A glass of refreshing fresh coconut water with pulp
Hi there, dear friends :)
For the past one week, I had the type of heatiness known as “fire” heatiness (known in Cantonese as “for” for fire), usually caused from restless sleep or late in sleeping at night. This “fire” heatiness can be quite tricky to get rid of and the often recommended remedy from Chinese Medicine Shops would be to boil some ginseng root tea (“yeong sum soe” or “pow sum soe”). I was suffering from knee joint pains, increased heart rate, neck pains and a general feeling of restlessness, conditions that can be brought on by body heatiness.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), there are many types of “heatiness” that can occur in one’s body (I won’t go into their complicated descriptions) and without consulting a Chinese Physician to determine the state of yin-yang of one’s body, it can be difficult to treat to treat heatiness on our own with the various Chinese cooling drinks.
This morning, I was having brunch at a Mamak (Indian Muslim) restaurant restaurant with my husband when I noticed they have fresh green coconuts lined up at their drinks counter. Then it hit me! I could have kicked myself for forgetting the oldest remedy and most yummy remedy for body heatiness according to TCM ===> FRESH YOUNG COCONUT WATER!
Young, green coconuts
I quickly ordered a whole coconut to drink its water and an hour later, ah…I could almost hear my body sighing in relief – the heaviness and sluggishness that I had felt coursing through my body the past week, the knee joint pains, neck pains, etc…have mostly gone and I feel re-vitalised after drinking the coconut water!
At home, I did a Google search on the “Health Benefits of Coconut Water” and got 11.6 million results. There is so much information on the goodness of coconut water from the Internet that if you have gone through some of the information, you would be tempted to run out and get some coconut water for yourself!
Whilst some people have told me that only fresh, unchilled coconut water works the best, I think that the commercially packed and chilled or non-chilled coconut water sold in supermarkets and stores will work as well to some extent. But basically, the fresher the coconut water, the better is the belief. Once exposed to air and heat, the coconut water rapidly ferments and loses its nutritional value. But then, I have heard of coconut water being fermented to make kefir, which is really good for body aches and joint pains.
Below are a few of the health benefits of coconut water from the TCM, Malay Traditional and Aryuveda perspectives -
1) I had always known that coconut water is good for us but I didn’t know exactly for what until recently, when my lady healer friend told me coconut water has good enzymes that are good for digestive health. If our digestion is not too good, go drink some coconut water (preferably not cold, so as not to shock our stomach which is acting up).
2) coconut water has “yin” or cool properties and will address a host of heatiness problems that we have. Not only in TCM, but the Indian, Malay, Thai and Indonesian cultures also believe is having coconut water regularly to counter headaches/migraines, gum pains, sore throats and dry coughs.
3) in the pilot study done below, the “cold” attribute of the coconut water was found to reduce Capillary Red Blood Cell Velocity (increased heartrate?) and reduce skin temperature
Effects of Hot & Cold Foods on Heart Rate Variability and Nail Fold Microcirculation
In another article – coconut water tonifies the yin and enters the heart…
4) in Traditinal Malay medicine, the coconut water is used to counter poisons and therefore, it is believed that we should not drink coconut water right away after consuming medicines to avoid neutralising the effects of the medication in our body. When one has fever or food poisoning, coconut water is drank as a remedy.
5) The Jamaicans use coconut water as a heart tonic.
Other health benefits of the coconut water are :-
* it is good for digestive and urinary health
* it regulates blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol
* dubbed “Nature’s Gatorade”, it is better than a sports drink and causes less nausea, fullness and stomach upset than a sports drink
Since we have an abundance of young and fresh coconuts in this region of the world, it is good to get a drink of fresh coconut water whenever you see some being sold at the farmers’ or night markets, or in Malay and Indian eateries.
With best wishes for good health,
choesf :)
Warning! Avoid coconut water if you are on a low potassium diet!
