Pairing these foods can boost their health benefits

There are plenty of classic food pairings: Cheese and fruit. Peanut butter and jelly. Bacon and eggs. But what if eating certain foods together not only improved taste, but also your health?

Scientists say pairing specific nutrients together can increase health benefits. One area this comes into play is with phytochemicals, a plant compound that’s shown to reduce our oxidative stress and prevent chronic illness. While it’s important to incorporate phytochemicals in our diets, our bodies don’t always absorb them as effectively as they could.

“A big issue is how much is actually bioavailable,” or how the nutrient is digested and then absorbed into our bloodstream, says Jean-Marc Zingg, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Miami. “A lot of these phytochemicals are not really efficiently taken up [in the body],” he says. This is because many of them degrade before we get the chance to reap their benefits.

But research shows that certain foods, when eaten together, can boost nutritional value. In other words, teamwork makes the dream work—even when it comes to your diet.

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Here’s what the experts have to say about how certain nutrients and foods work better together.

Vegetables and healthy fats

Many colorful fruits and veggies are rich in carotenoids, a category of phytochemicals known for their protective benefits. Beta-carotene, a carotenoid that converts into vitamin A and is associated with better eyesight, is found in vegetables like carrots and leafy greens. Meanwhile lycopene, present in foods like tomatoes and watermelon, can lower risk for stroke, diabetes, obesity, and even prostate cancer.

Beta-carotene and lycopene are fat-soluble carotenoids, meaning our bodies absorb them better when they’re paired with fat. “So think of it almost like the carotenoids have a lock on it, and the fat is the key,” explains Kate Donelan, a registered dietician at Stanford Health Care. “The fat allows what’s in those foods to be released.”

To help with nutrient absorption, consider combining your veggies with healthy fats like avocado, olive, or coconut oil.

Multiple studies also find cooking these vegetables can increase carotenoid bioavailability. A 2006 study concluded that stir-fried carrots had 75 percent of beta-carotene bioavailability compared to just 11 percent in raw carrots.

Another 2024 study found that cooked tomatoes could have as much as triple the lycopene than raw tomatoes. The researchers found lycopene content is even higher in tomato sauce, in which olive oil is a principal ingredient.

Donelan recommends consuming any sort of tomato-based sauce as a way to get your lycopene in. “Sundried tomatoes that are in olive oil? Perfect,” she says.

Lemon juice and vegetables

“You cannot live without iron, and its level in the body is highly regulated,” Zingg says. The mineral is essential to overall health and directly tied to energy levels and normal blood cell function. Because the body can’t produce iron on its own, we need to consume it. There are two types of dietary iron: heme iron, which comes from animals, and non-heme iron, which comes from plants.

The body is a bit picky about which iron it can use. Heme iron enters our bloodstream more easily than non-heme iron because it’s already in a soluble form. Research finds our bodies absorb about 25 percent of heme iron compared to 17 percent of non-heme iron.

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This is because non-heme iron is usually in an insoluble form, so it needs to be converted to a soluble form “and then go through the intestinal wall where it has to compete with other nutrients,” Donelan explains. 

Fortunately, research shows vitamin C enables non-heme iron to change forms and thus dissolve easier.

To get the most bang for your buck, squeeze some lemon juice over sautéed Brussels sprouts, or fix a spinach salad with strawberries, oranges, or bell peppers. Putting plant-based iron and meat-based iron on the same plate may also increase your intake, research finds; try Tuscan fish with white beans for dinner.

Curcurmin and piperine

Polyphenols, a subclass of phytochemicals, also garner interest among nutritionists for their antioxidant properties. Turmeric contains one polyphenol whose benefits know no bounds: Its main active ingredient is curcumin, which is anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective.

But curcumin doesn’t hang around long in the body when we eat it. “When the body takes up curcumin, it gets metabolized very fast,” Zingg explains. As a result, less curcumin is absorbed in the bloodstream. 

Thankfully, there are other ingredients that can help prevent this, like black pepper. The spice’s active ingredient, piperine, allows the body to metabolize curcumin slower, in turn helping us absorb more. One study suggests we absorb 2000 percent more curcumin when we combine it with piperine.

“People always forget about herbs and spices, but you can get a lot of phytochemicals in,” says Donelan.

Try whipping up an Indian-inspired curry or a golden milk latte to get a dose of polyphenols in. Turmeric tea is another tasty op