Food Combos Amp Up Nutrition

I was astonished to read an article on MSNBC yesterday that said there are nutritional benefits to eating tomatoes with olive oil, garlic with fish, or in drinking a glass of o.j while eating a bowl of oatmeal.

The vitamin C in the juice and the fiber in oatmeal, for example, clear away artery clogging cholesterol three times better together, than if they are eaten separately.

I was just speculating, in my last post, over the evolutionary benefits of collecting recipes. I was trying to figure out why we are so inclined to seek out a list of ingredients to cook together, rather than just thinking "I have a cup of rice in my cupboard, a half a can of tuna in the fridge, and look, a carrot." We could save so much money if we didn't insist we need cilantro, scallions and soy sauce for that rice, mayo, celery and a bulky roll for the tuna, and tomato sauce, onion and pasta for that carrot.

Then, here comes an article on food combinations, which states the sum of a recipe is greater than the parts. Apparently we have evolved to eat lemon with kale, because the vitamin C in the lemon helps release the iron in the kale. Astonishing.

"The complexity of food combinations is fascinating because it's tested in a way we can't test drugs: by evolution," says Jacobs. And, he adds, "it's tested in the most complex of systems: life." What's more fascinating, however, is that the evolution between eater and eaten might answer the long-held question about why humans live longer, healthier lives on traditional diets. "