Food Combinations for Cancer Prevention

Love berries? Tomatoes? How about avocado and olive oil? Without a doubt, these foods are brimming with hundreds, possibly thousands, of cancer-preventing compounds. New research has indicated that these superfoods get a little (actually, a lot) more powerful when they are combined with one another. The synergistic activity allows each nutrient to not only become absorbed better, but when combined, you may not need as much to achieve even greater health benefits than you would eating each food separately.
Tomatoes Combined With Broccoli, Soy, Garlic and Healthy Dietary Fats
It is well documented that cooked tomato products provide a more "bioavailable" form of lycopene that our body can readily use. When combined with broccoli, soy, garlic and healthy sources of dietary fats, the absorption of lycopene (a carotenoid which is one of the largest families of plant chemicals that also includes beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin) is increased. In a study conducted at The Ohio State University ("British Journal of Nutrition" 2007), research participants who ate a "specially processed tomato sauce," where tomatoes were heated and corn oil was added and then the sauce was heated again, showed a 55 percent increase in total lycopene absorption, compared those who ate a regular sauce that included tomato sauce with oil added to it, but heated only once.
Think about incorporating these food combinations into your diet by making salsa and avocado, homemade tomato sauce with fresh garlic, and roasted vegetables including tomatoes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, garlic and other vegetables of choice.
Tea and Lemon
Green tea is best consumed with some lemon, lemon juice or other citrus juices such as orange, grapefruit and lime--these citrus juices preserve the levels of the disease-preventing phytochemicals called catechins in the tea, so that our bodies can get maximum exposure and effects from these compounds. Why is this important? It was found in a study conducted at Purdue University ("Molecular Nutrition and Food Research" 2007) that less than 20 percent of these compounds are present after digestion. However, when green tea extracts were combined with citrus juice, more than 85 percent of these compounds were available. Catechins are one of the pillars of cancer prevention--they are part of the polyphenol family of phytochemicals and are not only highly concentrated in tea (green and black), but also found in dark chocolate, beans, apricots and red wine.
Synergy is Key
The most important piece to remember is to eat a variety of foods--for all the reasons mentioned above. There are hundreds of other food combinations that have not been thoroughly studied, but knowing what we know so far, combing foods--all kinds of different plant foods and healthy proteins--has the potential to boost your health and prevent disease.
You can combine your foods in two different ways--first by eating foods together at one time (as in a making homemade tomato sauce with olive oil, or making a tomato salsa served with avocado), and foods can also be eaten sequentially--where, for example, you have a bowl of tomato soup with steamed broccoli on the side.