Eat the peel and the core

by Aryn Aiken

    It’s almost universally known that the skin of a fruit is its most nutritious asset. However, we consistently continue to peel and throw it away. I’ve always avoided eating entire baked potatoes unless forced because I thought eating the skin of a potato was gross. Kiwi skin might be weird and fuzzy but, like potato skin, it is still meant for consumption. The same goes for cores of apples and pears. I remember my aunt telling me that only horses eat the whole apple, but the core is just as edible and nutritious as the rest of the apple. The idea that peel and “cores” of fruits and vegetables aren’t really edible, leads to the waste of viable nutrients and contributes to 90 billion pounds of consumer-level food waste in the United States, as reported by the USDA in 2014. The food we waste “represents 387 billion calories…of food not available for human consumption per day.” So try eating all of your apple, all the “white stuff” on your orange slices, all the skin on you kiwi, all the bruised parts of your banana. Eat all your fruits and veggies whole, but if you must dispose of food waste, compost it at the Return Recycling bins in the Silver Center. (product placement made possible by the DURF)

     Check out this list of yummy fruit and veggie peels and this video, “How to Eat an Apple like a Boss.”