

RELATED: You've been neglecting avocados' most nutritious bits your whole life How to eat fruit peel

“Unless the produce has been grown organically, the peel could have residues from the pesticides used left on it, which may not be ideal for consumption.” If you’re concerned about pesticides, Landau recommends going organic. It also found the nutritious benefits of fruit peel outweigh potential dangers of minimal remnants of pesticides, and advised rigorously washing fruit and vegetables before eating them is the best way to remove dirt and possible chemical residue.
Benefits of eating grapefruit skin#
You might be concerned that by eating the fruit peel, you could also be ingesting more of the pesticides farmers often use on their crops.īut a recent in-depth study by Consumer Reports, a non-profit organisation that conducts research and investigative journalism into consumer issues, concluded that removing the skin does not significantly change the pesticide level of produce. Researchers recommended that instead of being thrown away at a mass food production level, citrus fruit peel should be used to make nutritional dietary supplements, since it’s rich in bioactive compounds, cheap and freely available. The power of citrus fruit skin was evident in a 2016 study published in the Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences. RELATED: What is pectin, and should you avoid apple peel because of it? “The Zespri SunGold kiwifruit is another great option for those that are happy to consume the peel and boost their dietary fibre intake this way.” “As well as being a good source of dietary fibre, these components can have potential anti-cancer or anti-inflammatory effects. “In some fruits, such as citrus fruits, apples and apricots, the peel can be a highly nutritious component rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals,” Kara Landau, gut health expert, dietitian and founder of Travelling Dietitian, explained to Coach. Pectin is a prebiotic, meaning it becomes food for probiotics, helping the good bacteria that live in the human gut to survive and thrive.

Grapefruit and other citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons and mandarins have the highest levels of pectin of any produce, and most of the good stuff is in the peel. Grapefruit is another one most of us would never think to eat the skin of, but it turns out the bitter fruit’s peel is packed with pectin, a soluble fibre the human gut loves. We don’t think twice about eating the peel of some fruits (apples, peaches, plums, grapes) while others go in the bin – looking at you, bananas, oranges and kiwifruit.
