Young Thai coconuts
I watched the Youtube video on making Hot Pink Breakfast Smoothies (I am positively addicted, like you!!), and in the comments section, someone made a remark about how young Thai coconuts are dipped in formaldehyde to preserve them I guess, and if you go that route, you’d better scrub yourself down after touching them. I was pretty freaked out reading that. Do you know if this is true?? I haven’t been too happy buying coconut juice/water in cans because they seem to have a lot of chemicals in them, which I’d like to avoid, but that formaldehyde comment really spooked me. Can you comment? Thanks Robyn!
I had heard they were processed in bleach.
I don’t know anything about that, haven’t read that from any reputable source. I worked in the human anatomy lab in college with cadavers and I am telling you this much, at least: formaldehyde has a horrible smell I am very familiar with, and I’ve never smelled that on my young coconuts.
Beware fear mongering.
Hi, Robin I called one of my favorite health food stores here in North Carolina and asked the question why they did not carry the young Thai coconuts? The person I spoke with said basely the same thing, that his store stop carrying them because he learned that they were dipped in formaldehyde to preserve the outside color. This freaked me out. Do you know of any other alternatives because I really like the pink smoothies as well?
The alternatives seem to be buying coconut juice in cans, which are readily available but do have chemicals in them, which I’m unhappy about. My health food store does sell freshly made “coconut water” (same thing) with nothing else in it, 16 oz for $3.50, which is expensive. But those are the only options I know of if we don’t want to play russian roulette with the young Thai coconuts.
What’s wrong with using milk from regular coconuts?
Our stores carry coconut water packaged in the little drink cartons from Harvest Bay and Zico. As far as I can see, nothing has been added. Harvest Bay is a bit cheaper here, but I’ve read reviews saying that Zico tastes better.
There’s hardly any liquid in those old, dry coconuts.
You can get coconut juice in cans but I don’t know that you have any more knowledge of what’s in them. I have gotten them as inexpensively as $1.19 per can through Azure Standard (they are in my food storage).
I don’t see any evidence of formaldehyde on my coconuts, though I may start rinsing off the outside of them before draining the liquid out just in case there would be any contact with the outside of the husk. I need to research this further. Sometimes one person makes one comment and it travels far and wide on the internet making people scared, needlessly.
I can’t find Coconut juice/liquid anywhere. Can I use Coconut milk instead of the juice if so how much? Thanks for the help.
Raw Chef Matt Amsden had some testing done on samples of non-organic young coconuts and found that they had never been in contact with formaldehyde. He did not test for other chemicals, because it’s expensive and he only wanted to dispel (or verify) the one myth.
More info here: http://www.basilandspice.com/journal/matt-amsden-tells-the-truth-about-thai-coconuts-and-formalde.html
Now, certainly not exhaustive or definitive research, but it stresses that we need to be careful about what we listen to and what we repeat.
http://www.basilandspice.com/journal/matt-amsden-tells-the-truth-about-thai-coconuts-and-formalde.html
thanks Katie. good to know it is an urban legend.