Is coconut water considered a fruit juice?

[Julia Bancroft]

I've always thought of coconut water as separate from fruit juices, but now that I've started the whole 30, I'm wondering how it falls into the rules. Is a fruit juice, and therefore not acceptable?

I do not drink it regularly--maybe once a month, really. Still, I wanted to clarify that point!

[Johnny M]

I don't think coconut water is compliant. It's not necessarily the best thing you could be drinking. Even if it's natural, there's a decent amount of sugar in that stuff and we're fans of limiting extra sugar in our diets where it's not necessary.

Here's a related post from whole9life with some great comments on the topic.

http://whole9life.com/2010/08/replenishment-drinks/

[Sarah Milcetic]

Curious if this discussion (and Melissa's comments on the linked page) apply to all forms of coconut water or just the commonly available processed coconut water. I always thought I didn't like coconut water until I had some straight out of a coconut in Costa Rica. Sometimes I buy a whole coconut and drink the water. I've recently been seeing a raw/organic bottled coconut water that tastes the same as straight out of the coconut. I'm thinking it might be similar to orange juice where you shouldn't get the bottle but it's okay to eat a whole orange, so also okay to eat coconut and drink the water from the whole coconut...?

[Melissa Urban]

Fruit juice is not off limits during your Whole30, it's just not encouraged. Coconut water (from a bottle or straight from the source) is kind of like a watery fruit juice - the average serving has about 9g of sugar. It's not off limits for your program, but we prefer to use them as occasional treats, and not our main hydration. Really, there's little special about it - it's just sugar water! (But, yes, also delicious.)

Melissa