Eating a mostly plant-based diet makes many people wonder what can I eat and drink?

The benefits of coconut water will show you why you should consume it, instead of those drinks that millions of Americans ingest daily–coffee and soda.

I’ll admit that I drink coffee from time-to-time and, like you, I have our drinks or foods that we sometimes give in to. My belief is that it’s okay, if you’re eating a mostly plant-based diet because then your body can handle a few less-than-good-for-you foods or drinks in your diet.

The trouble is that many find it hard to lean more toward the green. Instead, once they start consuming sodas or meat and dairy products, they find that their portions get heavily skewed toward a non-plant-based diet. And that’s when the breaking down of our bodies begins. We start seeing signs of illness — maybe we simply don’t feel well or maybe we constantly catch colds.

What we’ll see is how the benefits of coconut water can make a tremendous difference.

As we head into the winter months, now is the time to keep a close watch on how you’re hydrating your body. Keeping your body hydrated is a critical key to keeping it healthy and functioning properly. It helps with the elimination system by flushing out toxins and if you’re eating a mostly plant-based diet — staying hydrated and eating clean will help if you want to lose weight faster or boost your immunity and protect yourself from COVID.

I often have people tell me they have cut their cravings by consuming more water and keeping their bodies hydrated. Sometimes your body is thirsty and not necessarily hungry but when we are dehydrated, it’s difficult to tell the difference and then we tend to overeat. There’s a good book called Water: For Health, for healing, ror life: You’re Not Sick, You’re Thirsty that explains our need for more fluids.

That’s where the benefits of coconut water really prevail.

Not only is it a tasty drink (and super cool and trendy to consume it right from a coconut) but it’s also fresh and highly beneficial in many ways.

Here are just a few benefits of coconut water.

Coconut water is clear and has a sweet rich taste that’s much more satisfying than many other drinks.

But what really makes the benefits of coconut water far superior is that it contains: natural sugars, vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, amino acids, phytohormones, and enzymes.

When a coconut is ready for consumption, it’s about five to seven months old; younger nuts tend to be bitter.

Coconut water is touted as slowing the aging process, improving circulation, boosting the immune system, and helping reduce the risk of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The juice of the coconut–don’t mix this up with the meat of the coconut which is also delicious although more fatty and like a sweet dessert–is a refreshing, thirst-quencher. There’s a Thai dessert which uses coconut milk, sticky rice and mangos–it’s out of this world! I’ll share the recipe with you in a future post; leave me a comment to let me know there’s an interest.

There are so many more benefits of coconut water. For instance, it’s a good source of B-complex vitamins which include niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, and folates. Your body can’t make these vitamins. So, for vegans, the B-complex vitamins (mainly B12) must be supplemented since they’re not being consumed through dietary meat or meat-by products.

The benefits of coconut water are improved digestion due to its bioactive enzymes. It contains electrolytes sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphate, and calcium which are how the benefits of coconut water can help you when you’re suffering from diarrhea.

And if you’re rehydrating after a workout, some studies have shown that one of the strongest benefits of coconut water is that it can rehydrate the body maybe even better than plain water.

Coconut water in smoothies

Another great benefit of coconut water is it adds a refreshing taste to your smoothies. Often, I’ll make one of my juices and add a half-cup of fresh coconut water. Some of my favorite juices and smoothies can be found in my recipes. Even if the recipe doesn’t call for coconut water, know that most of the time it compliments the juice or smoothie.