Ditch Your Peeler

The skins of these 5 vegetables and fruits are very nutritious for you

1.Apple

Research from Cornell University has found that the chewy apple peel has up to 87 percent more cancer--fighting phytochemicals than the sweet white flesh inside.

Tip: If a fully dressed apple is hard to swallow, dip your slices in creamy peanut butter to mask the skin's texture and deliver a powerful protein/carb combo.

2.Cucumber

The peel of this super-low-calorie fruit is made of silica, a building block of skin--plumping, wrinkle-preventing collagen. There's no recommended minimum intake for silica, but experts suggest at least five milligrams a day--the amount you'll get in the peel of one cucumber.

Tip: Go organic. Regular cukes usually are treated with a coat of gack--inducing wax to preserve their shelf life, whereas organically grown ones often are left naked.

3.Egg Plant

Strip one of these purple beauties and you're out about 300 milligrams of nasunin, an antioxidant that may prevent brain-cell damage. Worse, you lose 200-plus milli-grams of muscle-cramp--preventing potassium, 13 milligrams of mmunity-building magnesium, and three grams of belly-slimming fiber.

Tip: If it's nestled in low-fat cheese and sauce, you'll never notice that the eggplant in your eggplant Parmesan wasn't peeled--as long as you use it ASAP after you buy it. The skin gets bitter as it ages

4.Kiwi

Chemical compounds in the fuzzy peel have been found to fight off bugs like staph and E. coli.

Tip: Don't want to feel like you're eating a caterpillar? Pulverize your kiwi in a smoothie, cut paper-thin slices and mix them into salad, or bite right into the new gold variety, which has less fur.

5.Oranges

The outer peel contains d-limonene, the mortal enemy of UV rays everywhere. A University of Arizona study found that eating one teaspoon of orange peel per week reduced skin cancer risk by 30 percent.

Tip: Instead of biting into the rind, sprinkle orange zest on salmon or mix it into salsa and salads.