They are an acquired taste, at best, but the often tough and tasteless cores and peels of fruit and vegetables are in some ways more nutritious than the juicy flesh they contain.
That’s according to nutritionists at King's College London (KCL), who found that what are typically binned as scraps can have "up to five times" as much fibre as the rest of the fruit.
In 10 of the 12 fruit or vegetable items analysed, there was more fibre in so-called throwaways such as rinds and stalks, with watermelon rinds and butternut squash seeds listed among the unheralded sources.
"Just 100g of butternut squash skin and seeds could provide nearly one-third of your daily recommended fibre intake," the researchers said.
Best of all are pineapple peels and cores, the team said, as these are five times as fibrous as the tangy fruit itself.
Thinking "root to tip" is a "viable strategy for increasing dietary fibre intake," the team said in a paper published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition.
Eating those overlooked sections could in turn help reduce the growing environmental burden of food waste and inflation-hit shoppers better manage their spending.
"This isn’t just a nutritional loss, it’s also a financial one; you’re effectively throwing away a substantial portion of what you’ve paid for," said Rachel Gibson of KCL’s Department of Nutritional Sciences.
"At home we can do things such as leaving skins on kiwi fruit, using broccoli stalks in stir-fries, or incorporating bell pepper seeds into dishes," Gibson suggested. – dpa
