13 fruits and vegetables you shouldn’t peel – and 9 you should

The skin or peel of fruits and vegetables are generally higher in antioxidants, fibre, vitamins, and minerals than the flesh, according to dietitian, Malina Malkani. Unpeeled fruits and vegetables may have up to 33 per cent more fibre than those without the peel. And antioxidant levels in the skins of fruits could be up to 328 times higher than those found in the flesh, Malkani says.

Still, Alyssa Pike, dietitian and manager of nutrition communications for the International Food Information Council Foundation, says the amount of nutrients in each peel differs by the type of fruit or vegetable. And dietitian, Hillary Cecere, doesn’t recommend eating are the ones that are too tough or not tasty to eat. With that in mind, if your goal is also to increase the health-promoting nutrients in your diet, experts say it’s best to eat the following fruits and vegetables without peeling them. (And make sure you peel the rest!)

Malkani says it’s better to eat berries, cherries and grapes without peeling them. Aside from the fact that it’s challenging to peel cherries and grapes, and not really possible to peel most berries, the peels offer lots of antioxidants and nutrients. Grape skin is particularly beneficial since this part of the grape has the highest amount of antioxidants in the whole fruit.

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Peach, pear and plum skin each have a lot of fibre, nutrients and antioxidants. A 2013 study published in the journal Nutrition Research even found that removing peach skin results in 13 to 48 per cent fewer antioxidants. For fruits and vegetable you don’t peel, and those you do, always clean them thoroughly before eating.

Apples are one of the fruits Cecere especially recommends not peeling. “Apple skin has insoluble fibre, vitamin C, vitamin A, and the flavonoid quercetin,” she says. Although apple skins contain so many nutrients and fibre, they are a higher pesticide fruit. So make sure you wash them well or consider buying organic apples. Apples and apricots are some of the healthy foods that are more nutritious than you realised.

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Kiwi skins are surprisingly edible, Malkani says. The kiwi skin has lots of vitamin C, and eating it triples the amount of fibre, Cecere says. Try slicing it really thin to warm up to eating the fuzz, she suggests. As for cucumbers, you’ll want to keep the skin for the vitamin K, fibre and potassium – but you can do without that waxy layer. “Cucumber skins can be waxy, so be sure to wash well and even use a paper towel to rub off the waxy layer,” Cecere says.

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Keep the eggplant skin on if you want the extra fibre, flavonoids and magnesium, according to Cecere. Another reason to keep eggplant skin and zucchini skin on too is because of water. Both zucchini and eggplant have a high water concentration; zucchini is 95 per cent water, and eggplant is 92 per cent water. The skin of these veggies is where most of the nutrients are.

The peel of potatoes contains fibre, iron, vitamin C, potassium and folate, Cecere says. Instead of stripping away those nutritious benefits, use a vegetable brush to scrub the potato gently before cooking.

The peels of citrus fruits like lemons, limes and oranges are edible if you cook or grate the skin into zest, Malkani says. Oranges and other citrus fruits are not only some of the best antioxidant-rich foods you can eat, but their peel is also one of the food scraps you didn’t know you could eat.

Pumpkins, technically a fruit, and winter squashes, have skins you can only eat if you cook and soften them, Malkani says.

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Pineapples, papayas, mangos, bananas, melon and lychee are tropical fruits that you should always peel. These fruits have skins that are so hard to chew and digest that they are considered inedible, Malkani says.

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