IS THE GOOD STUFF IN THE PEEL?

“You say that we should peel commercial fruits and vegetables. However, it is widely and repeatedly reported that most of the beneficial natural stuff in fruits and veggies reside in the *peel* and surface. So peeling your fruit, veggies, etc. greatly reduces the benefits they would give you?”

ANSWER: It’s a misconception to think that everything that goes in our mouths is assimilated. Nutritionists have a very linear way of thinking. Their scientists analyze foods in laboratories and say: Oranges have more vitamin C, therefore eat more oranges — and the peel of fruits has more vitamins, therefore eat more of the peel! They forget that the peel of fruits is indigestible. It clearly goes out almost intact in the stools. All of the fruit-eating animals in nature peel their fruits. Monkeys will even peel grapes! But of course, no one *taught* them nutrition.

The flesh of the fruit is the part that we’re supposed to eat, not the peel. If the peel contains tons of pesticides, will you eat it nonetheless just for the *vitamins* it may contain, that you might not even digest anyway?

Many poisonous plants contain lots of vitamins. You could pretty much take any living plant on the face of the earth and find some useful vitamin in them! But the point is that we should be eating the foods that give use the most with the least expenditure of energy. More isn’t always *more*.