I was disappointed to learn recently from my Uncle (erstwhile Parish doctor of St Philip, Barbados) that the claim in the Belafonte song "Coconut Woman" that "Coco got a lot of iron, make you strong like a lion" is actually not true at all. There is only a trace amount of iron in coconut. Coconut is evidently a very good source of potassium though.
On the other hand when I select fruit at the St. Catharines Sobeys, I do continue to abide by his important warning in "The Banana Boat Song" that "A beautiful bunch a' ripe banana hide the deadly black tarantula."
Belafonte's confusion over the nutritional benefits of coconut water may have its origins in that fact that Belafonte was a native of Harlem in New York City, although his Mum was an immigrant from Jamaica and his father from Martinique.
