Vitamins, minerals… should we eat fruit with or without the skin ?

If you don't opt ​​for organic, then rinse your fruit under running water for about thirty seconds.

Like Samson who got his strength from his hair, many fruits enjoy their richness in nutrients, in their skin! A good reason to keep it before eating them ? Certainly, but pesticides ? State of affairs.

Between vitamins and other minerals, the skin of fruits contains a quantity of nutrients. Like that of the apple, rich in flavonoids and polyphenols, powerful antioxidants. "On average, it is estimated that the skin concentrates about 25% of the vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content of fruits and vegetables“, we read on the Food Observatory website. They are indeed an important source of vitamin C, pro-vitamin A, magnesium and potassium.

Two out of three fruits…

This richness is therefore an excellent reason to eat fruits with their skin. However, the ardor may be tempered by their pesticide content.

A large-scale inspection by the services of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) in 2019 showed that nearly two-thirds of the fruit samples (62.9%) concerned contained "quantifiable" pesticide residues.

Precautionary principle

However, this type of observation does not appear to call into question the benefits associated with the consumption of fresh fruit. However, like the High Council for Public Health (HCSP), the precautionary principle appears to be in place, highlighting products from organic farming or those said to be “untreated”.

In a 2017 opinion, its authors recommend in fact to “favor fruits and vegetables grown according to production methods that reduce exposure to pesticides (according to a precautionary principle)”.

Rinse!

If you do not opt ​​for organic, then rinse your fruit under running water for about thirty seconds, in order to eliminate traces of pesticides. This step seems essential. For the rest, as recommended by the UFC-Que-Choisir association, which has also carried out checks to assess the presence of pesticides on fruit and vegetables, “remove the skin for the most contaminated ones, such as peaches and even tomatoes“.

You will not deprive yourself of all the benefits of the fruits in question, since vitamins and other minerals also remain present under the skin, in the flesh of the food.