How much nutritional value is lost from peeling a cucumber's skin off? Most people know that the skin of vegetables has the greatest density of nutrition and that is true with this one too. However the fact is that both with and without the skin, cucumbers are a poor source of antioxidants. How can we be so confident in saying this? Because even with their skin, their ORAC value is still only 232. That's even less than iceberg lettuce, almost half as much!Conclusion? Cukes are a delicious low calorie food but you shouldn't depend on them for a whole lot of nutritional benefits.
ORAC Source
USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, Release 2 - Prepared by Nutrient Data Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - May 2010