Side-effects of Coconut

Sure just the mention of coconut brings to your mind a couple of things like its rich flavor, tropical islands, and warm weather. Eating coconut has quite a lot of health benefits to its credit, but as they say excess of anything is bad. The rule applies here too. Eating too much coconut has some side-effects because it is high in saturated fat and calories. Some varieties of coconut contain added sugar, which is known to be less healthy than the naturally occurring sugar in foods. Let’s see how coconut harms the health.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Both sweetened and unsweetened coconut contain high amount of sugar in a small serving. An ounce of dried, unsweetened coconut contains 2.1 grams of sugar, while the same amount of sweetened coconut has 10.4 grams of sugar. The American Heart Association recommends consuming less added sugar in your daily diet because it contributes to obesity. The association advices women to limit their added sugar intake to 100 calories per day and men to consume no more than 150 calories per day.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Being naturally high in saturated fat, each serving of coconut constitutes up to 90 percent of the total fat serving. An ounce of unsweetened dried coconut contains 18.3 grams of total fat, out of which 16.2 grams are saturated fats. The American Heart Association recommends that saturated fat make up no more than 7 percent of your total calories, which is around 16 grams for someone on a 2,000-calorie diet. Which means, if you have a single serving of coconut, you are consuming more than 100 percent of your daily recommended limit of saturated fats, which can increase your blood cholesterol, and hence put you on a risk of heart disease or a stroke.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Not just fat, coconut has a lot of calories too. Imagine having 187 calories with a one-ounce serving of dried, unsweetened coconut and 129 calories with the same amount of sweetened coconut. Eating a lot of coconut, or regularly eating it can soon make up to 1 pound of body weight which requires 3500 calories. Coconut can make a part of a healthy diet, but people who eat it regularly should be careful about its high calorific value.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Coconut is naturally high in dietary fibre, which otherwise is a good thing. But, rapidly increasing your fibre consumption can lead to digestive complications such as diarrhea and gas. This generally holds true for people who otherwise take in less fibre because their digestive tract finds it difficult to process high amounts of it. A 1-ounce serving of dried, unsweetened coconut contains 4.6 grams of dietary fiber, which is 12 percent to 18 percent of the recommended dietary intake of fiber for all adults.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Coconut oil can be used to fight bacterial infection and germs by taking it orally. This is a benefit, sure but the process of killing internal harmful organisms can pose some short-term problems of its own. In order to ward off any intestinal distress, minimize your amount of coconut oil intake and if your dietician has recommended a dose, work your way up to it gradually.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Some people can be allergic to coconut or its oil which and may suffer typical mild allergic reactions consisting of skin sensitivity and hives, to serious reactions may induce a potentially deadly anaphylactic reaction. If you think you are allergic to coconut or coconut oil, your doctor may test you for it. You may also self-test it by rubbing a single drop onto a non-sensitive skin area and monitor it for the next 24 hours.

Image Courtesy: Getty

Sure coconut oil is great for hair growth and strength, but a lot of people experience dandruff as a side-effect of using it. Especially people with an oily scalp suffer dandruff more frequently than the ones with dry scalp. Coconut oil helps sebum build-up on the scalp, leading to flakes. People with dandruff can switch their oil to olive or castor, both of which promote hair growth without causing dandruff.

Image Courtesy: Getty