even trained monkeys are still used to pick the coconuts.
The coconut tree likes to stand in the sand next to salt water. The tree uses its roots to search for fresh water. A fallen coconut sometimes starts a long journey through the sea. A coconut has a thick hairy shell with a hard shell on the inside that prevents seawater from entering. The nut floats well and is easily carried by the current for a few hundred kilometers to the next island to establish itself as a coconut tree.
Fresh coconut
Many products are made from the coconut palm. Both the leaves, veins and the wood are used. The coconut is also a versatile product. So the coconut water is drinkable. After drinking the coconut you can eat the coconut meat. It is also used to make coconut oil and coconut milk. Coconut milk is widely used in Thai dishes such as curries. You can use coconut oil for baking, roasting and frying. Coconut oil is also used in all kinds of cosmetic products such as soaps, shampoos and body care oils. You can also let coconut dry so that it hardens. It is then grated. Grated coconut is delicious over a dessert.
Coconuts in Thailand
Coconuts are available all year round in Thailand. On the street you mainly see young coconuts that are sold at stalls. The seller chops off the top with a machete and you can drink the coconut with a straw. If you want to eat the flesh, the seller will scrape it out for you. Prices vary depending on coconut size and location. At temples and other tourist attractions, they are usually more expensive. My girlfriend always picks the coconuts that contain the most water. She then pays attention to the shape of the coconut.
Personally, I only like cold coconut juice. In that case you have to make sure that the coconuts are kept cold.
You can also buy coconut water at various tourist markets (night market) in Thailand. This is then scooped out of a large 'bowl' and then placed in a cup with ice. This so-called 'coconut water' tastes very sweet. It is therefore not 100% fresh coconut water, but a prepared substance that resembles coconut water. Make sure you see the coconut being opened on the spot and drink it from the coconut itself.
Coconut water is healthy
Coconut water is very healthy and quenches thirst very well. The water of a coconut fruit is even sterile, meaning completely free of bacteria. It has the same electrolyte balance as human blood. In World War II, coconut water was used, for lack of anything better, as a blood plasma substitute by doctors stationed in the Pacific.
The coconut water from young coconuts contains a mix of sugars, vitamins, minerals and electrolytes. This makes coconut juice not only tasty but also a healthy thirst quencher. If you're walking around in the heat and humidity of the Thai climate, you need to drink a lot. Drinking coconut water also replenishes the salts (also known as electrolytes) that you lose through sweat.
In short: coconut water is cheap, healthy and effective against thirst.
Can you drink that water or not with an elevated cholesterol.
There is no coconut milk in my diet, but nothing is said about the water.
Dear Bert,
In my opinion you can just drink that.
The difference is in a young or old coconut.
With a young one it is clear (almost water).
With old ones, the inner wall starts to secrete coconut, which becomes cloudy or, as we know, white.
With old ones, the sugars will ferment and the coconut water will become sweeter.
I'm not a doctor, but you could ask general practitioner Maarten what's for you
is good and not good.
Yours faithfully,
Erwin
As far as I know there are two types of cholesterol. A good one and a bad one. With a simple test the total is measured, which says very little. Coconut contains the good cholesterol.
The water of a ripe coconut is also almost clear. Milk, which you make by squeezing the flesh of a ripe coconut, is white and very creamy in taste.
When the sugars start to ferment, it actually becomes less sweet. The yeasts convert sugars into other products. But coconut doesn't ferment that easily. Even if you "help" it a little with extra sugars and yeast, it almost always rots, or vinegar is made.
Almost everyone who sells the young, green drinking coconut adds extra sugar. Often without the buyer knowing.
Arjen.
Coconut fat contains the most saturated fat of all fats and oils. Coconut fat is often referred to as coconut oil. And milk from coconut is just as bad as an extract from coconut. The advice is to eat it as little as possible.
See the link: ttps://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/kokos-en-kokosvet.aspx
Coconut water is fat-free and if you don't drink too much of it, it won't hurt.
All I see is that the coconut is opened in front of me, so adding sugar is not correct. Make sure you have a young coconut then they are sweeter.
Adding sugar really happens almost everywhere. With a syringe and a needle. And because the coconut is quite elastic, it does not leak afterwards. Just taste the difference between a coconut that you get from the tree yourself and one that you buy.
Coconut milk indeed consists of about 30% coconut oil. So the oil is definitely in there. Only the opinions whether or not it is healthy are very different. I myself think if you eat healthy, a spoonful or more of coconut oil can do little to no harm. But I am not a nutritionist or a doctor.
Dear Arjen,
I would like to add that with an older coconut, the water becomes more white.
I discuss this with my Thai wife, but she agrees with me on this.
Thanks again for the clear explanation.
