Nutrition facts and health benefits of fruit peel

YOU TOO CAN FLOURISH FROM RUBBISH;  FACIAL RECOVERY WITH GARBAGE

Don’t forget you read it here first

Fruit peel, in general, is discarded in the majority of common fruits even when it found safe for consumption. Here are some salient points to mark why fruit skin is recognized as one of the essential components of our diet since it holds many vital nutrients and non-nutrient compounds that play an important role in well being.

1. Fruit peel of some of the common fruits like blueberries, grapes , guava, and kumquat carry higher concentration of anti-oxidants such as anthocyanin pigments, tannins, catechins …etc than in their flesh (pulp). Blue or purple colour fruit peels are rich in anthocyanidin glycosides while yellow colour fruits havexanthin, carotenes and lutein pigments. Major components of these pigments are present just underneath its outer layer of skin.

2. Peel is rich source of rough dietary fibres, also known as NSP (non-soluble polysaccharides), such as hemi-cellulose, pectin, tannins, gum …etc. These compounds increase the bulk to the food, and help prevent constipation by reducing gastro-intestinal transit time. They further bind to the toxin chemicals in the food and protect their expose to gut mucus membrane and thereby offer protection from colon cancer risk. Furthermore, dietary fibres bind firmly to bile salts (produced from cholesterol) and eliminate them from the gut, thus in turn

help lower serum LDL cholesterol levels.

3. Peel is low in calories, sugar, and fats; and is free from cholesterol. It adds bulk to the food and helps cut down overall calorie intake.

4. The fruit peel of some fruits, indeed, contains considerable amounts of mineral and vitamins, especially in guava and citrus category fruits. Certain fruit, like in orange, the peel holds rather higher levels of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) than its juice. 100 g of fresh orange-peel provides 136 mg per 100 g of vitamin C while its flesh contains just about 71 mg/100 g.

5. Likewise, fruit peel is a rich source of vitamin A, B-complex vitamins, minerals such as calcium, selenium, manganese, zinc...etc., several fold more than its pulp.

6. Recent scientific trial studies suggest that certaincompounds in passion fruit peel has bronchodilator effect and can help relieve broncho spasm in asthma patients. A trial study conducted by Watson RR and his colleagues at Tuscon University AZ, suggests that oral administration of the purple passion fruit peel extract reduces wheeze and cough and improves shortness of breath in adults with asthma.