If you are serious about living healthier, then you will
want to consider coconut as a regular part of your diet.
Fortunately when it comes to coconut, there are endless ways to
indulge! The best way to experience the many health-giving gifts
of coconut is to use virgin coconut oil. It's a small investment
in your health that yields tremendous returns!
I believe Virgin coconut oil is one of the smartest oils you
can eat. Rich in lauric acid, coconut oil contains NO trans
fat, strengthens your immune system and boosts your metabolism!
And now we've added a very important coconut product to our
store -- one that can help transform the way you cook, eat and
feel for the better! By substituting
our new Coconut Flour in some of your baking recipes, you can
literally recreate your favorite treats, turning them into
delicious guilt-free health promoting foods.
Our coconut flour is made from fresh organic coconut meat
(only natural coconuts grown in the beautiful, tropical
Philippine Islands are used) that is dried, defatted and
then finely ground into a powder very similar in consistency to
wheat flour. However, that's where the similarities begin and
end.
Coconut flour is unlike any other
consisting of 14% coconut oil and 58% dietary fiber!
The remaining 28% consists of water, protein, and carbohydrate.
If you haven't tried coconut flour yet, here are some more
excellent reasons to start:
- Coconut Flour is ideal for baking. It has fewer
digestible (net) carbs than other flours, and it even has
fewer digestible carbs than some vegetables!
- Coconut Flour is gluten-free and
hypoallergenic. With as much protein as wheat flour,
coconut flour has none of the specific protein in wheat
called "gluten". This is an advantage for a growing
percentage of the population who have allergies to gluten or
a wheat sensitivity.
- Coconut Flour consists of the highest percentage of
dietary fiber( 58%) found in any flour. Wheat bran has
only is 27% fiber.
- Coconut Flour can help you reach a healthy weight.
Ideal for those who follow a low-carb eating plan, coconut
flour works well as part of a weight loss program because it
has high fiber, and foods with high fiber can help promote a
feeling of fullness.
Whoever said "you can't have your cake and eat it too" was
definitely in the dark about the benefits of coconut flour!
Say YES to Your Favorite Foods Again with GLUTEN-FREE Coconut
Flour!
I have posted studies that show celiac disease, a genetic
disease that is a severe form of gluten intolerance that results
in intestinal complications, may effect as many as one in
thirty-three people.
Most people are unaware that there are many reactions to
wheat, aside from celiac disease, that can cause health
problems. Most of us are addicted to breads, bagels, pizza,
pasta, waffles and pancakes and would rather die than give them
up, and many people do just that -- die from the side effects of
eating wheat!
But eliminating gluten from your diet is no small task. The
good news is that food manufacturers are finally realizing
there's a growing need for a variety of gluten-free breads and
foods.
The bad news is that large portions of commercially prepared
gluten-free foods are made using soy flour. I cannot emphasize
enough that soy is not the health food
that you think it is. If you are still using soy, I
urge you to consider how some studies are linking soy to serious
health conditions including:
- Increased risk
of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men
and women, and
abnormalities in infants
- Contributions to
thyroid
especially in women
- Weakening of
your immune system
- Severe, potentially fatal
food allergies
It appears that the tide is beginning to turn against the soy
craze and many people are now wisely looking for healthier
alternatives. Nut flour is becoming more popular but it is
expensive and few people can afford to use it regularly. There
are a variety of other flours like potato, garbanzo, and rice
flour, but like soy, these can present a host of health
challenges for many people too.
Coconut flour is a healthy and delicious alternative for most
anyone who is allergic to nuts, wheat, milk or other common
foods that trigger sensitivities.
Because so few people are allergic to coconut, it is regarded as
hypoallergenic.
If you are looking for a gluten-free way to make your
favorite baked foods, coconut flour is a delicious, safe,
healthy, relatively low-cost, and easy way to do it. You can
make a variety of breads and pasties using little more than
coconut flour, eggs, and coconut oil!
Coconut Flour: The Secret Weapon to Managing Your Weight
Food contains two types of carbohydrate: digestible and
non-digestible. Digestible carbohydrate consists of starch and
sugar and provides calories. Non-digestible carbohydrate is the
fiber and provides NO calories. Coconut meat is composed
primarily of non-digestible fiber with a beneficial amount of
water and smart oil.
Dietary fiber acts like a broom, sweeping your intestinal
contents along your digestive tract aiding in elimination,
regularity and helping to promote digestive health. Since you
cannot digest the dietary fiber in coconut flour, you derive no
calories from it.
Studies have shown that an
additional 14 grams of fiber daily (the amount in about ¼ cup of
coconut flour) is associated with a 10% decrease in calorie
intake and a resulting loss in body weight. The
health benefits of dietary fiber include:
- Promotes heart health and supports your immune system
- Facilitates better digestion and promotes digestive
comfort
- Promotes absorption of vitamins and minerals
- Assists in detoxifying your body
- Helps promote cholesterol health
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only 24% of
the carbohydrate in oat bran is composed of fiber. Soybeans
contain only 29% fiber, and wheat bran is 42% fiber. When you
add the abundant
health-promoting qualities of coconut oil to those listed
above, it is my opinion that you'd be hard pressed to find a
more nutritional cooking source than coconut flour!
The chart below shows that when it comes to dietary fiber
content, other local flours do not come close to rivaling
coconut flour!
Dietary Fiber Can Help You Support Blood Sugar Health
While dietary fiber helps support a healthy weight, it also
plays a role in supporting blood sugar health. Dietary fiber
slows down the release of glucose and therefore requires less
insulin to utilize the glucose and transport it into the cell
where it is converted into energy. Foods rich in soluble
dietary fiber are low glycemic index foods.
In contrast, foods without dietary fiber allow for a fast
release of glucose creating a need for more insulin. The excess
glucose can also be stored in your body and increase your
weight.
One research study (at the Food and Nutrition Research
Institute, Department of Science and Technology in collaboration
with the Philippine Coconut Authority) was done on bakery
products supplemented with increasing amounts of coconut flour
using human subjects. The study found that increasing levels of
coconut flour in bakery products resulted in a lower glycemic
index.
Numerous studies like this one have
shown that the abundance of dietary fiber found in coconut flour
helps support blood sugar health and helps support a healthy
weight. If you are interested in becoming more
weight-conscious, adding coconut flour to your daily meals is a
delicious and smart choice!
The Secret to Foolproof Cooking with Coconut Flour
You can make a wide variety of baked goodies using coconut
flour. However, when baking with coconut flour, the standard
rules that you use for other flours do not apply. If you want to
avoid culinary blunders, it's important to remember some basic
rules.
Coconut flour will just fall apart if you substitute it 100%
for another flour. However, through trial and error, and with
the help of a terrific source, I've discovered that if you add
eggs to the recipe, you can use 100% coconut flour in a recipe.
The secret is to add one egg per ounce of coconut flour (on
the average). Why eggs? Coconut flour has no gluten and the
eggs take the place of gluten.
If you are wheat sensitive, looking for delicious ways to add
healthy fiber to your diet, or just want to try something new
and delicious -- then you have nothing to lose and everything to
gain (like help to support a healthy weight) by using coconut
flour!
Easy to add to smoothies and desserts or to use as a
thickening agent in sauces and gravies, coconut flour makes a
great substitute for other flours called for in almost any
recipe! It's a great way to add fiber and flavor to your diet,
so what are you waiting for?
Information on this page is based on
the book, “Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb,
Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat” by Bruce Fife, ND. Used with
permission from the author. All rights reserved.
