Coconut Water -- Miracle Drink?

Coconut water is EVERYWHERE.

It started last year when I was on the field with the Cincinnati Bengals during Training Camp … player after player after player kept asking me about Coconut Water.

And now we see it in the gym.  Or whenever we give talks, we’re always asked about it.  Celebrities are sucking this stuff down like it’s a miracle drink — so you can certainly think Hollywood’s "A listers" like Courtney Cox (pictured to the left), Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Ashton and Demi — for popularizing this stuff.  People everywhere are seriously drinking the "coconut water Kool Aid" (bad pun, fully intended).

Let’s take a look at this product.  It’s certainly not short on health claims!  But do the claims of coconut water match the marketing hype?

Basically, when you drink coconut water you’re drinking the juice of young coconuts.  The nutrition information varies among brands, but in general, the "plain" flavor provides between 50-80 calories and just a few teaspoons of natural sugars.  A bottle of coconut water also has double the potassium (600+ mg) of 1 banana and just a modest (~60+ mg) of sodium.

Simply looking at that, it sounds great.

If you’re looking for a refreshing drink, you like the flavor and it gets you to drink more in general, I’m all for it.  It’s a great alternative to high sugar drinks or even diet drinks, loaded with artificial sweeteners.  Great for the gym when you're not blowing through a ton of calories and don't want just plain water.

I’ll add that I certainly wouldn’t attempt any long distance endurance activities with just this as replenishment because it is too low in sodium for those purposes.  Other than that, drink up if you like it, but certainly don’t bank on the overhyped promises of this "A Lister" miracle drink.

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