Kids & Company Blog

Better together

You can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t always judge a food by its nutrition label. Sometimes we pick and choose our foods based on factors such as how much fibre they have, or how little sugar they contain. However, the nutrition of our food can be changed tremendously based on how you prepare it or what you pair it with. Some foods act together to enhance each other’s nutritional benefits!

Food synergy is the idea that two or more different foods can work together to have a better nutritional profile than if they were served alone. It is important to remember that just because a food has a certain amount of nutrients, doesn’t mean that this all gets absorbed in our bodies. Understanding food synergy can help us get the best out of all of our foods!

Fat isn’t always the enemy! Vegetables and fat go together like two peas in a pod. Preparing your vegetables with a little bit of healthy fat like olive oil can help you absorb all of their wonderful nutrients. Many vitamins found in vegetables are fat soluble, meaning they get absorbed into the body through fat. In a study, subjects who consumed avocado with their salad absorbed an average of 10 times more vitamins compared to those who ate a non- fat salad! Try making stir fry where vegetables are cooked in a small amount of oil or make salad dressing with olive or canola oil.

Another great food synergist pairing is vitamin C and iron rich foods. Iron is extremely important for the body as it carries oxygen around. We can consume iron through animal sources such as beef, and plant sources such as spinach. Plant iron is hard for our bodies to absorb, but when paired with vitamin C it is absorbed much better! Some great pairings include having orange juice on the side with your breakfast cereal or serving your grains and legumes with vitamin C containing vegetables like red peppers.

So, next time you pick up a nutrition label, remember that a food is not simply the sum of its nutrients. The ways we prepare foods and what we pair them with can vastly effect the nutrition of our meals! Follow some of these simple food synergy tips to help get the best out of your meals!

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Cheers,

Chef Lisa Ruscica

Chief Food Ambassador

Posted on: Thursday July 13th, 2017

Posted by: Lisa Ruscica