Is Dragon Fruit Skin Poisonous? [CAN YOU EAT IT & Benefits]

Dragon fruit are fascinating  fruits, having a tropical taste and and a curious look. I’d been doing some research after being told that their skins were poisonous.  Surely not i thought

So I’ve decided to a bit of digging and found some very interesting answers.

Dragon fruit skin is rich in nutrients so is used in a range of ways, and comes in a few different colors.

There are many different ways that people eat dragon fruit skin.

You’re probably also wondering if eating the flesh of dragon fruit is good for you.

So, read on to discover the answers to these questions and more.

Is Dragon Fruit Skin Used In Any Recipes?

Dragon fruit skin is used in salads, stir fries, baking, and as a herbal tea.

1. Dragon fruit skin used in a salad

Dragon fruit skin is sliced finely and used in a salad mixed with other vegetables and or cheese.

The dragon fruit skin has bumpy parts that stick out and don’t look very appetizing.

So, when it’s used in a dragon fruit skin salad the outside is peeled using a hand held vegetable peeler.

To remove the parts that stick out and the outer leathery part of the skin.

This creates a nice flat surface.

From there the skin is removed from the dragon fruit flesh, and sliced thinly.

It’s then added to a salad bowl. It goes well with capsicums, tomato, cucumber, and lettuce greens. And as always a nice salad dressing is tossed through it to create a delicious fresh salad.

Here’s a video of how it’s made:

2. Dragon fruit skin stir fry

Dragon fruit skin can be used as a vegetable in meat and vegetable stir fry’s.

It grows in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and is regularly consumed in Asia, however, it’s also grown in Florida, and California, and it native to Central and South America.

In the Asia country of Indonesia it is stir fried in a dish known as Oseng-Oseng Kulit Buah Naga.

And is treated like a vegetable such as onion, capsicum, or carrots, and when fried it tastes delicious.

In the indonesia recipe the skin bumpy parts of the skin aren’t removed using a peeler, and it’s fried as is.

It is made using a combination of shallots, onion, garlic, salt, sugar, and bay leaves.

Here’s a cool video which shows how it’s made:

3. Dragon fruit skin used in baking

Dragon fruit skin can be used in savoury baked foods like muffins, breads, keiches, pies, and rolls. In muffins, breads, pies, and rolls it can be finely sliced and mixed in with the wet mixture before it’s based.

It can also be thinly sliced and put on the top of the wet mixture, forming a crispy top.

It can be fried together with a pie filling mixture that may or may not include pumpkin, onion, capsicum, potato, and even meat.

It can also get mixed in with the egg mixture used to make quiche recipe.

4. Dragon fruit skin herbal tea

Dragon fruit skin can be finely chopped and dried and used to make herbal tea.

One study showed that dragon fruit skin herbal tea has 30% more Vitamin C than the fruit itself. Here’s a table taken from the study

*Ash is a bit of a strange one, and I didn’t know what it was at first. I found out it’s a chemistry term used in food manufacturing that is used to mean sodium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, phosphorus, potassium, and chloride, according to Healthyfood.com.

It also contains trace amounts of iodine, zinc, and iron.

All of these are different nutrients that enhance your overall health. As you can see based on their data the peel has much higher amounts of Vitamin C and Ash, with slightly less carbohydrates, and protein.

According to Clevelandclinic.com, dragon fruit is fat-free and low in calories.

They say that it is an excellent source of fiber, and that one cup has about one quarter of your daily fiber needs.

On top of that a study showed that it can improve your overall gut health.

Red dragon fruit can change the color of your poop and urine.

Much like beetroot, blueberries, and cherries. And it also can have a laxative effect if you eat a lot of it. Nutra Ingredients showed that it improves bowel function, and makes it easier to pass stool.

This is because of it’s high fiber content.

According to Mayoclinic.com fiber increases the overall size of your poop, and also makes it soft.

A bigger poop is easier to pass, and together with making your poop soft, you have less chance of getting constipated.

But, I haven’t found any evidence which suggests that dragon fruit in particular will make you poop more compared to other fruits and vegetables.

Dragon fruit is good for weight loss because like other fruits it’s total calories are low compared to other foods. As a side note, the highest calorie foods are cheese, peanut butter, meat, milk, eggs, and beans.

Also, because dragon fruit, and fruit in general has a high water and fiber content it makes you feel full, according to Healthline.com.

Fruit is very nutrient dense, compared to other processed foods. For example, breakfast cereals such as cornflakes.

As a side note, I wrote an article based on researching whether cornflakes are a good breakfast, and found that they weren’t as good as other options because cornflakes are dried and cooked.

Which means they have less nutrients overall than fresh corn or other fresh fruits and vegetables.

If you’re interested you can read that article by clicking Are Cornflakes Healthy for Breakfast?. 

Back to the topic at hand, when you eat fresh fruit you feel full for longer because your body isn’t craving more nutrients.

Foods that are highly processed foods meaning they have been dried, cooked, or ground up destroy most of the nutrients as shown in these studies here and here.

And as a result, you need to eat more food – which is more calories – to satisfy your hunger.

So, dragon fruit is good for weight loss because when you eat it you will feel full, and it also has low calories.

Dragon fruit skin isn’t poisonous, and is regularly used in recipes, and herbal tea.

But, both are very healthy to eat, and contain good amounts of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.