All Star Team

Some foods are just better eaten together, and not just because they taste best that way, but also because they’re healthier.

- Anindita Ghosh

New research shows that your apple-a-day habit might do a better job at keeping the doctor away if you teamed it with a few squares of dark chocolate. According to a study by Professor Barry Halliwell of the National University of Singapore, a combination of the flavonoids quercetin, found in apples, and catechins, found in chocolate, protects your heart. This is in addition to all the benefits that these two flavonoids give you individually.

According to Delhi-based nutritionist and author Kavita Devgan, research like this often finds echoes in the prescriptions of ancient medicine. “Eating two or more ingredients together provides a bigger health benefit than if you eat each food separately—the relatively new stream of nutritional research that studies this (a field ayurveda has been studying for ages) says certain nutrients work together to create greater health. Every food that we eat has its own profile of nutrients and, in this case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is the lack of this synergistic capability that researchers now say makes supplements less effective compared to whole foods in disease prevention.”

So start crafting your meal with more care. We got our nutritional experts to give you their favourite food combos and the many benefits they offer.

BAD COMPANY

Dr Mitali Bhatia, dietician at Fortis La Femme, Jaipur, tells us about some food combinations that are just bad news.

FRUITS AND COOKED FOOD 

Fruit is an alkaline food source that is easily digested by our body to produce energy. Cooked food, on the other hand, requires time to get assimilated before it can produce energy. When you eat a fruit immediately after a meal, it doesn’t get digested easily and stays in stomach till the cooked food is fully processed. This leads to gas, bloating and acidity.