This time of the year, a lot of us are enjoying salads as part of our regular mealtime plan. But how often are you including a good source of fats and protein, like eggs, to your salads? A study published earlier this year goes into the details of how doing just that can make your meal healthier for you by allowing you to absorb and use more of the nutrition offered by both items. And there are a lot of items like that; foods that do more for you when they are matched together.
Another great example involves pairing black beans with items rich in vitamin C. Before you start wondering how you are going to work black beans into a fruit salad, consider stuffing red peppers with a mix of rice and beans and you'll have made that nutritional leap! Want to find a vegetarian snack with a complete protein? Pair whole wheat bread with creamy hummus! And curries, rich in turmeric and black pepper, allow those spices to work together to allow the anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties to be far more readily absorbed by our bodies than either spice on its own.
Is it just me or do those culinary matches have your mouth watering too? You really have to love it when doing something that is better for your body actually tastes better too. Sometimes it's nice to know that better health doesn't reside solely in the realm of the bitter pill! For more on great culinary matches, check out this article featured by NPR.