Super Foods – When to Combine Them For Extra Disease Fighting Power

Super foods in and of themselves are enough to provide you super nutrition for optimum health, but try eating these certain foods together and you’ll find even more nutritional power than when the foods are eaten by themselves.

Certain foods work together and synergistically to bring out the best in each other and help you better absorb or digest the good stuff in each food. For example:

Eggs and spinach: when you eat eggs with spinach, a certain kind of fat in the egg yolks helps you absorb the critical vitamin lutein, that is very high in spinach. Lutein is an important vitamin for your eyes and helps prevent macular eye degeneration as you age. Spinach has the highest amount of lutein of any fruit or vegetable – three times higher than broccoli. By combining it with eggs, you absorb more of this powerful vitamin.

Tomatoes and fat: When you combine tomatoes with a healthy fat, such as olive oil, the lycopene in tomatoes is more effectively absorbed. Lycopene in tomatoes is particularly effective against prostrate cancer – but only when it’s consumed with a small amount of fat. Lycopene, like other members of the carotenoid family, is a fat-soluble substance. The body can’t absorb it efficiently in the absence of fat.

Oranges, apples, grapes, and blueberries: each of these fruits is very high in antioxidants. A recent study measured the amount of antioxidants in each fruit individually. Then they combined them and took additional measurements. They found that the mixture of fruits was more powerful against damaging free radicals than when any one fruit was eaten by itself.

Broccoli and tomatoes: both of these super foods have special cancer fighting nutrients. Broccoli contains chemical compounds known as glucosinolates, which are helpful in flushing out carcinogens. The lycopene in tomatoes is an antioxidant. Antioxidants are crucial in preventing cancer because they stop free radicals from damaging cellular structures and DNA. A recent study showed that rats with tumors that were given a diet of tomatoes and broccoli had significantly smaller tumors than animals fed just one of these foods.

Chicken and broccoli: combine broccoli with foods that are high in selenium, such as chicken, turkey, or brazil nuts. The combination of broccoli’s glucosinolates and selenium has more powerful antioxidant effects than either food eaten alone.

Brussels sprouts and broccoli: (ok – just eat broccoli with everything) – brussels sprouts have the phytonutrient crambene, which stimulates phase-2 enzymes, substances that help prevent carcinogens from damaging DNA. Broccoli is high in indole-3-carbinol, a phytonutrient that also stimulates phase-2 enzymes, but in a different way.

Do these examples give you a good idea of the power of certain food combinations? The best way to assure you get the benefits of these and other food combinations is to eat a variety of whole, unprocessed, raw, super food fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, spices, and whole grains.

What are super foods? They are the “best in show” of the different food groups. They have the maximum nutritional value and more of the vitamins, minerals, proteins, healthy fats, phytonutrients, and antioxidants than most other foods. And they have the least of the “bad stuff” – unhealthy fats, sugars, and artificial junk.

They provide you the best nutrition and health benefits with the least amount of calories.

These are 10 top super foods gathered from more than a dozen experts’ top ten lists:

1. Salmon, wild caught
2. Turkey (chicken as a close second)
3. Eggs, free range
4. Dark berries
5. Broccoli
6. Spinach
7. Tomatoes
8. Nuts (particularly walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pecans)
9. Beans (particularly the dark ones – kidney and black beans)
10. Unprocessed dark chocolate and red wine

Here’s one of my top recommendations for optimum nutrition: eat this “super food salad” every day. You’ll be getting the whole raw super foods that are loaded with all the enzymes, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants of these top super foods – and you’ll get the magic and benefits of the above food combinations.

Recipe for my favorite super food salad (try it every day for one week and see how you feel):

1 cup spinach

1 hard boiled egg

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup fresh blueberries

1/4 apple sliced

1-2 florets raw broccoli

2 slices of tomato

Grilled chicken breast (or grilled salmon or both)

1/4 cup kidney beans

1 slice of sweet onion

Anything else you want to add

olive oil based dressing of your choice

Have it with a glass of red wine and end it with a small square of healthy dark chocolate. Life doesn’t get better than this.