
Death by Coconut: A Story of Food Obsession Gone Too Far - nkurz
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/03/457124796/death-by-coconut-a-story-of-food-obsession-gone-too-far
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DiabloD3
_" He believed that since the coconut grew high up in the tree, closest to God
and closest to the sun, it was godlike," says Kracht. "And since it had hair
and looked like a human head, he thought it came closest to being a man.
According to his rather crackpot theory, to be a cocovore was to be a
theophage — or eater of God."_

Then apparently I like to fry steaks in a couple of spoonfuls of liquid God,
and wash it down with the blood of Christ (ie, wine).

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stephenr
Why are you _frying_ steak?

If it's cut that can stand the heat of a grill/bbq, it will have enough fat in
it to keep itself moist and to prevent it from sticking, as the fat will start
to melt.

~~~
DiabloD3
Because every cut of steak is different. Some grill well, some go under the
broiler well, some fry well, some braise well.

And the way commercial butchers carve steaks nowadays, they cut off too much
fat. Its annoying.

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randogp
This Death by Coconut reminds me some mice from my colleague Jun.

These mice had a mutation in one gene but they were doing fine.

One Friday Jun gave them a chow diet from another supplier. The following
Monday all mutant mice were died, control mice were OK.

TLDR, the new diet contained coconut oil instead of lard. After more study,
this serendipitous observation led to discover a gene important for the break
down of vegetal fat.

The study:
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2013.08.032](http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2013.08.032)

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vezzy-fnord
_Kracht 's title Imperium has an ironic double meaning: the absolute power of
the coconut in Engelhardt's philosophy, and the imperialism of Germany._

The book's subject matter makes it fit even better when you consider
_Imperium_ is also the title of Francis Parker Yockey's opus.

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sokoloff
The comments on the NPR story are amusing.

