Fruit - The Nasty Bits. page 4

[mzteaze]

While I won't eat the peels from oranges and other citrus, if you are concerned about getting the most out of them, add them to white vinegar and make a non-toxic cleaning solution for your home that smells good too.

You could also do the honey/citrus (and ginger) thing by adding the peels to honey and leaving the jar in the fridge. Make a tea with it (or hot toddy) when feeling ill.

I would suggest sticking to organic citrus IF you intend on eating it.

[Knifegill]

Tomatoes are still poisonous. Eating them gives me uncontrollable twitches and rosacea, almost instantly and for days after.

I've been eating organic orange peels since I started this thread, and will continue to do so. I really like the taste and it seems to tighten my skin like green tea and some spices do.

[Damiana]

Orange and lemon peels add an interesting flavor to food when used correctly.

[Leida]

Citrus peels are perfectly edible when cooked. Particularly lemon. I eat my lemons after I am done with the tea or cofee that itw as flavoring. Yum. When I was on CW, I ate orange peels, I was so hungry. But properly, citrus peels should be cooked by other fermentation with salt or preserved with sugar as candied peels. Same goes for melons/watermelons peels.

Banana peels I dig under the rose bushes, lol.

Apple seeds are toxic but a few a day seem to be helpful for heart conditions.

With caution, apricot, peaches and plum stones can cracked like nuts and the seed inside sometimes eaten - if it is not bitter (poisons). It can also be added to the jams made from the flesh of these stone fruit.

[BestBetter]

Do you have any idea what kind of toxic fungicides, pesticides, and industrial waxes they coat fruits and vegetables with? I wouldn't want to put that nastiness into my body even once; it deserves the garbage! I read that all fruits and vegetables, even those labeled 'certified organic' are automatically sprayed with a bunch of fungicides at the U.S. border to prevent an accidental infestation.

If you were able to grow things in your garden, eating those outer coatings is still not a great idea because they are essentially all comprised of cellulose, which is indigestible and likely to give you digestive issues in the future. Plus, my understanding is that nutrition bound in cellulose is rendered unavailable, so even if you were able to shove all those peels down your pipes, you probably wouldn't actually be absorbing enough nutrition to make it worthwhile.

I fully support the composting suggestion, it seems like a much better way to not let those peels go to waste.

[diene]

Don't eat apple seeds or the inner seed from peach pits, as they have potentially uncomfortable levels of cyanide.

The cyanide compound in apple seeds and peach/apricot pits is called amygdalin, and some people believe that it can be used to treat cancer. Amygdalin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The theory, I believe, is that the compound tends to accumulate in cancer cells and is only broken down into cyanide in cancer cells. I have no idea if this theory has any merit, but it is true that some compounds, like fluorescein, accumulate in certain types of cancer cells. I know a family that has been taking laetrile, a synthetic derivative of amygdalin that is also known as vitamin B17 (it is actually laetrile that people think is the cancer cure) for years and are still alive and healthy. But they buy it from Mexico, and the Wikipedia article says that laetrile sold in Mexico is usually amygdalin.

I am not saying that I believe amygdalin/laetrile has cancer-curing properties, nor do I recommend that anyone take these compounds or consume apple seeds. I'm just pointing it out because I have nothing better to do right now. I also consume apple seeds (making a point to chew them so that they don't pass right through) whenever I eat apples (not that frequently because of the fructose) and have not yet died.

[Gorbag]

I have always used to eat some of the white stuff inside the peel of oranges, grapefruits and bananas. I also eat the skin of the grapefruit seeds. I think it is healthy since I have done it instinctively from my early childhood, but I have nothing scientific to back it up...

[katemary]

Don't eat apple seeds or the inner seed from peach pits, as they have potentially uncomfortable levels of cyanide.

Yes! I remember a Trixie Belden (teen girl detective) novel where in the end she deduced the killer was the apple seeds in the Wardolf salad. Trixie wouldn't be wrong!

[Kata]

I put orange rinds in the filter with my coffee. Sometimes raw, sometimes dried. Either way is good and it adds a little depth to the coffee. I always peel the white stuff off so that just the rind is left. I don't know why I do that, I started doing it because I saw my grandmother doing it. Not sure there's any particular reason, now that I think about it.

[Jesster]

My dad was painting a house in the autumn and the lady who owned it said he could help himself to the apples that were in the orchard. They were Cox's Pippins, in season and quite delicious. He ate a load of them, cores and pips and all and later collapsed and his face went a bit blue and he had to be rushed to hospital.

He leaves apple cores nowadays.....