Tags: Beverages, Healthy Food and Drinks
By Alexander Villafania
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – Keeping hydrated during the summer season is always a challenge. While drinking water is always the best way to keep hydrated, retaining water is very difficult, especially for those who are always on the move.
Instead of plain water, a good way to retain fluids in the body is to go for isotonic drinks. One popular drink is fresh coconut juice, readily being sold by cart-pushing coconut vendors. Unlike, the more expensive commercially-sold isotonic drinks (a 500 ml bottle of Gatorade already costs more than 25 pesos) a 200 ml cup of coconut juice – sometimes mixed with milk – costs at least 5 pesos.
The vendors carry with them at least two dozen freshly picked buko or young coconuts. These are opened with a machete and the coconut water is drained into a plastic jar, usually used for other cold drinks.
Often, the vendors add milk to sweeten the coconut water, then strip the coconut meat and place them inside the jar. Large chunks of ice, stored in a Styrofoam box, are of course a necessary ingredient.
The business seems to be thriving nowadays, as indicated by a number of pushcart coconut vendors plying the streets of Metro Manila. One vendor I asked said he normally runs out of stock in the evening. Since the start of the summer season, he runs out of stock hours before the end of the day.
Although it seems low end than commercial isotonic drinks, coconut juice, especially in its freshest form, is healthier and is also a good alternative to sports drinks.
A report by a Pakistani chemist shows that coconut water has elements of sodium, potassium, calcium, and lithium. It also has trace elements of chromium, iron, magnesium, copper, and zinc. Because of these, as well as its relatively lower salt content, coconut juice can be used as a sports drink as well as rehydrating during bouts of diarrhea.
The website HealthMad also points out several key benefits of drinking coconut juice, which includes relief from urinary problems, breaking up kidney stones, killing stomach worms, and also for antibacterial purposes. There were also reports that it is used for intravenous rehydration though this has yet to be implemented by hospitals or clinics.
Some companies have started creating brands using coconut juice such as Lipa Buko, which sells packed coconut juice. The Cebu-based company Celebes Coconut Corporation also has coconut juice as one of its product lines.
The Philippines has a large coconut industry and it is one of the top ten export products. About 3.2 million hectares of land is used primarily for coconut plantations and 68 out of the 79 provinces in the Philippines have separate coconut industries. Bottom line, the coconut juice business has a lot of benefits not just for health but for the economy.
The next time you see a coconut juice vendor, always remember that what he’s selling is healthy and also helps the economy. So drink your way to a healthy summer.
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I just hope that these “Buko Juice” drink being peddled within Metro Manila are not laced with “Magic Sugar”