Can You Eat Banana Peels?

If you, like me, have been peeling your bananas before adding them to banana bread, banana cake or your morning smoothie, you're wasting a nutritious resource. Banana peels are totally, completely edible—and by adding just one more step, you can keep that banana peel out of the landfill.

Health Benefits of Eating Banana Peels

There is limited nutritional data about banana peels (the database EatingWell uses to analyze its recipes, for instance, doesn't have nutrition information for them). But according to 2019 research published in Process Safety and Environmental Protection, banana peels are 71% to 83% fiber. This is great news since most of us don't eat enough fiber. But getting enough has a ton of health benefits, including helping lose or maintain a healthy weight, promoting healthy digestion and slashing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and other chronic diseases.

Risks of Eating Banana Peels

There aren't many risks of eating banana peels. But if you are going to eat them, give them a good scrub under running water first. According to the Environmental Working Group, banana cultivation is heavy on the pesticides. Few pesticides make their way to the fruit itself, but there could be residues on the peels. If this is of concern to you, consider using organic bananas, which are less likely to have traces of commonly used pesticides.

Because banana peels are high in fiber, you might notice some digestive discomfort if you start eating lots right away. Pureed peel mixed into banana bread batter will only give you a bit in each slice, but a whole peel in a single-serving smoothie is another thing. So start slowly and be sure to drink water alongside this new fiber-rich addition to your diet. Water helps fiber move smoothly though your system.

Environmental Benefits of Not Discarding Banana Peels

According to the previously mentioned study in Process Safety and Environmental Protection, the peel makes up 30% to 40% of the banana, and humans discard approximately 3.5 million tons of banana peels every year. Anything we can collectively do to cut back on food waste is good. Discarded food is the biggest type of garbage in landfills, where the discarded food emits methane and other greenhouse gases that can contribute to climate change.

How Do You Eat Banana Peels?

If you've been wondering if you can eat raw, cooked or even frozen banana peels, the answer is yes to all of them! If you are going to eat your banana peel, know that—just like the fruit itself—the riper the peel, the sweeter it will taste.

If you plan to blend the bananas into smoothies, slice the unpeeled bananas before freezing and add them right out of the freezer into the blender jar. You can freeze your unpeeled bananas whole, though, if they're destined to be turned into banana bread or cake. Trim the tough blossom end and the tip of the stem (in our testing, we found that most of the stem was soft enough to blend). Then thaw the bananas before pureeing, and stir the puree into the batter.

On a savory note, Nadiya Hussain, host of Nadiya's Time to Eat on Netflix and the Season 6 winner of The Great British Baking Show, grew up eating banana peels. "My favorite way to eat it is with fermented fish and prawns, but I also love cooking it like pulled chicken," Hussain said in an email.

Vegans have leaned into the almost-meaty quality of banana peels to make plant-based versions of bacon, Bolognese sauce and pulled "pork." Researchers are also experimenting with using banana-peel flour as a gluten-free alternative to make bread and noodles, per a 2022 article in Heliyon. And some non-food uses are popping up as well: Circular Systems created a textile fiber called Agriloop that is made from various crops including banana peels.

The Bottom Line

If you love bananas and want to add more fiber to your diet or reduce food waste, begin to include banana peels in your recipes. Start with a little at a time to reduce GI rebuttal. They can be used fresh, frozen or cooked. Not adding them to the landfill could also be a good step toward helping the environment in one small way.