I personally don't peel any carrots or parsnips or potato - I scrub them and then cut of the top bottom and any areas that I don't like.
I actually didn't want to peel the carrots today, but after I washed them, they got a disgusting color (which also happens when the peel is removed), so I peeled them anyway.
Many thanks for the great links, very good information there.
I do look to buy organic, and in my area organic carrots are often same, or close to the same, price.
Maybe I should try that as well. But here vegetables and fruit are often 2 to 4 times as expensive, I think.
Although some pesticides enter fruit and vegetable flesh
Holy sh...I didn't even know that (thank godness). Maybe it would have been better to leave it at that.
I knew that eating the peel would provide more nutrients, but not that it would be that many.
For instance, the peels of avocados and honeydew melon are considered inedible, regardless of whether they are consumed cooked or raw.
Other fruit and vegetable peels, such as those from pineapples, melons, onions, and celeriac, can have a tough texture that is difficult to chew and digest. These peels are generally best removed and not eaten.
Furthermore, while some vegetable peels are considered edible, they are not very appetizing for most when raw. Examples are winter squash and pumpkin peels, which are best consumed after cooking to allow the peels to become soft.
Citrus fruits also have tough and bitter skins that can be difficult to consume raw. These are generally best consumed as a zest or cooked, or simply discarded.
So are nutrients in these peels at all?
Citrus fruits also have tough and bitter skins that can be difficult to consume raw.
So one really could consider eating the peel of a citrone? Or an orange?
For example, a recent review reports that around 41% of pesticide residues found on fruits was removed by washing with water, while up to twice as much was removed through peeling (22Trusted Source).
I do not understand this, twice as much? So up to 82 %? So there are up to 123 % pesticides in total? Where is my mistake in thinking? And so if you eat the fruit with the peel you eat up to 49 % of pesticides? Doesn't that sound like a lot? Or do I understand nothing? And how much pesticides remain in the pulp?
Nevertheless, the risk of consuming slightly more pesticides may not necessarily outweigh the benefit of the greater amount of nutrients in the skins.
Actually, that doesn't sound like "slightly" more at all (maybe because I get it wrong).
The amount of pesticides allowed on fresh foods is tightly regulated.
Farmers in many countries or many countries don't seem to care about this at all. Or rather, there are no such (tight) regulations in the first place.
Pesticides are used in farming to kill weeds and insects. This article explores whether the pesticide residues in foods are harmful to human health.
www.healthline.com
To sum up that, you can easily say (it couldn't be easier) that you simply don't know (and much more, of course) whether you should eat peeled fruits/vegetables or unpeeled ones, because you have no idea to what extent the chemicals remaining in a vegetable/fruit affect you (and how badly you needed the nutrients that you wouldn't eat if the peel were removed, because of course you don't know how vulnerable you would be to certain diseases that could perhaps have been prevented or alleviated by eating the peel) and how much one needs special nutrients. Some people are more or lesse susceptible for such kind of residues, others perhaps not. Some people puke when they get into an S-Class model, others don't.
I was surprised to hear that cooking releases additional nutrients as I assumed raw carrots were always better-
Incredibly, that was the only information I knew.
You would really like the book "Whole" by Colin Campbell (also author of the China Study)
Many thanks! Just downloaded it.