What Are the Health Benefits of Desiccated Coconut?

 

Coconuts make up staples in many cuisines — including several Indian and South American cuisines — and their widespread availability in the tropics provided sustenance needed to establish trade routes, according to Dr. Kenneth Olson, an associate professor at Washington University. Desiccated coconut, made by shredding dried coconut meat, helps infuse tropical flavour into your meals. It also offers nutritional value that supports tissue health.

 

 

 

Connective Tissue Strength

 

Desiccated coconut provides minerals you need to keep your connective tissues — a group of tissues that includes your skin, tendons, ligaments, bones and teeth — strong. Connective tissue contains large amounts of collagen, tough and resilient protein fibres that form networks and hold your tissue together. Both copper and manganese support healthy collagen production, so they keep your tissues strong. An ounce of desiccated coconut offers 778 micrograms of manganese — 43 percent of the recommended daily intake for women and 34 percent for men — as well as 226 micrograms of copper, or one-quarter of your recommended daily copper intake. Brain Health The copper in desiccated coconut also maintains the health of your brain. It activates enzymes responsible for the production of neurotransmitters — chemicals your brain cells use to relay information. Other copper-dependent enzymes help you produce myelin, the fatty coating that sheaths each nerve cell and helps the cell conduct electricity. The fat found in desiccated coconut might also prevent neurological disorders. One study, published in the “Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease” in October 2013, found that the oil in coconut helps shield nerve cells from the toxic effects of protein plaques, which would otherwise drive Alzheimer’s disease progression.

 

 

 

High Fibre – good for diabetics, and people with cardiovascular, cholesterol problems

 

Desiccated coconut offers other health benefits thanks to its iron and fibre content. Your body uses fiber to control your blood cholesterol levels, and a diet rich in fibre fights type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Desiccated coconut offers 4.6 grams of fibre per ounce, which is 18 percent of the recommended daily intake for women and 12 percent for men. The iron found in coconut helps you make ATP — a source of energy — as well as red blood cells that you need for oxygen transport. An ounce of desiccated coconut offers 0.94 milligrams of iron — 12 percent and 5 percent of the daily iron intakes recommended for men and women, respectively.

 

 

 

Uses:

 

Desiccated Coconut is great for eating with cereals. Excellent for baking and raw food slices, or deliciously crunchy dessert topper when roasted lightly!

 

Coconut Chips are great for eating by the handful. These chips are the size of potato peelings and can easily be added to trail mix, granola, and many other foods.

 

Coconut threads are grated slivers of dried coconut that are great to add for bite size snacks, desserts, toppings, noodles, spiced rice and in cereals. A great way to add fibre to kiddies meals and lunch boxes