As America’s favorite fruit, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t enjoy biting into an apple, especially when you consider their high doses of fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants. However, with all the slicing, coring, and peeling that takes place when preparing raw apples, it’s easy to wonder if we’re throwing away a good amount of its nutritional make-up when we do so.

Not only does an apple’s skin contain compounds that help certain types of cancer cells from growing, but scientists have also found that the skin alone has more health-promoting antioxidants than both the skin and fruit combined. The USDA also notes an unpeeled apple has more potassium, vitamin A, and fiber compared to its peeled counterpart.

A 2019 study published in Frontiers in Microbiology also informs us that an apple’s core contains roughly 100 million immune-supporting bacteria cells, which helps protect the good, immune-fighting bacteria in our bodies. So it turns out that saving the apple’s skin and throwing back an apple core every now and then may help us more than we realize.