Coconut Milk, Coconut Water, Coconut Meat and Coconut Oil On The GAPS Diet
“It is a good idea for GAPS patients to have coconut on a regular basis. Coconut can provide a natural source of anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral substances for these patients as well as many other nutritional factors,” says Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in her Gut and Psychology Syndrome book, page 274.
{We are taking a leap of faith and have added a donate button instead of using advertisers. Advertisements have been removed from this page to make your reading uninterrupted. If you learn something here, please donate so we can keep offering these posts. This post contains affiliate links, which sometimes pay for this site}.
“The best thing is to follow nature and have coconut in its natural form. You can get fresh coconuts in most supermarkets. Many companies now produce good quality virgin coconut oil, coconut milk and cream. Dried coconut and coconut flour can also be used for GAPS patients. Make sure that these products are pure, without any additives.”p 275.
To clarify what this means in detail, a meeting of the minds was held.
At the 2017 Weston A. Price Conference, six Certified GAPS Practitioners, and one layperson, had a meeting with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride regarding many specifics on the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) Protocol. Kombucha, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut water, coconut meat, as well as many other topics, were discussed to determine what products fall where on the GAPS Protocol. Certified GAPS Practitioners Monica Corrado, Laura Villanti, Kim Schuette, Amy Mihaly, Lisa Middlecamp-Lowder, Becky Plotner and her husband, Kevin Plotner discussed the topics with Dr. Natasha for four and half hours.
Coconut milk and coconut cream are often used on the protocol. Using them correctly is of utmost importance. Sometimes when a person is not healing, it means we need to dig deeper, tighten up the method and support the body correctly.
Each person is marked with their initial: DN depicts Dr. Natasha, M depicts Monica Corrado, L depicts Laura Villanti and B depicts Becky Plotner.
B Talk about coconut milk. Where does coconut milk fall? Where does coconut water go in?
DM Those can be introduced earlier. Pretty much Stage Four.
M Can we talk about coconut milk though? In this country there are a lot of people that are doing coconut milk that is canned, that’s full of xanthan gum.
DM Yes, yes.
L Trader Joe’s has one without that.
M I’m aware of that, but within the GAPS…
DM The cans are all lined with plastic. I don’t like plastic cans. There are BCPs in there, there are bisphenol A, you know, there’s nasty things in the plastic. Cans are no good.
M Right, so what I try to do, you know, there’s a million people out there doing all sorts of alternative things.
DM Mmm hmmm
M We’re all trying to get better and that’s great. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about how to do it, what to do with it. So, when they see, in the GAPS diet that coconut milk is OK, they say, oh, great, and they go off and get the ones in the cans.
B You said in the book that some companies are making good quality coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut water.
DM Yes
B It can be bought store-bought?
DM In glass jars.
This product is sold in glass jars and claims to just contain coconut milk and coconut water, however the EWG (Environmental Working Group) has a different ingredient listing. Clean, GAPS approved, coconut cream can be found here.
M There is one organic coconut cream that’s organic that’s dried. It’s just the cream that you reconstitute. It’s dried and blocked. It’s by a group called Let’s Go Organic. That one’s great. They also sell coconut cream in the refrigerator section of Whole Foods.
B Coconut Cream, Stage One?
DM Stage Four
B Coconut water?
DM Coconut water fermented, we can introduce from the beginning, particularly for people who are truly intolerant of dairy. Fermented coconut water, kefir, that’s coconut kefir, basically.
L People who ferment coconut meat, that’s supposed to be very good.
B What stage is that?
L Coconut meat with water.
DM Fresh?
L Yeah, coconut meat and water, and mash it.
DM Very fibrous, very, very fibrous, no, no. The coconut water we can introduce from the beginning.
B Fermented coconut water from the beginning but what would unfermented coconut water be?
DM Full GAPS. It’s very sweet, a lot of sugar in there.
B And the fermented coconut meat?
DM Fermented coconut meat, I would do Stage Six, or even Full GAPS.
B Coconut oil is Stage One?
DM Yes. Coconut oil from the beginning.
Coconut use is described in the book on page 207-8.
