Why does harmless harvest coconut water have so much phosphorus?

Dr. B

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This harmless harvest brand of organic coconut water is the most expensive coconut water in most stores. It has a pink color, they dont use any additives and its a refrigerated item unlike most coconut waters which are sold in tetrapaks and shelf stable.

I think foodbabe and others have mentioned how this is supposedly the best quality coconut water available, comes from young coconuts, minimal processing, might not even be pasteurized. It has an expiry date of around 3 months, whereas the tetrapak coconut waters have an expiry of around 9 months or a year or more. they may be ultra pasteurized, and many of them have added vitamin C or added sugar.

However, the kirkland organic coconut water, has 58mg calcium, 19mg phosphorus, 32mg magnesium, and 451mg potassium per 8 oz serving. it has 6mg added vitamin C as well as 2g added organic sugar per 8 oz serving. I was thinking of avoiding this coconut water due to rays comments on how vitamin C is produced these days. Even though it is a very small amount of vitamin C, approved for organic usage, so probably safer than taking hundreds of milligrams of vitamin C capsules.

regardless, the harmless harvest brand coconut water contains 162mg phosphorus, 46mg calcium, 19mg magnesium, and 541mg potassium per 8oz serving. this is supposedly the highest quality stuff, comes specifically from younger coconuts whereas the costco and most tetrapak coconut waters come from older coconuts. do coconuts lose phosphorus as they age? and is coconut water from older coconuts actually healthier than water from younger coconuts? technically the older the coconut the more nutrients should leech into its water from the coconut meat? the older water has an ideal calcium phosphorus ratio whereas the harmless harvest stuff is almost like eating meat.
 

Jessie

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Every ascorbic acid product I've ask for the analysis sheet on all checked out to have virtually no significant heavy metal contamination. Honestly I'm not sure I would agree with Ray on the vitamin C issue. Maybe this was a problem with ascorbic acid products several years ago, but it dosen't seem to be anymore. Anyhow, I think even Ray would say 6mgs of added C is much more preferable over 160mgs of phosphorus.
 
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Dr. B

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Every ascorbic acid product I've ask for the analysis sheet on all checked out to have virtually no significant heavy metal contamination. Honestly I'm not sure I would agree with Ray on the vitamin C issue. Maybe this was a problem with ascorbic acid products several years ago, but it dosen't seem to be anymore. Anyhow, I think even Ray would say 6mgs of added C is much more preferable over 160mgs of phosphorus.
yeah the odd thing is though why does the supposed highest quality coconut water have this? i think it has to do with the age of the coconut. i know harmless harvest claims they use water from young coconuts whereas most shelf stable coconut waters are from mature coconuts. I guess technically, the older coconut would be "riper" thus more suitable to eat than younger ones? somehow the age of the coconut used for coconut water is used as a metric for its quality..

what about the added sugar? it is organic, but ive heard processed sugar has issues with its production methods like bleaching or chemicals used. plus the sugar is stripped of nutrients and I wonder if it could cause some metabolic issues over time. whereas something like milk, honey, maple syrup, fruits etc all needed nutrients are present and theres no risk of a negative metabolic effect.

actually whole foods has their own store brand shelf stable coconut water which somehow, does not have any vitamin c or sugar added. just pure coconut water, probably ultra pasteurized similar to costcos. its just pricier than costco since costco has that 9 pack bulk box. but i was curious of the risks of added sugar in general.
 

Jessie

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I couldn't say. Perhaps the younger green coconuts have higher phosphate in them. I doubt the phosphate content played much of a role in determining the perceived "quality" of the product.

I'm not convinced bleached cane sugar is bad, however, if it's certified organic then the sugar probably wasn't even bleached. Every time I've seen organic cane sugar in the stores it's literally always unbleached.

If you're eating a nutrient poor diet, then pure sugar may cause mineral depletion. Specifically the b vitamins. But if you're eating liver, eggs, dairy, oysters, red meat, then it's probably not a concern. You could always throw in some nutritional yeast just in case.

