Nutrient content of coconut milk

Coconut milk refers to the oil-protein-water emulsions obtained by squeezing fresh grated coconut kernel. Its taste, appearance and nutrient content are very different from coconut water.

Coconut milk is rich in fat and protein. Coconut milk contains about 17 to 24 percent fat, depending on how much water is used in processing. Coconut milk fat contains a type of medium-chain fatty acids, which may offer health benefits.

Coconut milk contains around 3.5 percent of protein. Coconut protein, like most oilseed proteins is deficient in lysine, methionine and threonine; the ration of essential amino acids nitrogen (N to total N is lower than in animal proteins.

Coconut milk has a pleasant taste, it contains little sugar. It even has less sugar than dairy milk. Because of its low carbohydrate content (about 2 percent) coconut milk is ideal for low-carb diets.

Powdered coconut milk can contain: fat 60 percent, protein 7 percent and carbohydrate 27 percent.
Nutrient content of coconut milk

Minerals content in fruit

All fruits and vegetables contain important minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc. About 14 mineral elements are considered to be essential nutritional constituents: calcium, sodium, zinc, iodine, copper, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, fluoride, manganese, iron, magnesium, cobalt and chloride.

Fresh fruits and vegetables contribute about 26% of the magnesium and 19% of the iron to the U.S diet. The following fruits are important contributors to the supply of indicated minerals in the U.S diet:
*Potassium: banana, peach, orange, apple, dried fruits such as apricot and prune.
*Phosphorus: banana, orange, peach, fig, raisin
*Calcium: tangerine, grapefruit, orange
*Iron: strawberry, banana, apple, orange

Minerals are basic components in secondary metabolic pathways that produce valuable phytochemicals for normal human health.

Although fruits are not rich in minerals, potassium is the most abundant mineral available in fruit and occurs mainly in combination with various organic acids.

In fruit the pH of the tissue is controlled by the potassium/organic acid balance and high concentrations of potassium can contribute to blood pressure of humans. The degree of thermal processing influence on the mineral content of the product depends on the treatment severity.
Minerals content in fruit

What is the food pyramid?

The food pyramid is a guide of what and how much people should eat per day in each food group. It was developed by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and supported by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The shape immediately suggests that some foods are good and should be eaten often, and that others aren't so good and should be eaten only occasionally. The layers represent major food groups that contribute to the total diet.

The pyramid is based on USDA’s research on what foods Americans eat and what nutrients are in these foods. There are six groups that make up the pyramid: grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, beans, and oils.

It’s important to eat a variety of foods each day. The body, like a car, needs fuel, Food is fuel for people. Just like a car that doesn’t run well when it gets the wrong kind of gas, a person may feel tired or sluggish or may become sick if he or she doesn’t get the necessary nutrients.
What is the food pyramid?

The heat processing effects on food nutrient

In contrast to food irradiation, heat treatment has been used in the preparation of foods for millennia. As a consequence of its long history of use, heat treatment has achieved a high degree of acceptability and its effects have been subjected to less scrutiny.

The net effect of food processing on product quality is positive. The nutritive value of foods may be improved by an increased in nutrient content and/or digestibility of food component.

Heat processing increases the digestibility of starch and protein by gelatinization and denaturation, respectively and it increases the bioavailability of niacin which is present in many cereals in a bound form.

However, excessive heat treatment increases the amount of resistant starch, which lowers digestible energy but contributes to the fermentable soluble dietary fiber that reaches the hind gut.

Heating in the presence of alkali usually lowers lysine availability.
The heat processing effects on food nutrient

Enrichment of Foods

Enrichment, a term often used interchangeably with fortification, is the addition of nutrients to achieve concentration specified in standards of identity.

In foods, enrichment refers to the addition of vitamins, minerals and/or protein to raise the nutritive value.

Because of the vital role vitamins and minerals play in the body’s processes, many foods are enriched or fortified with additional vitamins and minerals. Many foods have a diminished nutritive content as a result of loss in refining or processing and can benefit from the enrichment.

Also, some foods provide effective vehicles for distribution of a nutrient. Enrichment of cereal grain products with iron, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin has been a remarkably effective and efficient means of enhancing the nutrient quality of the food supply and is a classic example of an effective well-designed public health approach to providing needed nutrients.

Cereal grains were selected for enrichment because they are eaten frequently by virtually all populations groups.

