5 Food Pairing to Enhance Nutrient Absorption

Taste is the reason for combining various foods. Eg adding blueberries to your yoghurt, adding cream to your jelly, adding butter to corn kernels, etc. But, what if pairing certain foods together, not only enhances flavour but also helps improve the absorption of nutrients?

Given below are a few good examples of food pairing.

1) Tomatoes & Olive Oil 

Tomatoes contain lycopene, which is a good source of antioxidants and the absorption is better if combined with a good fat such as olive oil. You can add tomatoes to your curries like tomato paneer, tomato salsa, chutneys, your favourite red sauce pasta with olives are a few of the good examples. (Ahuja, 2006).

2) Spinach & Strawberries 

The non-heme iron found in green leafy vegetables and other vegetarian sources cannot be absorbed as heme iron, which is found in animal sources. Vitamin C assists in the absorption of iron. So, whenever you eat iron-rich food sources, make sure you combine it with vitamin C sources like orange juice, lemon, guavas, amlas, etc. (Halberg, 1990)

3) Rice & Beans 

Combining rice with protein sources such as pulses, lentils or legumes is a good idea. The limiting amino acid in cereals like rice is lysine and in most of the lentils, it is methionine. So, eating both together like rajma-rice, chole -rice, etc help provide both the limiting amino acids

4) Turmeric & Black Pepper

Turmeric has long been used as a flavouring agent in Indian curries, the presence of Curcumin which is a powerful antioxidant helps provide anti-inflammatory effects and relieve symptoms related to it. The compound “piperine” in pepper tends to improve the bioavailability of turmeric. Both can be easily used in Indian culinary curries and also happen to taste wonderful together.

5) Vitamin D & Calcium 

Milk and milk products fortified with vitamin D are a good source of naturally present calcium and added vitamin D, which helps in the absorption and availability of each other. The natural food sources of vitamin D are limited such as seafood, fish, organic eggs if eaten along with calcium sources like sesame seeds, cottage cheese, soybean can help in the absorption of vitamin D.

There are many other ways by which you can pair your foods by experimenting with various dishes. The idea is to stick to nutrients that help in bioavailability.

Alas, embracing the idea of food pairing is completely your choice, it just helps you provide complementary nutrients together. Therefore, it is about maintaining a balance of nutrients by having a balanced diet.

REFERENCES 

• Hallberg, L., Brune, M., & Rossander, L. (1989). The role of vitamin C in iron absorption. International journal for vitamin and nutrition research. Supplement = Internationale Zeitschrift fur Vitamin- und Ernahrungsforschung. Supplement, 30, 103–108.

• Ahuja, K. D., Pittaway, J. K., & Ball, M. J. (2006). Effects of olive oil and tomato lycopene combination on serum lycopene, lipid profile, and lipid oxidation. Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.), 22(3), 259–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2005.07.015