17 hours Ago
OK, I’ll admit it — I’m in a cult. And it’s not just me — in other devotees. Who’s the figurehead? A little jar of yogurt.
It’s right there in the name: Coconut Cult — the $39 yogurt that makes you “hotter,” “thinner,” curls your hair, mows the yard and renews your car’s extended warranty. OK, I’m having a little fun with hyperbole, but a lot of TikTokers really are claiming that it “ ” stomachs. So, what’s the real deal? Well, first of all, the includes insulated and ice-packed shipping for a 16-ounce container delivered to your home, but if you can find it in a store near you, it’s half that price.
I buy it in 8-ounce containers for about $10, and because it’s more like a spoonful of supplement than a bowl of breakfast, that lasts about two weeks. It comes in Original, Chocolate Mousse and Strawberry Harvest flavors, with fun limited editions, too. As a registered dietitian, I have zero appetite for hyping , and that’s why I’m not thrilled with some of the buzz about this yogurt on social media; I’m a lot more interested in the science of the possible health benefits than whether it gives me or anyone else a slimmer profile.
But yes, although I also eat a lot of vegetables and whole grains, I really do eat Coconut Cult on a regular basis (pun very much intended). And that brings us to our second point: The supposed ab-flattening isn’t so much about magic fat-burning or crunches in a jar — it’s about, well, poop. If your belly is functioning regularly, you’ll usually have less bloating.
Most live culture yogurts can help with some aspects of digestive health, but this one is in a different class. Not only are the cultures live — they are legion. Coconut Cult claims to have 50 billion CFUs (colony-forming units) in just one 2-ounce serving.
The label also lists 16 different microbes, some of which are linked to things like , and . Is this possibly true? Is it safe? Is it crazy to spend $10 on a cup of yogurt? I caught up with self-described Cult Leader (it’s even on his business cards) and founder, Noah Simon-Waddell, to get the skinny — and it’s a wild ride. Ten years ago, Simon-Waddell was a Los Angeles-based comedy writer, and he was miserable.
“I was hoping it was going to be a creative and fulfilling experience, but it wasn’t,” he says. “It was stifling and depressing.” Serious health problems rooted in inflammation added to his misfortune, and he made big changes to his diet, giving up processed foods and tinkering with homemade yogurt, which he eventually tried making with his expensive, hopefully anti-inflammatory probiotic supplements.
He’s not claiming it cured him, but he does say it made him feel better. It also tasted better. Coconut Cult is the only plant-based yogurt I’ve ever had that has that zing you get from a really tangy dairy yogurt.
It’s almost electric, like carbonation on my tongue. “It made me feel great, and I was sharing it with my friends and family, and they were asking me for more and more,” he says, explaining how he went from a film degree to the yogurt business. He realized that there might be a market for this unique product, but it was also that creative outlet he was craving.
He started joking about starting a cult over this sensational yogurt. “I wanted it to be mysterious,” he says, “I want to play with people, have fun with it and tell a story.” The label certainly does just that.
Last year, I went looking for a food containing Lactobacillus plantarum for a client’s specific health concerns and found Coconut Cult. “We’re kind of religious about probiotics,” its , and as a microbiome nerd who somewhat infamously has a , I was intrigued. I wanted to try it myself before suggesting it to a client, and after digesting the initial sticker shock, I’ve never looked back.
As for safety, , there is precedent. Most commercial probiotics have at least a few billion CFUs, but some do have up to 50 billion, or even over 100 billion when prescribed . When you keep in mind that the average human body has about , numbering in the trillions, 50 billion starts to sound like peanuts.
However, for some medical conditions, probiotics and fermented foods . We are barely out of the Dark Ages on this topic. We don’t yet know how or when to alter a particular person’s microbiome to get a particular result, and .
Sometimes the same probiotic will work wonders for one person but make another feel terrible, and I often liken the process of finding the right balance to trying to fix a watch with a hammer. Still, we have about the roles microbes play in gut health, mental health and chronic disease, and with more peer-reviewed research, I expect deeper, actionable understanding. Some of the best evidence is , and probiotics in food than in a capsule, so maybe I’m in a yogurt cult? I think it depends.
If I were favoring how I look over how I feel, or ignoring my doctor’s advice in favor of media personalities with a financial stake, I might say that’s cultish. For this one “hack” that I actually kind of like, there are literally thousands that horrify me as a clinician. As things are, I’m not actually blindly worshipping the little jar — I’m a devotee of the system.
It’s my fellow humans and the scientific wonder of our microbiome that I love. I’m thrilled when someone feels better in their own body, as long as it comes from a healthy relationship with food, self-compassion and science, but that’s not as related to flat abs as you might assume. Just remember that there is no single magic bullet, ever.
Since we can only culture a tiny fraction of the microbes found in a healthy person’s gut, one of the best ways to address the microbiome is still to eat a healthy, high-fiber diet, and there are thousands of foods that can help. Take a good look. Which can you afford? Which do you enjoy? Which do your medical providers recommend for you? And then, if the spoon fits, eat it! Heather Martin is a registered dietitian, and writer who contributes to ’s Food and Health sections.
She encourages you to try all kinds of food in moderation, even the weird ones..
