Eating passion fruit peel stuffed with ground meat or making roasted pumpkin seeds a snack between meals may seem strange to most people, but the habit of enjoying even what seems to be disposable from food is superpositive to health, the environment and your pocket. The first step is to look at food with different eyes and understand that various parts of fruits and vegetables, which we usually throw in the trash, are important sources of nutrients and can be delicious alternatives to everyday diet.
According to sports nutritionist Carla Maione, the benefits of this use are several, since the process starts from the harvest of fruits and vegetables, through the purchase, preparation until reaching the table. The unnecessary disposal of food generates a great socio-environmental impact, since, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about a third of these supplies do not reach the population’s table and this is equivalent to 1.3 billion tons of food waste in landfills around the world.
Does everyone eat peels and vegetable shavings in a good way?
Even with alarming numbers and there is a need to balance the balance “waste x hunger”, there is still a lot of prejudice when it comes to enjoying the food as a whole. Carla Maione says that most people think that husks and seeds are useless and this drives an uncontrolled waste production.
“Sometimes, when peeling an onion, for example, instead of removing those top lids and a small layer of peel, people unnecessarily dispose of a larger part. We can use the peels for medicinal purposes, seeds for herbal medicine and fertilizer. Barks, stems and seeds are rich in nutrients and are largely wasted by lack of knowledge. Some foods have more fiber in the peels and leaves than in the pulp itself, for example ”.
Before eating, sanitize your food very well
It is very important to know the origin of everything we eat on a daily basis, but, as this is not always possible, washing the vegetables very well before cooking them becomes a rule. Carla explains that organic foods are the most suitable for any food planning, as they are grown without the use of pesticides and pesticides that are harmful to health. This type of production has a higher cost and hinders the presence of organics in the Brazilian dish, but the nutritionist says that it is possible to consume all the food as long as there is care in choosing the product.
“We can learn to identify the color of the fruit’s stem, for example. If the peduncle has a clear substance, as if it were a white powder, look for another option, as there is an excess of chemicals in the region. We must distrust the beautiful too! The pesticide is a poison that protects against the attack of pests, therefore, an intact food, without spots or holes is full of pesticides ”, she points out.
Carla also makes it clear that in cleaning, in addition to washing the vegetable under running water, it is necessary to soak it in a mixture of one liter of water with a dessert spoon of chlorine or bleach. It is recommended to do this procedure two days before eating the food, as it is the time to ensure that consumption is free of freshly applied chemical additives.