You’ve heard it for years: an apple’s nutrients are in the skin.
But is that fact or fiction? And do you lose all of the nutritional value if you peel the apple?
The simple truth: Most of the nutrients are in the skin, yes, but not all of them.
Apples offer fiber, potassium, antioxidants, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and K either way. However, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s FoodData Central, a raw apple with skin contains:
- Up to 332 percent more vitamin K
- 142 percent more vitamin A
- 115 percent more vitamin C
- 20 percent more calcium
- About 20 percent more potassium.
If you’re anything like us, you would much rather bite through that tasty skin than peel the apple anyway, so we get the best of it all. But if you prefer to peel ‘em before you eat ‘em, the old adage of “an apple a day” still applies.