The decision to fortify with a particular nutrient is a complex one. It starts with the realization that a significant number of people are not obtaining desirable levels of a specific nutrient and the determination that the food to be fortified makes an appreciable contribution to the diet.

It must be further ascertained that the fortification will:
*not result in an essential nutrient imbalance
*the nutrient is stable under storage
*capable of being absorbed from the food
*that toxicity from excessive intakes will generally not occur.
Enrichment of Foods

Restoration of food

Vitamins and minerals are added to foods for one of two reasons: restoration or fortification.

Restoration is the process of returning to foods the nutrients lost during processing to levels similar to those present in the original products. It can be used to help prevent nutritional inadequacies in certain segments of the population.

The Food Law Research Centre in Brussels has suggested that enrichment is justified when processing leads to substantial losses and when the food in question constitutes an important source of the nutrient and cheaper substitute would cause a gap in intake.

In France restoration is permitted to cereal foods to a level of 80-200% of the natural levels, taking the highest level found in the four major cereal grains as the standard.
Restoration of food 

Phytochemicals in cocoa

Cocoa powder and chocolate are rich dietary sources of phytochemicals. The main ones, in terms of quantitative composition, are proanthocyanidins and purine alkaloids.

Other minor compounds include flavonoids, anthocyanins, phenolic acid amides and stilbenoids. Cocoa beans have been found to have more phenolic phytochemicals per serving than teas and red wine. Scientists discovered 611 mgs of the phenolic compound gallic acid equivalents (GAE) and 564 mgms of the flavonoids epicatechin equivalents  (ECE) in a single serving of cocoa.

Cocoa phytochemicals have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Cocoas beans contain significant amounts of theobromine (2.2-2.8% of dry weight), together with smaller amounts of caffeine (0.6-0.8%). Cocoa nibs are reported to contain 10 grams of phytonutrients for every 100 grams of beans.

These alkaloids are preserved in cocoa powder and easily extracted during the preparation of cocoa beverages. In 100 grams of processed cocoa powder there are approximately 5 grams phytonutrients.

These phytochemicals have been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease cancer and inflammation.
Phytochemicals in cocoa

Nutrients in mangosteen fruit

Mangosteens, Garcina mangostana, are native to countries such as Malaysia, the Phillippines, and Thailand. Now they are also cultivated in Brazil and India for American importers.

Consumption of mangosteen fruit as part of a nutritious diet has been found to offer unrivaled benefit in a wide variety of health conditions.

The nutritional value of hundred grams of mangosteen is 73 kcal of energy. 0.58 g of fat, vitamins B6, riboflavin and B1, folic acid, along with trace metals like magnesium, iron, phosphorus, manganese, potassium, calcium and 0.41 g protein.  

Mangosteen contains powerful antioxidants and immune system boosters called xanthones, natural chemical compounds who were proven to possess a variety of potent medicinal properties.

They have shown to have more potent antioxidant activity than vitamin WE, one of the nature’s most powerful known antioxidants.
Nutrients in mangosteen fruit

Vitamins and minerals in chocolate

Cocoa and dark chocolate contains small amounts of B-complex vitamin (thiamin, or B1; riboflavin or B2); niacin, vitamin B6; and folate), needed for releasing energy and creating the body’s building blocks.

Chocolate liquor contains trace amounts of fat-s0luble vitamins such as A and E. It also contains small amount of water-soluble vitamins such as folate and niacin.

Bone enhancing vitamin D and antioxidant E are found in dark and milk chocolate, which are important nutrient, too.

Cocoa solids have the important ability to inhibit the oxidation of circulating fats in the blood stream.

Oxidized fats are leading suspects in hardening of the arteries, and are why antioxidants, from vitamin C to vitamin E, have been credited with reducing the risk of heart disease from free-radical oxidative stressor.

Some other nutrients in chocolate include magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese.

Dark chocolate is plentiful in magnesium, important for brain functioning. A single 2 ounce bar can contribute as much as 15 percent daily magnesium requirement.

Chocolate milk is a rich source of calcium. Each 8 ounce serving of chocolate milk provides 35% of the 800 mg recommended for this nutrient for children 4 to 8.