If I had to guess, they're probably adding that small amount of ascorbic acid to protect the coloring of their product. I even do this when I make fresh apple juice from the organic pink ladies I get. I add just a splash of lemon juice to retard oxidation. If the company was adding it for "nutritional" purposes, they would certainly be adding more than a measly 6mgs.
 
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Dr. B

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I couldn't say. Perhaps the younger green coconuts have higher phosphate in them. I doubt the phosphate content played much of a role in determining the perceived "quality" of the product.

I'm not convinced bleached cane sugar is bad, however, if it's certified organic then the sugar probably wasn't even bleached. Every time I've seen organic cane sugar in the stores it's literally always unbleached.

If you're eating a nutrient poor diet, then pure sugar may cause mineral depletion. Specifically the b vitamins. But if you're eating liver, eggs, dairy, oysters, red meat, then it's probably not a concern. You could always throw in some nutritional yeast just in case.

If I had to guess, they're probably adding that small amount of ascorbic acid to protect the coloring of their product. I even do this when I make fresh apple juice from the organic pink ladies I get. I add just a splash of lemon juice to retard oxidation. If the company was adding it for "nutritional" purposes, they would certainly be adding more than a measly 6mgs.
that is the purpose apparently. although how come whole foods product is somehow clear water yet has no added vitamin c or sugar? are they pasteurizing it so hard it doesnt turn pink or are they using some loophole and adding some hidden antioxidant? i was gonna go with whole foods at least sometimes since their coconut water has no added ingredients. also main reason im using these are for the minerals, especially potassium/manganese/magnesium/bit of calcium... plus as a replacement for water since every water has its own issues even reverse osmosis filtered.

regarding eggs liver dairy etc ive heard of that and yes have half gallon milk a day among other things... the thing is arent those nutrients needed to process those foods and the nutrients in those foods themselves? I wonder if the net effect is still negative. like orange juice, milk, probably coconut water all have b vitamins but theyre used i imagine to properly process the sugars present in those products. i wonder if the balance can get thrown out of whack with added sugar. same with meat and nutrients present in that. those nutrients may be needed for some other purpose besides processing sugars?

this isnt too big a concern since i do stick mostly to sugars from dairy, OJ, coconut water, honey, some fruits. it would just be some white bread like a burger bun once a week and ice cream once a week and then the small amounts added organic sugar in the coconut water (2g per 8oz added).
 

Jessie

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I'm not too sure, but I don't think so. I think eating nutritious foods results in a net positive mineral storage. When you take into consideration, even when eating a poor diet, it usually takes a prolonged period of time to develop severe deficiencies. If there was a net negative effect, then whenever the average person ate empty processed calories they would quickly develop a host of problems. And when you take into consideration the amount of people out here who eat empty calories on a daily basis, this would be a pandemic 50x the size of covid, lol.
 
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Dr. B

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I'm not too sure, but I don't think so. I think eating nutritious foods results in a net positive mineral storage. When you take into consideration, even when eating a poor diet, it usually takes a prolonged period of time to develop severe deficiencies. If there was a net negative effect, then whenever the average person ate empty processed calories they would quickly develop a host of problems. And when you take into consideration the amount of people out here who eat empty calories on a daily basis, this would be a pandemic 50x the size of covid, lol.
good points regarding the empty calories and nutrient deficiencies. it seems like nutrient poor carbs like white sugar, white rice, white bread, may not be that much an issue. the individual nutrient supplements like zinc, b vitamins, iron, copper etc seem much more dangerous and likely to cause deficiencies in other nutrients. maybe the empty calories just have a general depletionary effect on all the nutrients, so they don't really have an imbalance causing effect the way supplementing an individual nutrient like zinc, specific b vitamins or other vitamins would. bread is often vitamin fortified too, but its small amounts of iron and a few b vitamins, so since the dosage of fortification is low, the imbalance causing effect should also be low.
 
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