Diet & Nutrition

What Is Coconut? How to Enjoy the Fruit-Nut-Seed and What It Offers Your Health

Jessica Migala
By
Kelly Kennedy, RDN
by
Updated on June 23, 2022
hands with coconuts
Are you crazy for coconut? The fruit-nut-seed comes in various forms, like oil, milk, and water.Mariela Naplatanova/Stocksy

Coconut has enjoyed one of the best modern-day comeback stories. You probably remember being told to avoid it at all costs because it’s high in saturated fat, which could harm your heart in excess. But in recent years, some people have begun embracing coconut as a potential health-promoting food.

What Is a Coconut, Anyway?

Is coconut a fruit? A nut? To make things more confusing, coconut can be a fruit, a nut, and a seed.

 (Technically, it’s a fibrous one-seeded drupe. Try telling that to your friends.) If you were to pick up a coconut that fell from a coconut palm, you’d notice it’s hard and green, a layer called the exocarp. Right past that layer is the husk (it looks brown and hairy), called the mesocarp. Inside that is the endocarp, which is the outside of the seed. Open the seed and you’ll get to the white layer of coconut “meat” and liquid.

How to Cook It: Chocolate-Covered Grilled Coconut

Find out how to open a coconut in this delicious recipe for grilled coconut covered in dark chocolate. It's a nutritious dessert you can feel good about!
How to Cook It: Chocolate-Covered Grilled Coconut

Next up video playing in 10 seconds

Common Questions & Answers

Is coconut a fruit or a nut?
It is confusing! Technically, coconut is a fibrous one-seeded drupe. That makes it a fruit with a hard covering on its seed. Therefore, coconut can be considered a fruit, nut, and seed.
What are some unexpected benefits of coconut?
Coconut offers minerals, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium, making it a nutrient-rich food. Plus, who knew coconut flour could be a standout health star. It’s rich in fiber, offering 3 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber in 2 tablespoons.
Is raw coconut safe and healthy to eat?
Yes, the edible coconut “meat” in a fresh coconut is safe to eat. One piece of coconut meat provides 159 calories, 4 grams of fiber, and just 3 grams of natural sugars. But it’s high in fat — 15 grams (13 from saturated fat), so consume coconut in moderation.
Is coconut a good weight loss food?
Research does not yet support that eating coconut can help you lose weight. What’s more, because coconut contains so much fat, it contains a lot of calories (even in small serving sizes), making it easy to end up having eaten too many calories, which can lead to weight gain.
How much coconut should I eat a day?
The right amount will differ for everyone, depending on your health and weight goals. However, the American Heart Association recommends limiting your saturated fat intake to 13 grams per day. For reference, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil contains 10 grams of saturated fat.

Where Do Coconuts Come From?

Historians believe that this tropical plant originated in Indo-Malaya.

 Today, coconut palms grow in the tropics from Hawaii to Madagascar. While they’re not native to the continental United States, the coconut palm was introduced and now grows well along coastal regions in Southern states like Florida.

Here’s the rub: Registered dietitians once maligned coconuts. Take canned coconut milk, for instance, which is made from the liquid from the grated meat. One cup has 445 calories and 48 grams (g) of fat (yes, you read that right). What’s more, nearly 90 percent of that fat (43 g) is saturated fat.

 The American Heart Association recommends a max of 13 g of saturated fat per day for Americans consuming 2,000 calories per day.

Although coconuts themselves haven’t changed, Americans’ use of coconuts has evolved over the past decade. No longer will you find it only in sugary piña coladas and candy bars. People cook with coconut oil and put it in coffee, add shredded coconut to oatmeal, blend frozen sheets of coconut in smoothies, sip coconut water to hydrate, and even slather the oil on hair and skin.

“Superfood” and "coconut" are two words that are frequently said together in the health lexicon, but scientific evidence on how powerful this is for health and wellness is still lacking.

Nutrition Facts of Coconut, Coconut Milk, Coconut Water, and Coconut Oil

You’ll find coconut available in a variety of forms, all of which have their unique nutritional profile. Keep in mind that these nutrition facts will also vary by brand, but here's a good idea of what you’ll get in each form of coconut.

Coconut Meat, Dried (Unsweetened), 1 Ounce

  • Calories: 187
  • Fat: 18 g
  • Saturated fat: 16.2 g
  • Protein: 2 g
  • Carbohydrates: 7 g
  • Fiber: 4.6 g (an excellent source)
  • Sugar: 2.1 g

Unsweetened Coconut Milk (in a Carton), 1 Cup

  • Calories: 45
  • Fat: 4 g
  • Saturated fat: 3.5 g
  • Protein: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 2 g
  • Fiber: 1 g
  • Sugar: 0 g

Coconut Water, 8 Fluid Ounces

  • Calories: 46
  • Fat: 0.5 g
  • Saturated fat: 0.4 g
  • Protein: 2 g
  • Carbohydrates: 9 g
  • Fiber: 2.6 g
  • Sugar: 6.3 g


Coconut Oil, 1 Tablespoon

  • Calories: 104
  • Fat: 12 g
  • Saturated fat: 9.6 g
  • Protein: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 0 g
  • Fiber: 0 g
  • Sugar: 0 g


What Are the Potential Health Benefits of Coconut?

