Growing up I had the fine opportunity to eat fruit right from the tree. One of my favorite parts of citris fruit was the peel. As I grew older I succumbed to the habit of Americans to throw away the peel and just eat the fruit. This was mostly due to the advice from some to avoid the pesticides and harmful wax/polish chemicals used in industrial growing, but also to avoid being teased as a peel-eater. Kumquats were one of the few things I could get away with.

Well, lo and behold, mom was right and the nutrients are really best consumed in the peel:

Salvestrol Q40 is found at higher concentrations in tangerine peel, than in the flesh of the fruit.

The researchers suggest the modern trend to throw away peel may have contributed to a rise in some cancers.

The center is probably designed, very intelligently, to make the peel more palatable. The idea that there should be something that is “garbage” or something to dispose for everything good may be a completely artificial notion. When you think about it, the food industry has been isolating and focusing on the wrong success factors. Industry has been completely mistaken in their race to harness sweet and succulent products, without regard to complex nutrients, and create a disposable wrapper for everything they sell.

This reminds me of companies that ask if they can be made more secure, even more compliant, without actually doing anything that would cost them money. I tell them they might as well ask me if they can be fit without exercise, healthy without eating food.

Security is sometimes described as a harsh pill, but if more business leaders learned to raise their companies on a better diet they would have far fewer emergencies later in life.

I love peel.