Coconut

Also known asCocos nucifera · Kelapa · 椰子

Name: Coconut (Cocos nucifera), the fruit of the coconut palm. Botanically a drupe (a stone fruit), even though it is marketed and eaten more like a large, hard-shelled nut.

Description

The coconut palm is thought to have originated somewhere in the Indo-Malayan region and has since become one of the most widely grown crops throughout the tropics, in no small part because the fruit floats and has spread naturally along ocean currents for millennia, long before humans began deliberately planting it. A single palm can produce around 100 coconuts a year, and each fruit takes roughly a year to fully ripen inside its thick, fibrous husk.

Inside the hard inner shell sits the part most people think of as “the coconut”: a layer of white meat lining a cavity of coconut water. As the fruit matures the meat thickens and the water gradually gives way to more meat, and once dried into copra — the extracted, dried kernel — it becomes the raw material for coconut oil, one of the world's major vegetable oils, produced in particularly large volumes in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Main nutrition value

Per 100g, raw coconut meat:

Unlike most fruits, coconut meat is defined nutritionally by its fat: about 33.5g per 100g, roughly 90% of which is saturated fat, chiefly lauric acid, with only small amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. It is also a genuinely good source of fiber, manganese, and copper, plus a useful amount of potassium.

How best to be consumed

Fresh coconut meat can be eaten straight from the shell, shaved or grated over savoury or sweet dishes, or blended with its own water for a fresh coconut milk. Because it is so calorie- and fat-dense, coconut is best treated as a flavourful addition to a meal rather than a bulk food, and it pairs naturally with tropical fruits, curries, and rice dishes across the cuisines where it is a staple.

Overconsumption could cause…

Coconut's fat is heavily saturated, so eating large amounts regularly — particularly of coconut oil rather than the whole fruit — can raise LDL cholesterol in many people and is worth moderating as part of an otherwise balanced diet. The fiber content also means a large serving at once can cause digestive discomfort in people not used to it.

GroupsStone FruitsTropical FruitsPalm family (Arecaceae)Rose family (Rosaceae)High fibreHigh saturated fatLow sodiumFresh

Made intoCoconut Milk BeverageCoconut OilCoconut SpreadDried CoconutKaya / Coconut Jam

Related foodsLycheeMangoRambutanDateOliveJujube

U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central — Nuts, coconut meat, raw (FDC ID 170169), 100g portion: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/170169/nutrients Encyclopaedia Britannica — Coconut: https://www.britannica.com/plant/coconut