And 23% of the 1300 mg recommended for those 8 through 18 years and 30% of the 1000 mg recommended for adults 19 through 50.
Vitamins and minerals in chocolate

Vitamins in fruit

Vitamins are nutrients required for specific functions in the body. If the vitamins are not consumed in sufficient quantities, deficiency diseases develop. Fresh fruits and vegetables contribute about 91% of vitamin C, 48% of vitamin A, 27% of vitamin B6, 17% of thiamin and 15% of niacin to U.S diet.

The following fruits are important contributors (based on their vitamin content and the amount consumed) to the supply of indicated vitamins in the U.S diets:

Vitamin A: apricot, peach, cherry orange, mango, papaya, persimmon, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon

Vitamin C: strawberry, orange, grapefruit, kiwifruit, pineapple, banana, apple, cantaloupe, blackcurrants, cherries, plum

Niacin: peach, banana, orange, apricot

Riboflavin: banana, peach, orange, apple, avocado

Thiamin: orange, banana, grapefruit, apple

Some vitamin especially vitamins B12, D and E, are not present in significant amounts in fruits.
Vitamins in fruit 

Durian

Carbohydrate

In order to carry out its day to day physiological functions and maintain a constant body temperature (due to invariably in an environment of changing temperatures), the body requires a constant source of energy.

Carbohydrates are an important energy source in the human diet. They generally supply about 45% of the energy requirement in developed countries and up to 85% in developing countries.

Carbohydrate are the cheapest, most efficient and most readily available source of food energy in the world, since they are the main constituents of the foods that are the easiest to produce and that can be obtained throughout the world, namely, grains, legumes and potatoes.

Carbohydrate are the most widely distributed, naturally occurring organic compounds on earth.

Carbohydrates have been considered a fundamental source of nourishment and inexpensive and versatile staple of the diet.

The carbohydrates are a class of chemical compounds that consists of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The carbohydrates that are important in nutrition include the sugars, the starches, the dextrin and glycogen.

The functional properties of carbohydrates in food include:

*Nutrition

*flavour and color production

*Sweetening

*Texturing

*Plasticizing action and humectancy

Dietary guidance for consumption of carbohydrates has resemble laboratory analysis of carbohydrates: take way fat and protein and the remainder must to be carbohydrate.

Nutritionist generally accept the fact that humans don’t need more than 10-12% kilocalories from protein, and less than 30% of kilocalories from fat.

Subsequently, intake of carbohydrate should be 55% of kilocalories or more.

Human diets historically have contained 40-80% of their energy as carbohydrate although as income increase, so does the fat content of the diet while carbohydrate content of the diet, especially the starch, decreases.

Starch is the major plant polysaccharide that is readily digested in the intestine and thus serves as a source of carbohydrates.

The major portion of energy requirements of human is met by starch of cereal grains and tubers such as potatoes.

What exactly is a carbohydrate? As the names implies, an empirical formula of CH2O (or CH2O) was often encountered, with molecular formulae of C5H10O5 and C6H12O6 being most common.

It was founded in the nineteenth century that carbohydrates in general have a formula Cn(H2O)n. They were therefore thought to be hydrates of carbon and hence were called ‘carbohydrates’.

The water solubility of these molecules was commensurate with presence of hydroxyl groups and there was always evidence for the carboxyl group of an aldehydes of ketone.

Carbohydrate

Garlic beneficial effects

Used for centuries as a flavoring ingredient in food, garlic is believed to carry many beneficial effects.

Garlic is an excellent source of vitamin B6, vitamin C and manganese. Garlic has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacteria, anti-oxidant and antiviral properties.

Garlic is the richest source of selenium among the edible plants, but because it is eaten in such small quantities, its selenium contribution to the diet is minimal.

Routinely eating garlic has an effect on the lining of the blood vessel walls which causes them to relax; thus helping to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Garlic glycosides and lower blood pressure and can decrease blood lipids and thus may be good prevention for arteriosclerosis.

According to the Commission E, German’s regulatory agency for herbs, all forms of garlic - including fresh, powdered, oil and aged extract – act similarly in reducing cholesterol synthesis and platelet aggregation and all exhibit anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral action in both laboratory and animal studies.

The essential oil of garlic is the sulfur rich allicin or allyl, which is found in the onion family and is the cause of garlic’s pungent odor.

Allicin is only formed when the garlic is crushed. Cooking and heating destroys the necessary enzymes for the formation of allicin.

Garlic is also a good source of nutrients as saponins, polyphenols, selenium, arginine and vitamin C.
Garlic beneficial effects