There is often more nutrition in the peel of the fruit or veggie, and yet we often discard it.One of the things I am going to discuss in my next course is food waste. In the US 40% of the food we have goes to waste.
Mostly because we don’t know all these little tricks and my upcoming course has many to share with you. But I want to wet your whistle by freely sharing about peels, and today I want to discuss onion peels.
There is more nutrition in the peel than in the meat of the onion. We need the “meat”, its a probiotic so it feeds our good gut bacteria, so its very healthy as well, but save the skins and get the rest of the amazing benefits that onions have to offer.Don’t throw those onion skins away. They are loaded with nutrition. (Save your garlic skins as well, I will discuss them separately in another post.)
Why do plants produce phytonutrients? To protect themselves, so it makes sense that the concentration would be in the outer skin. Phytonutrients protect the plant from UV rays, from funguses and disease, even from pests eating them, and they often will repel animal life. What’s amazing is that these amazing chemicals are often incredibly helpful for us as well and we are just starting to learn how to harness all these healing chemicals in plants.There is more nutrition in the peel than in the meat of the onion. We need the “meat”, it’s a probiotic so it feeds our good gut bacteria, so its very healthy as well, but save the skins and get the rest of the amazing benefits that this vegetable has to offer.The skin is loaded with vitamins A, C and E. It is also loaded with B9 B6 and potassium. Its also got phytonutrients and the most important is quercetin. Quercetin has become a favorite of mine since I have been studying health. I have had skin rashes and hay fever my whole life. I now take a quercetin supplement with nettle and bromelain, and it works better than any antihistamine ever did. The big pharm antihistamine cause other troubles in the body. The one I was taking has now been shown to cause dementia. Yikes, so quercetin is my miracle to keep all my allergies at bay.Onion skins also have Sulfur compounds. These are mainly sulfides and polysulfides, which may protect against cancer.
And onion skins has Thiosulfinates. These sulfur-containing compounds may inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms and prevent the formation of blood clots.Keep onions and their skins away from your animals. They can be poisonous. However, Quercetin is also good for dog lovers because if you pup is suffering from skin problems, quercetin is natures natural antihistamine, check out Dr. Karen Beckers website, and quercetin can resolve the issue without steroids, (which again cause other issues).
Just don’t give the onion quercetin to your dog, or cat get it from other sources or as a supplement from a holistic vet.
To use the skin from any fruit and veggie, you MUST buy ORGANIC. One of the purposes of my new course is how can you get the biggest bang for your buck by buying quality food that doesn’t have herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides on it. Organic eliminates the toxins and you can’t wash them off, they have grown up right into the plant, They have also gone down to our ground water and come out of our water tap and go into our streams, rivers and oceans killing off wild animals and nature, and they go up into the air and cause pollution, so organic is more important that you can imagine.As I discuss each plant in my course, I have been looking up what is sprayed on it. Even if it is on the “clean” list, it’s got all kinds of poison sprayed on it. Really, we don’t need to be eating poison under any circumstance.
Ok, so back to onions. To start, find onions that have lots of skins and that completely cover the onion without breaks. When you get it home, it can stay on the kitchen counter. Do not wash it until you are ready to use it. And then wash it in cold water and a little bit of baking soda. We now take the skins and put them into a plastic baggie in our freezer and we are accumulating onion skins for our next use. This is true for white, brown and purple onions. The brown have a brown dye in them and the red red onions also contain high levels of anthocyanins, beneficial pigments that are also anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial, and thus can contribute to glowy skin.
So, what can we do with the skins?We make soup a lot, so the skins get added when we start to make broth. We have just been putting them right into the pot and then straining them out later, but you could also put them in a nylon stocking so that they are easier to remove.Add it when cooking rice or quinoa to add flavor to the dish.
What else can you do? Make a tea. Put them in hot water and boil them for 10 minutes. This tea has many uses.· You can gargle with it to get rid of a sore throat, gargling every hour for relief.· You can drink it before bed to sleep better· Drink it to eliminate leg cramps at night.· You can use is on your hair as a rinse to eliminate dandruff.· You can dye your light hair to a golden brown with it.· You can just drink it, it has so many benefits from lowering high blood pressure, it will lower excess cholesterol, it is good for your skin.· It slows aging.· The tea can even stabilize blood sugar.If you don’t like the taste, brew it with green tea. Adding the green tea can help boost the bioavailability of the epicatechins—the main beneficial compounds, like EGCG, in green tea. EGCG can combat inflammation, boost weight loss, and help fight off various chronic diseases, like heart disease and diabetes.Dabbing the onion skin liquid can kill fungal infections like athletes’ foot.It can help heal wounds and sooth insect bites.It can kill parasites in the intestine.They are loaded with fiber, so grind them in with a pestle and mortar and add 1 teaspoon to breads or savory dishes.
You can even dye Easter eggs with them. They can even dye fabric.And in the end, the onion skins are great if you make your own compost.You have more an amortized the extra you spent to make the onion an organic onion. Food Quality Matters, and I want you to learn how to get the biggest bang for your buck. Your body will be grateful, your family will be grateful and the environment will be grateful.