Healing Power of Coconut Reviewed by Ruth Paget

Healing Power of Coconut Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

I decided to read Healing Power of Coconut by Jacqueline B. Marcus, because I can easily obtain coconuts and coconut products where I live in Salinas, California. (Lucky Supermarket and Weee Asian Grocery Delivery both carry these items.) 

Healing Power of Coconut is a go-to reference for everything coconut that includes healthy recipes, nutrition information, making beauty products with coconut, and making homeopathic cures for mild and temporary illnesses with coconut. 

I still view coconut primarily as food and liked the nutrition discussion in the book. According to Marcus, one medium coconut contains: 

-0 cholesterol 

-36 grams dietary fiber 

-13 grams protein 

It also has as part of a minimum daily calorie intake: 

-5% calcium 

-21% Vitamin C 

-53% iron 

-10% Vitamin B-6 

-31% magnesium 

Magnesium has several roles in the body including muscle and nerve function, bone health for density and absorption of calcium, DNA and protein synthesis, and the prevention of anxiety. 

Vitamin B-6 is very important as well and supports nerve function, immune system function, red blood cell formation, and brain development. 

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps remove free radicals from the body that may cause cancer from the body. Iron helps transport oxygen in blood through the body. Calcium helps build strong bones. 

There are more nutrients than you would think in this tasty fruit, seed, and nut that originated in Southeast Asia and now grows along tropical seashores according to Marcus. 

I ate most coconut in banana bread growing up along with raisins and chocolate chips. There is a recipe for this banana bread in the Healing Power of Coconut. It tastes great with a mug of espresso or Darjeeling tea. 

That recipe and the recipes for pumpkin curry and Caribbean callaloo soup are my favorites in the book. 

Caribbean callaloo soup is made with coconut oil, onion, garlic, bone chicken breasts, butternut squash, chicken broth, jalapeño peppers, thyme, fresh spinach, and coconut flakes. This soup can be easily made in Salinas and enjoyed with reggae music playing. 

The pumpkin curry is also doable in Salinas, California. The pumpkin curry is made with coconut oil, extra firm tofu, red curry paste, pumpkin purée, coconut milk, sriracha sauce, 4 cups cut-up seasonal vegetables, peas, rice, and Thai basil. 

Healing Power of Coconut by Jacqueline B. Marcus is an informative and enjoyable book that cooks wanting to expand their product knowledge and skills might enjoy reading. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Puerto Rico Vacation by Ruth Paget

Puerto Rico Vacation by Ruth Paget 

In late 2010, my husband Laurent asked me to go on a trip to Puerto Rico with him. I thought a trip to salsa-music land sounded fun, especially if I was going to be in a secluded area with lots of trees for quiet writing. 

Getting to the Caribbean from Monterey, California is a long travel day full of transfers (Monterey to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to New York, New York to Miami, and Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico). 

On the flight between Miami and San Juan, passengers placed their laptops on their trays and plugged in their earplugs. Earplugs in 2010 were on wires and fell down to the chest in a Y- shape. I told myself Generation Y was named for this earplug shape and not for following the Millenial Generation and Generation X. 

The computers had thousands of songs in Spanish on their file lists. I was going to tell my daughter Florence to definitely sing in Spanish and English for sales one day. (I am a money-oriented stage mother. I do not care about acting myself.) 

Florence was taking singing lessons with Rob Edwards who had worked with Christine Aguilera and Keith Richards after working with Monterey entertainer and Monterey County Herald columnist Erin Gray for years. 

While everyone else was listening to music, I read a book about Vienna for a travel show I was doing for broadcast on blogtalkradio.com for a station run by a young Dominican Andy Salcedo with shows run by Charles Ray, former ambassador to Zimbabwe, and Vicki Nikolaidis, a Greek journalist based in Crete. I was doing culture segments with book reviews and author interviews with people like book authors Matt Rees and J. Syd Jones. 

The view from the plane’s windows was great with blobs of tree-covered islands floating in a turquoise-colored water. 

We finally arrived in San Juan. We rented a car and set out for the secluded Naval base where I was going to pretend to be Ernest Hemingway on Key West, Florida with writing during the day and drinking rum-based cocktails at night. From the highway, I could see high-rise apartments with guards and gates. The smaller buildings along the way had open terraces with bars on them to prevent burglary. The highway was crowded, but orderly. 

We arrived at base and settled into our bungalow. We had rainforest landscaping complete with noisy macaws and critters that scampered on treetops. Insects created a constant buzz. 

We bought provisions like water, frozen microwave entrées and pasta as well as Coke, limes, and DonQ rum. Back at the bungalow, I made Cuba Libre (Free Cuba) cocktails – rum, Coke, and freshly, squeezed lime juice. 

“Why is this drink called ‘Free Cuba’?” Laurent asked. 

“Because if Americans stay drunk on rum and coke, Cuba will be safe from invasion,” I said. 

Laurent laughed, knowing I made that up. 

The next day, we ate breakfast in the lobby of the main hotel. Laurent went off to work, and I listened to salsa music on the radio. I enjoyed the solitude, sunshine, and chatty macaws as I wrote. 

When Laurent returned, we watched television. There was a series on about trucks doing tight turns on cliffs in various countries that we watched all week. The ads featured island-hopping trips at low prices around the Caribbean and to Mexico City for food, shopping, and floor shows. 

The day before we left, we went shopping for souvenirs – a bottle of DonQ rum and a book about the history of rum. DonQ was in the book I bought. I confirmed that DonQ stood for Don Quixote. 

We, then, went into historic San Juan, which is 500 years old. The architecture reminded me of Andalusia Spain except that San Juan is ochre-colored whereas Andalusia is whitewashed. The raised causeway leading out to the fort is lawn-filled today. Canons were probably set up along it to fire on pirate ships in the past. The trade winds and currents off San Juan propel ships to Europe and Western Africa. 

We walked around the quiet afternoon town with just a few open bars. Some played salsa music. It was idyllic, but I suggested we eat at an air-conditioned restaurant at the airport. 

On the way home to Monterey, I felt happy with my introduction to Puerto Rico and thought the noisy macaws were really cute. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Teen in China

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