Yours faithfully,
Erwin
Also very beneficial if you have stomach and / or intestinal problems such as diarrhea.
What you forget in your article, that sugar is also made from it.
This palm sugar is very important in Thai dishes.
In this video you can see the processing process of this palm sugar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWuQj95SYw
That bullshit story of “World War II coconut water, for want of anything better, was used as a blood plasma substitute by doctors stationed in the Pacific” is quoted by many, but none with reference to its real use.
I myself have been importing coconut milk, etc. since 1994, and I often hear this, but when I ask my manufacturers for links to reality, they get no further than the famous Thai smile.
Do some diligent searching and…
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/12/09/4143229.htm
I can imagine, if you have the choice between most likely dying from left = lack of blood or maybe right = from coconut water in your veins, you take the gamble anyway.
Coconut water does not contain oxygen.
Without oxygen, the patient will soon be done with.
My experiences in the hospital with patients receiving (only) 5 ml. Contrast fluid was injected what that: this minimum amount of low-oxygen fluid 1 x diluted in the bloodstream circulated in the head within 14 to 18 seconds.
This regularly resulted in “short-term undesirable and harmless side effects!
More than just 5 ml. seems to me to have disastrous consequences.
A well-known monkey school (and that is a real monkey school, not a trap for tourists) can be found here: http://www.firstschoolformonkeys.com
I have long wondered why the coconuts in Thailand are always green and smooth, while if you buy them in the Netherlands, they are always small, brown and especially hairy coconuts. I always hear different stories about that, but what is really true?
The coconuts are discussed in a broadcast of the Keuringsdienst van Waarden about coconut water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCU8zEVEckM
Coconut water from a package doesn't compare to the water from a fresh, just-picked coconut.
When they started making that program, they also called us. But we don't do coconut water.
Arjen
Written on my phone, please read over the schivvauts.
The vast majority of coconuts produced in Thailand are brown and smooth. They mostly grow south of Chumphon on tall trees, up to 25 meters high. The coconuts are traded per piece, because they are also picked per piece.
The smooth brown shell is removed. Inside is the hairy coconut as you know it from the NL supermarket. A coconut is not a nut, but a fruit. The outer shell is the (inedible) flesh, what we call the "nut" is the kernel.
These coconuts are almost always used for their pulp, although the water is fine to drink.
The Thai buy these coconuts to make curries. However, most of the harvest is used to make oil. A number of different production methods are possible for making oil, which I will not consider here.
The green coconut (often incorrectly called “young coconut”), grows roughly above Chumphon. It's a different kind of coconut. The trees remain low, about 5 meters maximum. It is virtually impossible to remove the husk from this coconut. These coconuts are often traded per bunch. That's because the picker simply removes the whole flower with a knife. There are 8 to 12 coconuts on that flower. These coconuts have little flesh. It is edible, but you cannot extract oil from it. The flesh is a bit "jelly" like. The water is very nice, can be sweet, if you have a good one they are also slightly sparkling. Almost every street vendor who sells these coconuts add sugar water before opening. They don't tell. We often get tourists who say they don't like the "drinking coconut". If we take one out of the tree for them and open it in front of them, many people like it. Then they are also uncooled….
There are about 80 different types of coconuts. These are the two best known in Thailand. For example, there is also a type where the coconuts grow at the bottom of the trunk, on the ground.
But a species worth mentioning is the orange coconut. It is rare in Thailand, so very expensive. This coconut is also for drinking, and the water is very tasty. Very good!
I hope this answers your question!
Regards, Arjan
Here is my reaction to the use of coconut oil:
Hi,
I had my CHOLESTEROL LEVEL checked this morning.
That garden gnome from Kassa Groen told me this week that coconut oil is very bad for you
would be cholesterol.
Involuntarily, a person becomes a bit wobbly from such a message and insecure.
So it was great that today the values were measured for free.
There was a fairly long queue and then you hear all those Indian stories.
Someone in line asked: what happens if my values are much too high?
I can never/never keep my lid shut and said she would be admitted right away!
Everyone laughed and I said to reassure her right away that it wouldn't go that fast.
I got a prick in the finger and after a few minutes I got the results.
And what do you think:
FOUR POINT THREE !!!
And this while I've been using coconut oil for about 3 years.
So it is better to skip those Radar and Kassa Groen programs.
What is said there is not true at all.
http://www.npo.nl/kassa-groen/03-11-2014/VARA_101370506 With fri.gr. Martin
Well, Martien, that's how I was also informed about coconut and egg yolk. It would all be like hell for my cholesterol levels.
When choosing my and your food, despite your measurement (because that's just a snapshot), TE is not good (except satisfied). In addition, the cholesterol level depends on more things; including movement, and what also counts is the fact that no two people are the same….