To choose a coconut, “Make sure that the shell has no cracks or any other damage to it. Put the nut close to your ear and shake it. If the coconut is healthy, you will hear its juice splashing inside. When a coconut is damaged and its juice has leaked out, it will be rancid and unsuitable to eat.” p 207.
To make coconut cream, “Put the pulp through your juicer to produce a thick coconut cream, which can be diluted with water to make a delicious coconut milk. The cream and milk can be added to your cooking, used as a dressing for fruit and vegetable salads, as a cream for cakes or a replacement for custard.” p 208.
To make coconut milk, “Bring to a boil 1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut and 1 cup of water. Cool down and blend well in the food processor. Strain through a cheesecloth or a fine strainer.” p213. A nut milk bag can also be used.
*Nourishing Plot is written by Becky Plotner, ND, traditional naturopath, CGP, D.PSc. who sees clients in Rossville, Georgia. She works as a Certified GAPS Practitioner who sees clients in her office, Skype and phone. She has been published in Wise Traditions, spoken at two Weston A. Price Conferences, Certified GAPS Practitioner Trainings, has been on many radio shows, television shows and writes for Nourishing Plot. Since her son was delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia, through food, she continued her education specializing in Leaky Gut and parasitology through Duke University, finishing with distinction. She is a Chapter Leader for The Weston A. Price Foundation. becky.nourishingplot@hotmail.com
“GAPS™ and Gut and Psychology Syndrome™ are the trademark and copyright of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. The right of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patent and Designs Act 1988.
6 Comments
I wonder about that last part about rancid coconuts. We eat sprouted coconuts sometimes. The meat inside is fluffy and there is no water. But they aren’t cracked. Would they be full gaps also?
When a coconut grows on a tree, there are different growth stages. At first, they are small green balls. Then they grow into large green balls, which inside contain a soft coconut shell filled with coconut water. As it ages, the soft coconut shell hardens into a hard shell and the inside along the coconut shell the coconut meat develops. First it starts like creamy white coconut pudding then grows into harder coconut meat. The more it ages, the more the coconut water disappears and the hard coconut meat gets thick. In the last stage, as the water fully disappears, there develops a type of spongy material, which is a delicacy (simply divine!). At this stage, one shoot grows out of one of the three coconut eyes, creating the palm tree, the other two eyes grow roots that stretch down into the sand/soil. This is not rancid, it’s actually extremely nutritious. All of these stages are Full GAPS, yes.
So confused. The coconut cream mentioned and linked is essentially coconut meat that has been dehydrated and blended smooth. Why is this allowed on Stage 4 but fresh coconut meat delayed till Full GAPS? The process of making coconut butter (creamed coconut) does nothing to the fiber content, as far as I know. And it is the fiber that DM finds so objectionable during the Intro Diet.
Is creamed coconut allowed, despite its high fiber, because its only supposed to be added to liquids? This is not mentioned explicitly, but implied when reconstituting is mentioned. It should not be used as a nut butter, but as an additive to liquid (or to make a liquid coconut product).
Also, it should be noted, that the coconut cream sold in cans at Trader Joe’s and the creamed coconut in glass jars linked as GAPS-approved are fundamentally different products. The creamed coconut in a glass jar is ground whole coconut meat. The coconut cream in the can is the fattiest bit skimmed from making coconut milk by blending the meat with hot water, then pressing it, and contains NO actual coconut meat.
I’m very grateful for this article, but there are still so many questions…
Thank you for this great post. It was nice to see the back and forth conversation. Could you please clarify though that above, when you are referrring to a “coconut” that you are referring to a mature coconut and not a young coocnut?
My self and family are about to start the intro and knowing if we can continue to eat our young coconuts on the intro diet would make a big difference to our daily life.
Are young coconuts even allowed on the diet at all, regardless of stage?
Thanks again!
Young coconuts, picked from the tree in their early state, are still Full GAPS. Even though they have less fiber than older coconut meat, it’s still very sweet and fibrous.
Lydia asked questions on Jan 27, 2019 that I would like to have answers too, too. Can you please comment Becky?