Coconut can be a healthful addition to your diet when consumed in moderation. Here are some of the possible health perks to keep in mind.

Packed With Nutrients

Coconut is a great source of digestion-friendly and satiating fiber. You’ll also get minerals like iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium.


As for coconut flour, which is dried and ground coconut meat, it has 5 g of fiber in just 2 tablespoons (tbsp), making it an impressive replacement for traditional white flour, especially for those following a gluten-free diet.

Possibly Helps Improve “Good” Cholesterol

About half of the saturated fat in coconut comes from lauric acid, which can help raise levels of heart-protective HDL (“good”) cholesterol.

 Unfortunately, it increases the more harmful LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, too. In the context of a healthy diet, there’s nothing wrong with using small amounts of coconut oil, but it shouldn’t be the only oil you use. A review and meta-analysis of 15 trials that looked at the effects of coconut oil consumption on heart health concluded that coconut oil leads to significantly higher LDL cholesterol compared with other nontropical oils. The authors conclude that coconut oil should not be considered a healthy oil to reduce your risk of heart disease.

May Support Healthy Blood Pressure

Coconut water offers a good source of potassium, a mineral that helps balance sodium levels in the body and regulate blood pressure.

Helps Improve Skin Health

Smoothing coconut oil on skin and hair is a popular way to add moisture. Coconut oil can seal moisture into skin to treat dryness and address eczema, likely because it improves the skin barrier function (skin's ability to keep water in and irritants out).

Can Eating Coconut Help You Lose Weight?

Despite the fact that you may see references to “fat-burner coffee” that contains coconut oil, it’s not clear if coconut will actually help you slim down. Keep in mind that coconut is a calorie-dense food — not a common trait in foods that tend to help with weight loss. Some people tout coconut as a weight loss aid, arguing it’s a good source of a fatty acid called medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which are quickly metabolized in the body. (You can also buy MCT oil.) But some people conflate coconut and MCT oil, assuming that they have the same impact on the body.

Research on that point is skeptical — they’re in fact not the same — and one randomized, controlled clinical trial on obese men found that consuming 1 tbsp of coconut oil per day did not change body composition compared with eating the same amount of soybean oil.

 Another study comparing the effects of coconut versus MCT oil (or a vegetable oil control) found that eating a breakfast smoothie containing MCT oil improved fullness ratings and reduced the amount of food consumed at lunch compared with coconut and vegetable oils. The authors conclude that you can’t assume that eating coconut oil is just like having MCT oil.

Another study — a randomized, double-blind crossover study (a research gold standard) — on adolescents with obesity found that compared with a meal containing 20 g of fat from corn oil, eating one with the same amount of coconut oil didn’t improve satiety or boost metabolism.

The bottom line: Coconut for weight loss is still the stuff of lore, despite what tons of dubious health sites may say. Until more research is done and proves otherwise, you shouldn’t consider coconut a magic elixir for weight loss. What’s more, if you freely eat coconut oil (or other coconut products) believing it will help you lose weight, you can easily take in more calories than your body needs and gain weight.

How to Select and Store Coconut for the Best Quality

Here’s what you need to know about popular coconut products.

Coconut Oil

You have lots of options here, depending on what you want to use it for. Mainly, you can buy virgin or refined (or all-purpose) coconut oil. Unrefined virgin coconut oil can be used to cook in temps up to 350 degrees F or applied to your skin and hair.

 All-purpose coconut oil has a higher smoking point, so you can use it to cook food up to 400 degrees F.

 It also doesn’t have the telltale tropical smell and flavor that virgin coconut oil does, making it a better neutral cooking oil. Find coconut oil next to other cooking oils at grocery or natural foods stores.
Coconut oil does not have to be refrigerated. Simply store it in a cool, dry place.

One note: Coconut oil is a solid at cooler temperatures; at warm temperatures, it’s a liquid. That doesn’t compromise the taste or quality of the oil, but it is something to be aware of when you go to use it.

Coconut Milk

Coconut milk can be bought in a can, and you have the option of full- or reduced-fat, depending on your dietary goals. Make sure that the brand you buy is free of added ingredients. Ideally, coconut milk contains just coconut and water. The cans can be stored unopened in your pantry.

Canned coconut milk (usually used in cooking) is different from coconut beverages, which are a nondairy alternative to milk. Look for unsweetened varieties. Coconut drinks are already slightly sweet, so you won’t miss the added sugar. These are usually found in the refrigerated section or packaged in a shelf-stable box. When opened, they need to be refrigerated.

