Meeting our nutritional goals these days can be tough, even when we eat a relatively healthy diet.
That’s because modern day agricultural practices now dominate our natural food supply; our fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods. And it has stripped so many of these foods of their high nutrient profiles.
How did this happen?
Well, despite all of the historical knowledge available to us, today most industrial farmers focus on higher yields and profits rather than leave fields unplanted for a season to allow them to renew their soil. They fail to rotate crops the way they’re supposed to. They put poisons like pesticides and herbicides into the soil.
All of these practices reduce the quality and fertility of the soil and destroy the soil microbiome.
The outcome? We are no longer getting nutrients that food crops would normally absorb from the ground. The soil microbiome just isn’t there anymore.
This means that, whenever we can boost the nutrient value of the foods we do eat, we should take advantage of it.
With that in mind, I’ve come up with a few super-charged food combinations over the years. They are easy to prepare, and boost the nutritional power of the foods at the same time.
Super-Charge Your Super Foods!
I always love it when I can create an exceptionally healthy meal without a lot of time and fuss. So today I’m going to share five quick, easy, delicious and nutritious super-charged food pairings with you.
Tomatoes and avocado to boost levels of cancer-fighting lycopene. Who can resist salsa and guacamole? How about a tomato and avocado salad with a few of your favorite extras?
When you put these two together, you improve the nutrient value of the carotenoids found in the tomatoes. Specifically, the power of lutein more than doubles… and lycopene becomes 4.4 times more powerful.
You can pump up those lycopene levels even further if you add a little extra virgin olive oil to the mix. (As it turns out, eating just one meal a day that includes tomatoes cooked with olive oil can pump up your lycopene levels by more than 80% in only five days!)
Lycopene is well-known for its ability to protect against prostate cancer. So as a man, I’m all for getting as much of it as I can.
Salad with boiled eggs to protect your vision. Most colorful vegetables are high in vision protecting carotenoids like lutein and zeaxanthin. When you add whole eggs to the mix, it makes it easier to absorb the carotenoids in those veggies.
In a small study published a few years ago, a group of young men ate three different salads. One salad had no eggs, the second included one and a half eggs, the third contained three eggs.
It turned out that the salad with three eggs improved carotenoid absorption from the veggies 3.8 times compared to the no egg salad.
Start with leafy greens, carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes. Then top it off with egg. (Add avocado and a drizzle of olive oil, and the nutritional boost is off the charts!)
The study used scrambled eggs, but I recommend boiled. That’s because when you break the yolks while cooking, it oxidizes the cholesterol. So I generally like to keep mine intact.
Curry and black pepper to fight pain and inflammation. Curry is one of my favorite foods. And it’s super easy to whip up a batch of vegetable curry with shrimp or scallops in less than a half hour.
Better yet, I get an added benefit every time I eat it.
You see, a key ingredient in curry is turmeric. This vibrant yellow spice is loaded with the powerful antioxidant curcumin that can help you put the brakes on all sorts of health problems associated with aging.
It can work wonders to curb disease-causing inflammation in your joints, arteries, brain and other areas of your body.
The problem is, curcumin is not readily absorbed by your body. However, when it’s combined with black pepper, it can substantially increase the bioavailability of curcumin. So always add black pepper to your curry dishes – or any dish you’ve added turmeric to.
Enhance iron absorption with vitamin C. This might surprise you, but anemia caused by iron deficiency is on the rise.
This makes getting enough iron in your diet very important. But here’s the thing. Your body has a very hard time absorbing iron when it comes from plant-sources (non-heme iron), such as leafy greens, nuts, seeds and beans.
However, there is an extremely easy way to break non-heme iron down so your body can absorb it more readily. Just add something high in vitamin C to your meal.
You can top a spinach salad with vitamin C-rich yellow peppers and add some lemon juice to the dressing. Toss a citrus fruit salad with pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and macadamias. Try your hand at a bean, apple and cranberry salad. There are plenty of ways to get creative on this one.
Important! I don’t recommend taking an iron supplement unless you are diagnosed as iron deficient by a medical professional and closely monitored. That’s because if you take too much, it can result in toxicity. Thus, it is preferable for you to get healthy amounts of iron in your daily diet.
Last But Not Least, Pair Your Meals with Sunshine!!!
On a final note, take some of your meals outdoors, especially when they contain magnesium and/or calcium.
You see, there is a significant relationship between magnesium, vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin), and calcium.
Magnesium is critical to your skin’s ability to produce vitamin D. And sufficient levels of vitamin D significantly enhance your body’s ability to absorb calcium from the intestine.
This is synergy in action!
Some high magnesium foods include nuts, seeds, buckwheat, bananas, oatmeal, avocado and salmon.
Non-dairy foods with a high calcium content – which I prefer – include broccoli, kale, turnip greens arugula, canned sardines, and canned salmon. For dairy replacements, cashew, almond and coconut milk are all good choices.
I especially enjoy eating breakfast on the patio so I can get that early morning sunlight to help get my body in gear for the day.
Enjoy any of these food pairing recommendations (as organically grown as you can find, of course) and you will absolutely improve your body’s resistance to – and resilience from – so many of the older aging realities we all face.
SOURCES:
Unlu NZ, Bohn T, Clinton SK, Schwartz SJ. Carotenoid absorption from salad and salsa by humans is enhanced by the addition of avocado or avocado oil. J Nutr. 2005 Mar;135(3):431-6.
Fielding JM, Rowley KG, Cooper P, O’ Dea K. Increases in plasma lycopene concentration after consumption of tomatoes cooked with olive oil. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2005;14(2):131-6.
Kim JE, Gordon SL, Ferruzzi MG, Campbell WW. Effects of egg consumption on carotenoid absorption from co-consumed, raw vegetables. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Jul;102(1):75-83.
Hewlings SJ, Kalman DS. Curcumin: A Review of Its Effects on Human Health. Foods. 2017 Oct 22;6(10):92.
Le CH. The Prevalence of Anemia and Moderate-Severe Anemia in the US Population (NHANES 2003-2012). PLoS One. 2016 Nov 15;11(11):e0166635.
Uwitonze AM, Razzaque MS. Role of Magnesium in Vitamin D Activation and Function. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2018 Mar 1;118(3):181-189.
