The next time you're preparing a spinach salad, toss in a
mandarin orange. The citrus fruit won't just enhance the flavor; its
vitamin C will help your body absorb the iron in leafy green
vegetables. But these nutrients aren't necessarily the only team
players on your plate. A growing number of foods have been shown to
have a "one-plus-one-equals-three" effect when eaten together, said
dietitian Wendy Bazilian, who holds a doctorate in public health.
"They give you a stronger defense than if consumed separately,"
said Bazilian, author of "The Superfoods Rx Diet" (Rodale, $25.95).
Tomatoes and broccoli, for example, have more powerful cancer-
fighting qualities when eaten at the same time than when consumed
alone, according to University of Illinois researchers. Adding
vinegar to sushi rice has been shown to decrease the glycemic index
of the rice by as much as 35 percent. And combining foods that
contain carotenoids, such as tomatoes, with a healthful fat, such as
olive oil, makes it easier for the body to absorb the nutrients more
readily.
"It's not that one nutrient doesn't work; it's that two or three
work better," said dietitian Elaine Magee, author of "Food Synergy"
(Rodale, $19.95).
When foods are "bioavailable," they're ready for the body to
absorb and use. But we often unwittingly make decisions that
interfere with the body's ability to maximize these "good"
nutrients.
The use of fat-free salad dressing instead of one containing a
healthful fat is a common mistake.
"Locked up inside that salad is nearly every antioxidant you've
ever heard of," Dr. John La Puma wrote in "Chef MD's Big Book of
Culinary Medicine (Crown, $24.95).
If you use fat-free dressing, he wrote, "you're getting [fewer
nutrients] than you could - unless you eat that salad with avocado,
or with walnuts or roasted walnut oil, or extra-virgin olive oil or
nearly any other good-for-you fat."
The reason, La Puma said, is that the oil makes several nutrients
- the lutein in the green peppers, the capsanthin in the red
peppers, the lycopene in the tomatoes, even the limonene in the
lemon - more body-ready for you. "Each of them is optimally absorbed
with a little bit of fat," he wrote.
The best way to spot synergy on your plate - and to ensure a
nutritious meal - is to make sure it has a minimum of three colors
and contains healthful fat (avocado, olive oil or nuts), Bazilian
said.
"Food has a way of working synergistically, whether or not it's
an outright pairing, so you're not constantly drinking tea and
eating spinach. Certain nutrients help each other out."
Synergistic strategies
Combine: vitamin C and iron
Synergy: Vitamin C increases the body's ability to absorb iron.
Try: Mandarin oranges on a spinach salad. Or mix and match plant-
based iron sources (tofu, edamame and kale) with red and green bell
peppers or a baked potato. Or add a squeeze of lime to your salsa.
Combine: broccoli and tomatoes
Synergy: Offers more powerful protection against cancer than just
eating either vegetable alone, possible because "different bioactive
compounds in each food work on different anti-cancer pathways," said
University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor
John Erdman.
Try: tomato sauce with pasta primavera
Combine: phytochemicals and vitamin A
Synergy: The phytochemicals or plant compounds in red wine
somehow enhance the additive effects in vitamin E.
Try: a glass of red wine with 1 ounce of almonds (half your daily
need of vitamin E)
Combine: good fat and vegetables
Synergy: Helps the body absorb protective phytochemicals.
Try: Mixed salad with tomatoes and carrots and olive or avocado
oil.
Combine: herbs and spices plus meat
Synergy: Marinades made with antioxidant-rich spices and herbs
can reduce the levels of harmful cancer-causing compounds caused by
grilling by 88 percent.
Try: rosemary and lamb
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
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