Synergistic Food Combinations: Foods that work better together

Whenever we cook/eat, we tend to pair foods that taste well together. Did you know we can also pair foods that work together to enhance our health.

Our body relies on many pathways working together to function optimally. Imagine your inner workings as a pair of wheels interlocking as they turn. Our body’s pathways require certain nutrients, zinc, B vitamins, vitamin C, and magnesium, for example. Depletion of any of these nutrients may affect the turning of the wheels. When all nutrients are present in sufficient amounts, they work synergistically, harmoniously supporting our well-being. The wheels turn smoothly, supporting optimal health. Food synergy, or combining certain foods together, can help those wheels turn by making nutrients more available to us.

Below are examples of food combinations that work towards the absorption of beneficial nutrients.

Green Tea/Matcha and Lemon Juice

Citrus juice gives a boost to green tea antioxidants. A study from Purdue University has shown that adding lemon juice to green tea enhances beneficial antioxidants’ availability. Green tea contains the bioactive epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), praised for antioxidant benefits, including heart health and cancer prevention.

Turmeric, Black Pepper, Olive Oil and Heat

Turmeric contains a powerful antioxidant, curcumin, which helps fight inflammation. But it is not easily absorbed in the body. Piperin, a phytonutrient in pepper, and the fat in olive oil both act to enhance curcumin absorption. Roasting turmeric also increases bioavailability.

Carrots and Olive Oil

The fat in olive oil helps with the absorption of vitamin A in carrots. A bonus, the bioactives in carrots (lutein, beta-carotene, falcarinol, and more) remain active with cooking.

Avocados and Red Peppers

Avocados are another healthy fat, and red peppers are another vitamin A source, so the same principle holds with increased vitamin A absorption when they are combined. Vitamin A-rich vegetables are often orange, such as sweet potatoes and winter squash.

Spinach and Lemon Juice

Get more iron from your foods, especially if you are an expectant mother. Vitamin C boosts the iron we can get from food. The iron in plants such as spinach is blocked from absorption by naturally occurring compounds. Vitamin C helps change the situation so that more of the plant-based iron (non-heme) is absorbed. A generous squeeze of lemon juice or a serving of broccoli or other vitamin C-rich food will do the trick.

This is especially helpful for vegetarians because the body does not absorb plant-based iron as readily as it does the iron found in meats, known as heme iron. Adding vitamin C-rich foods to meals will help you absorb iron from any food on your plate. This also applies to iron-rich animal products like liver.

Olive Oil and Tomato

While all tomatoes have a good amount of lycopene, cooking them increases bioavailability, and olive oil increases absorption. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant with benefits to the skin, heart health and cancer prevention. Lycopene is also found in watermelon, pink grapefruit, and guava.