From Green Tea to Tomatoes: Combining Foods Makes Them Super

We're becoming more and more aware of the beneficial nature of superfoods. These nutrient dense foods are loaded with vitamins and minerals to keep our bodies running smoothly. But what if certain foods became more super once combined with other foods?

Food synergy as it's called, is the science of combining foods so that they give you more of a nutritional punch. In fact, it turns out that the reason that some foods like tomatoes and olive oil and orange juice and oatmeal taste so good together is because our bodies know what's good for them.

Divya Gugnani explored the issue in her recent article 10 Power Food Combos. Many of the combinations make perfect biological sense like tomatoes and olive oil. According to Gugnani, the lycopene in the tomatoes is fat-soluble, so a healthy monounsaturated fat like olive oil helps with absorption.

Additionally, combining orange juice and oatmeal has shown to be twice as effective at cleaning arteries and preventing heart attacks because the organic compounds known as phenols stabilize cholesterol levels when consumed together, according to the article.

I also loved the combination of green tea and lemon. It turns out combining the two increases antioxidants by 13 times. You heard me right, 13 times.

Gugnani also highlighted foods that should never be combined with each other like fruit. This is one that I've definitely heard of before, especially with bananas. The acids in fruit ferment in the stomach and can cause the slow digestion of other foods. And the one that saddened me the most: the combination of coffee and eggs because the polyphenols in coffee decrease iron and calcium absorption from the eggs. Yikes! Check out some other superfood combinations.

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