Dietician shares one food you need to eat more of - and it's not protein

Making sure we eat enough fruit is important to maintaining a healthy and balanced diet, and it’s a great source of fibre, too. But you could be getting even more fibre in your diet by eating this one piece of tropical fruit that many people often chuck away instead. While the skin on fruit might appear offputting, there are many that are packed with fibre that simply go to waste when they’re not eaten.

One dietician has shared that eating the skin of one fruit in particular could help you “double your fibre intake". In a video posted to TikTok , dietician Abbey Sharp shared that she eats kiwi skin. While many might find the idea of eating kiwi skin off-putting, especially given its fur-like texture, the skin actually contains more fibre and antioxidants than the flesh.



But Abbey reassured viewers that you don’t necessarily have to eat the fur in order to get more fibre. Instead, you can simply scrub the fur off using a brush or even scrape it away with a spoon and eat the skin as usual. A standard-sized kiwi without the skin contains about two grams of fibre, but when the skin is left on, this almost doubles to 3.

5 grams of fibre per portion, making it a simple way to increase how much fibre you’re consuming. One commenter shared: “I’ll never forget the day my four-year-old ate the whole kiwi, and I ran to Google to make sure that’s safe just to find out that’s the best way to eat them", while another said: "The skin is easily the best part of fruits and veggies.” It’s not just kiwis that are good for fibre intake, either.

In the video, Abbey explained that you can “basically double the fibre of fruit by simply eating the skin", including pears, apples, peaches and apricots. “Your gut does not want you to waste the peel", she added. Fibre is an essential part of our diets, feeding good bacteria in our gut and helping to aid digestion.

But it’s not advised to eat the skin of all fruits, especially those fruits with tough skin that’s often inedible. It’s generally advised to avoid eating the skin from fruits like pineapples, lychees and melon, and if you are leaving the skin on fruit, you should always rinse it thoroughly with cool water before consuming it..