Did you know that there are health boost food combinations that can raise your mood? According to diet experts, combining your daily apple with some leafy greens, while mixing grapes with onion can also help lower your blood pressure.
Rob Hobson, a Registered Nutritionist with a special interest in food science has revealed the food combinations that can super-boost your health, as well as being healthy on their own.
Having a fish curry, which combines both turmeric and oily fish can create a powerful anti-inflammatory while eating a banana together with yoghurt can improve your bone health and help with the gut bacteria.
Olive oil helps the human body to absorb the vitamin A found in tomatoes and red peppers, which is required for healthy skin and eyes.
While black grapes, rich in polyphenol antioxidant catechin, help to prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurological disorders, and together with onion can inhibit blood clots and boost cardiovascular health.
Other health boost food combinations include garlic and honey, which can help with upper respiratory tract infections, and almonds and berries which can help prevent heart disease.
But a study of 2000 adults found 21 per cent have little or no understanding of vitamins and minerals and their role within their body.
Rob Hobson, speaking on behalf of supplement brand Healthspan, who commissioned the research, said: “We thrive on synergies and many of us create them in our lives without even knowing we are doing them. From a biological point of view the body needs synergies to function properly.
“Food synergy is defined by the way in which certain foods and the nutrients they contain work together to offer health benefits stronger than the individual foods alone. So, sometimes simply combining two items can supercharge the impact it has on your health.”
“While the foods may have their own individual health benefits, this can be even greater when mixing them together as they can help the other one to better do its job.
“Our diet is hugely important for our health and paying more attention to what we eat, and how we combine foods, can be really beneficial and these can then be harnessed to target specific conditions such reducing inflammation, managing diabetes and heart disease or dealing with symptoms of the menopause.”
Health boost food combinations
The study found 54 per cent of adults are unaware that combining different foods can benefit their health, and 31 per cent never think about mixing foods together to get more out of them.
Yet, 54 per cent think their diet is missing key vitamins or nutrients, with 39 per cent blaming this on not knowing what vitamins and minerals are in different foods.
Another 36 per cent put it down to not knowing what nutrients they need.
Vitamin D (38 per cent), iron (33 per cent) and Vitamin C (31 per cent) are among the nutrients people are most likely to think they are lacking.
As a result, 56 per cent of adults currently take a supplement, with 46 per cent of those taking vitamin D and 35 per cent consuming a general multivitamin.
But 44 per cent make no effort to ensure they get the right amount of vitamins every day, despite 80 per cent believing someone’s health can be managed by what they eat.
It also emerged that people believed that a lack of vitamins and minerals had left 46 per cent suffering with a health issue, but just 32 per cent of those polled via OnePoll are confident they would know the signs they are deficient in certain vitamins and minerals.
Dr Sarah Brewer, a medical director working with Healthspan, said, “Food should always be first but cleverly combining combinations of vitamins and minerals in supplements can also play a role in supporting our health.”
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