Coconut Water

You have a lot of options when shopping for coconut water, and it mainly comes down to your taste preference. However, look for beverages with no added sugar. Some flavored versions contain the no-calorie sweetener Stevia. You can often find these in the refrigerated case.

Coconut Flour

Look for coconut flour as a new addition to the other flours at the grocery store. You can also easily buy bags online. Store coconut flour in a cool, dry place in an airtight container out of the sunlight.

Whole Coconut

Occasionally, your grocery store may sell whole coconuts, but it’s far easier to buy shredded or flaked coconut. Just like most of these products, make sure that the coconut you’re using does not have added sugar — packages will likely be marked as “unsweetened.” Look for these in the baking aisle or bulk bins of your grocery store. Keep in a cool, dry place in your pantry.

How to Eat Coconut and Cook With It at Home

If you’re interested in adding coconut to your meals, here are some ideas:

  • When you’re baking with coconut flour, replace 20 percent of the flour in a recipe with coconut flour.

  • If you’re baking with it, coconut oil has a higher fat percentage than butter. When you’re looking to replace butter with coconut oil, you’ll have to use less oil.

  • You can easily replace the oil in any cooking recipe with coconut oil, but make sure you choose the type — virgin or all-purpose — best suited to your particular tastes.
  • When it comes to cooking, virgin coconut oil lends a nice tropical, coconutty taste to dishes like stir-fries and curries. All-purpose coconut oil has a more neutral flavor.
  • Add dairy-free coconut milk to your coffee in lieu of creamer.
  • Make stove-top popcorn with coconut oil.
  • Try coconut milk yogurt, which is available in a variety of flavors. Find it in the refrigerated section of the grocery store near the traditional and nondairy yogurts.

Other Uses for Coconut in Your Skin and Hair

  • Apply the oil to your hair for moisture and to tame flyaways.
  • Rub the oil on your skin to reduce dryness.
  • Slather the oil on your cuticles for an at-home manicure.
  • Apply on skin and then wipe off with a tissue to remove makeup.

The Side Effects and Health Risks of Coconut

You can’t have a conversation about coconut without talking about the saturated fat content it contains. In fact, 1 tbsp of coconut oil has 12 g of fat, 10 of which are saturated. Butter, on the other hand, packs 11.5 g of fat per tbsp, with 7 g of saturated fat.

If your doctor has advised you to cut down on saturated fat, coconut is not going to be your go-to cooking oil. It’s recommended to replace saturated fat (such as coconut oil or butter) with unsaturated fat (such as olive oil) to reduce heart disease risk.

 That said, there is some evidence that while coconut oil may contain more fat and saturated fat than butter, it does not raise LDL levels as much as butter does and may increase HDL cholesterol.

Summary

Coconut products, from milk to water, yogurt, or flour, can be a healthy addition to your diet in moderation. Coconut can be high in calories and fat, particularly saturated fat, so make sure your coconut choices align with your goals.

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.

Sources

  1. Is a Coconut a Fruit, Nut, or Seed? Library of Congress.
  2. Coconut. Brittanica.
  3. The Coconut Palm in Florida. University of Florida.
  4. Nuts, Coconut Milk, Canned. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  5. Saturated Fat. American Heart Association.
  6. Nuts, Coconut Meat, Dried (Desiccated), Not Sweetened. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  7. So Delicious Dairy Free UHT Unsweetened Coconut Milk. Target.com.
  8. Nuts, Coconut Water (Liquid From Coconuts). U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  9. Oil, Coconut. U.S. Department of Agriculuture.
  10. Organic Coconut Flour. Bob’s Red Mill.
  11. Ask the Doctor: Coconut Oil and Health. Harvard Health Publishing.
  12. The Effect of Coconut Oil Consumption on Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Circulation.
  13. Potassium. National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.
  14. Health Effects of Coconut Oil: Summary of Evidence From Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis of Interventional Studies. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research and Reviews.
  15. They Say Coconut Oil Can Aid Weight Loss, but Can It Really? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
  16. Effect of Coconut Oil on Weight Loss and Metabolic Parameters in Men With Obesity: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial. Food & Function.
  17. Coconut Oil Has Less Satiating Properties Than Medium Chain Triglyceride Oil. Physiology & Behavior.
  18. A Coconut Oil–Rich Meal Does Not Enhance Thermogenesis Compared to Corn Oil in a Randomized Trial in Obese Adolescents. Insights in Nutrition and Metabolism.
  19. Organic Coconut Oil. Carrington Farms.
  20. Organic All-Purpose Coconut Oil. Nutiva.
  21. Organic Coconut Oill, 54 Fl Oz. Carrington Farms.
  22. Baking With Organic Coconut Oil. Nutiva.
  23. Butter, Without Salt. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  24. AHA Presidential Advisory on Dietary Fats and CVD. American College of Cardiology.
  25. Randomised Trial of Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, or Butter on Blood Lipids and Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Men and Women. BMJ Open.

Resources

Show Less