Cucumber and Zucchini/Courgette - potassium content?

[GeCon]

Hi,

I read that both of these are a good source of potassium, but I thought they were allowed as long as the skin is cut off.

Can someone please shed some light onto this? Is the potassium in the skin?

Thanks.

[rainbowflower]

the skin apparently has most of the nutrients in it, although I didn't bother peeling any of them

[atomic sagebrush]

You need SOME potassium for health reasons. You cannot eliminate all sources of potassium from your diet and nor should you try. You MUST consume 25oo-3500 mg of potassium per day or you can get very sick and even die.

IG diet does not allow courgette (zucchini) on their diet due to the potassium and alkalinity. But I allow it on my LE Diet because it's a low protein, lowfat, low calorie, low nutrient food and I don't think potassium sways much if at all. It's just in too many foods for anyone not to be getting rather a lot of it.

The reason why I advise people to peel their fruit and veg has nothing to do with potassium, it has to do with limiting the amount of nutrients you consume. A lot of fruits and veg (apple, pear, cukes, and courgette/zucchini) have most of their nutrients in the colorful peels and less so in the light colored flesh - the lighter the fruit/veg, the less nutrients they tend to contain. Since they are fairly easy to peel, it's just a simple way to reduce nutrient intake just a bit. It's prob. not a necessity and I wouldn't lose any sleep over not peeling them though!!