we already talked about banana peels (which i decided were just too filling to eat) and capsicum seeds (which i still have a stash of in the fridge). i'm also leaning towards grinding up guava seeds. but, let's be more systematic in trying to figure out how to consume these items, if i'm going to at all. i'm wondering, for example, if baking avocado peels or seeds and adding it to the pasta bowl is a good idea - that way i could eat the avocado fruit for breakfast, and use the peel for lunch. that might even help keep costs down by removing something else. so, how can i be resourceful about this, in ensuring i'm getting maximum nutrition for minimal cost?
avocado
if you search for information about avocado pits, you'll see a lot of poorly written articles, arguing one thing or the other. they all want to tell a narrative about how they're "unsafe" or "harmless" or "healthy", but none of them provide much data to back up their claims.
it took quite a while for me to find this article:
i was hoping it might have some more vitamin e and maybe some b5 in it, it is after all a seed, but it really doesn't seem like it.
so, should we eat avocado seeds? are they "safe"? i'm going to have to argue that they're just not that nutritious - that all you're going to get out of a 20 g seed is a decent shot of vitamin c, which is just going to get destroyed if you try to cook it, which is likely necessary to get around the persin.
likewise, i can't find any useful data about avocado peels, although what i've learned is that you'd better cook them good if you want to think about eating them. so, for example, you could consider baking them, or perhaps frying them. but, i'm not seeing any good reason to, at this point. while it is true that they appear to be high in polyphenols, and that is what most of the research seems to be focused on, these are the types of antioxidants that we can't absorb. so, you'd have to crush it up and inject it, or it won't do anything at all. on top of that, frying or baking has the potential to destroy whatever might be useful.
so, i'd like to find a use for these extra avocado parts, but it seems like i'm going to have to just dump them in the woods. unfortunately...
guava
i've been putting the guava seeds (and the syrup they're housed in) in the freezer for about a month now, and i have a full margarine container of them, at this point. i was hoping to grind them up, but i'm again not seeing any reason to think that would be helpful. these seeds are very, very hard and the only research i've found is, again, about things like polyphenols and "essential oils". if there are any vitamins, i can't prove it - so i don't see the use in bothering.
what i think i should do is begin to dissolve this part of the fruit in a solution of water and then strain the seeds out to discard them. i can do this as i'm preparing the meal; i should be able to get a small, usable strainer the next time i go shopping.
again: if you have any links to studies exploring the nutritional content of the seeds, let me know. but, the fact that they're tiny and rock hard suggests to me that they'd be hard to study. i guess you'd have to dry them out and grind them up into a powder, but what seems to be done instead is press them into an oil - which just leaves things that aren't that useful.
banana
as analyzed previously, banana peels do seem to offer some benefits, but they're just too fattening. i couldn't get through the smoothie - it just filled me up. nor am i in need of vitamin e, anymore - i solved that. i'm also getting enough potassium, it seems. that said, doing another scouring run through google has brought up the issue of lutein, which appears to be of legitimate value (along with the other obscure carotenoids) and seems to be quite high in the peels, when they're still yellow. i'm going to guess you could probably even leach it out and drink it. that's a real possibility, even if i haven't decided on it yet.
strawberry
again - i wish i could find better data, not just poorly written websites that provide anecdotes and narratives. i would imagine that strawberry leaves are high in vitamin k and vitamin c, but i can't prove it. it could be a useful add to the pasta bowl, if not the fruit bowl.
and, with that, i think i can start clearing some things out of the freezer.