Anyone Have Problems With Coconut Milk?

[OliveBranch]

Hi All,

In keeping my food journal, I have found some evidence that coconut milk, which I've been using often as a cream substitute, seems to be giving me increased brain fog and fatigue. Has anyone here experienced this? Just curious.

[jerseyangel]

I'm very sensitive to coconut, although my symptoms are GI in nature.

[meraza]

Are you certain it's the coconut milk and not the preservatives?

[OliveBranch]

  meraza said:

Are you certain it's the coconut milk and not the preservatives?

Well, I'm pretty sure that the can said "no preservatives" -- it was just coconut and guar gum (can't find any without guar gum). There are a couple of other things I'm suspecting might be a problem, so I'm not certain about anything, but so far coconut milk seems a very likely suspect for me.

[darlindeb25]

I got very sick from Coconut Milk...positive I was glutened by it. I can't make myself try it again.

[AliB]

What you need to do is make sure that the coconut milk is not hydrogenated. Of course, it doesn't tell you that on the tin.

One way of telling is if the the milk is all blended and creamy - it's lovely like that but that may well be an indicator that it is hydrogenated. The other way, to be doubly sure would be to contact the producers and ask. I did that with the Pride brand that I used to get and was told that it was so I dumped that one pretty sharp.

Obviously if you live in warmer climes then the oil and milk will probably combine better then it does here in chilly old Blighty. The good stuff I have separates with the solids on the top and the liquid underneath. I suppose putting it in the fridge might help determine that.

The Natco brand that I have been using just seems to be coconut milk and nothing else.

The other thing you need to bear in mind with coconut is that it is a powerful anti-bacterial, viral and fungal so any reaction you get may not be you that is reacting but the lipid-coated unwanted bugs - Candida et al! Hopefully that reaction would improve after a while. It won't hurt the good bacteria.

Coconut oil contains one of the very few, but very necessary sources of medium-chain triglycerides - lauric, caprylic, capric and myristic fatty acids and they are also present in the milk and any coconut product other than the water. One of the other sources is human breast milk. Babies and adults who were either not breast-fed, or fed by a mother whose milk was deficient in the acids (common with subsequent babies), or fed formula that did not contain MCTs from coconut may be deficient in them all their lives.

As they appear to be the building blocks of the immune system and a host of other things it may be no surprise that those lacking them have weak immune systems (like I did).

[ang1e0251]

I use coconut milk but have to restrict it because I react to too much guar gum. It can have a laxative affect. I haven't found one locally that doesn't have the guar gum.

[OliveBranch]

Thanks for all the helpful thoughts, everyone!

[waprog2]

Coconut, especially the milk or cream, sits in my stomach like lead. I hate that feeling.