5 Food Combos for Healthier Eating
By Kate Gardner
You know that some foods are better for you than others. Kale and blueberries are superfoods (meaning they have a lot of nutrition packed into them). Dark chocolate is linked to lower blood pressure. Grapefruit can help you lose weight. But did you know there are some foods that are even better for you when eaten together?
Healthy Food Combos
When was the last time you munched on some raw kale all by itself? Probably not recently. There aren't a lot of foods we eat all by themselves. And a lot of the healthy foods we eat are even better for us when we pair them with the right partners. Reader's Digest brings us the following list of food combinations that help us get the most out of our healthy foods.
Hard boiled egg and salad - Next time you're making a salad, toss in a diced up hard boiled egg. Don't leave out the yolk -- the fat it contains will help your body better absorb carotenoids (a kind of antioxidant) from the vegetables.
Marinading grilled meat - Marinade that chicken! Grilling meat at high temperatures can cause heterocyclic amines (HCAs) to develop. Cancer.gov tells us that HCAs have been linked to cancer in studies using animals. Fortunately, marinading meat before grilling has been found to greatly reduce HCAs.
Olive oil and kale - Don't eat that kale raw! Kale is full of fat-soluble vitamins that need fat in order for your body to properly absorb them. Sauteing or roasting your kale with a little heart-healthy olive oil will make it healthier (and yummier).
Green tea and lemon - I'm usually a coffee kind of person but I've managed to develop a taste for green tea with its important antioxidants. Adding a little lemon to green tea protects those antioxidants so they can make it to the part of your digestive tract where they are best absorbed. Plus, the lemon gives it a little zing!
Guacamole and salsa - I think guacamole and salsa are the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups of the dip world -- two great tastes that taste great together. Plus, the avocado in guacamole helps unlock some of the nutrients found in the salsa (especially in the tomatoes). Dip your chips in both!
Knowing which foods boost the healthy properties of other foods can help you come up with snacks and meal ideas that take nutrition to the next level. Plus, they can be pretty delicious.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Loveland, Tex.