Soy + Green Tea

Food combination:

Soy and green tea

Effect:

Possible cancer preventing effects

Background:

Green tea and black tea consumption have both been associated with a lower cancer risk. There is a substantial amount of studies that point to this direction and drinking tea has become very fashionable. Now some synergistic relations between green tea and soy are starting to emerge. A study from Harvard Medical School found a synergistic, breast cancer inhibing effect between green and soy concentrate. Another study found similar effects regarding prostate cancer .

These results are rather preliminary and they were achieved by studying mice. The effects soy and tea have on people are probably similar but the magnitude of these effects is hard to estimate. What is interesting though is the fact that something cooks have known for centuries to be a tasty combination is now turning out to be a really, really healthy one too.

The interest of researchers on green tea and soy started after we learned that South-East Asian people suffer from significantly lower levels of colon, prostate and breast cancer than Americans and Europeans do. One of the suspected explanations has been the estrogen like substances in soy, the other has been the high consumption of tea.

My guess is neither one of these healthy foods is the magic bullet, since it could be any other part in the Asian lifestyle that makes it more cancer resistant. But tea and soy probably do have some kind of a role in lowering cancer risks.

There has been some debate whether soy is good for you or not. Some researchers have linked soy with increased risks of ovarian cancer and even breast cancer. But these are usually American studies made on American women. American women consume their soy in all kinds of other forms than Asians do, which is typically something fermented like tofu, soy sauce or kimchi.

One noteworthy thing for anyone who wishes to enjoy the benefits of tea and soy, is that not all tea bags are born equal. My Chinese friends always make a joke that the tea we are sold in the West is the small crumbles of tea leaves they collect from the floor after they have taken the good, big leaves away. You should look for some good, pure, organic green tea and brew it carefully.

I keep repeating myself, but it's nice to note how something that cooks knew all along is now turning out to be the optimal way of enjoying your tofu.

How would you combine the two ingredients?

Photos (cc):
Soy sauce by Van Robin, green teas by A Girl With Tea.

Berries + Fruits

Food combination:

Berries and fruits

Effect:

Synergistic cancer preventing effects by phytochemicals.

Background:

A study from Cornell University showed preliminary evidence that combining fruits and berries together will create synergistic cancer preventing effects. On the other hand, isolated consumption of antioxidants - which are commonly known for their cancer protecting qualities - might not lower the risk of cancer after all if the nutrients are removed from their original chemical context. It seems like the antioxidants will only be bio-active if they come in combination with other phytochemicals yet to be discovered. This is what led the research group to support the idea of food synergy and consuming whole foods. The researchers recommend eating various berries and fruits together instead of consuming only one sort, such as blueberries which are known for their superb health effects. You will still benefit more if you complement blueberries with oranges or other fruits or consume strawberries with apples etc.

Another, more limited lab experiment found some synergistic effects between flavoinoids and epirubicin against cancer cells. Heaps of flavonoids are present in fruits and berries so mixing them would seem like the easiest way to create optimal health effects. The study in itself was very limited and it's impossible to evaluate wheather the results would apply to people as well. Most likely there are synergies between flavonoids but the magnitude of such synergies is hard to estimate. I would simply recommend following your animal instict that tells you that eating lots of berries fruits together is tastes good and is good for you.

These findings confirm something that children have known all along - eating fruits in a tasty fruit salad is simply a great dessert. For a wonderful fruit salad, put together some grapes, pineapple, apples, bananas, kiwi and blueberries. This is an incredible combination of vitamins and thousands of bio-active phytochemicals that science is yet to discover, all working in your body like a symphony of nutrients.

How would you combine fruits and berries?

Further readings:
http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/APJCN/Volume14/vol14.2/fullArticles/Vattem.pdf
http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/healthy-food-combinations/Blueberries_Grapes.php

Photos (cc):
Orange by The Ewan, blueberries by brx0

Green Tea + Lemon

Food combination:

Green Tea with lemon

Effect:

Better absorption of healthy flavonoids such as EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate).

Background:

Something that tea drinkers have known for centuries might actually be confirmed by science. A study from Purdue University showed recently that adding ascorbic acid - that is vitamin C - in green tea can potentially boost the absorption of EGCG and other catechins from tea. Another study from The Chinese University of Hong Kong found that ascorbic acid might protect catechins from degrading as they normally would in just a matter of minutes after brewing the tea. Why should we care?

Catechins are in the focus of much medical research. Epigallocatechin gallate (or EGCG) for instance is being researched for its potential cancer inhibiting qualities and it is considered even as a potential HIV medicine. This type of research is in very early stages and green tea should not be confused to be medicine of course but such focus on the good qualities of tea is interesting. Other studies have linked lemon tea with lower skin cancer risk which seems plausible as many chemicals present in tea have the potential of protecting skin from UV-rays.

The challenge with the Purdue study is of course the immensely complicated chemistry of human metabolism. That's why the study was made on rats rather than on people. Yet I would assume there is no chemical reason why something that has long been confirmed by tradition could not be confirmed later by the science as well.

Personally though, I never pay attention to single nutrients like EGCG when considering the health effects of food - no matter how potent these substances are considered to be. It would go against the philosophy of food synergy to try and simplify the health benefits of tea to one or two potent nutrients. Tea should obviously be enjoyd for its wonderful taste and invigorating power. But I do think that enjoying tea with a slice of lemon can enhance the experiance and potentially even boost your health for the reasons presented above.

Next time you drink tea - drop in a slice of lemon, just in case.

Further readings:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lemon-tea-benefits.html

Photos (cc):
Tea by Mariela M., lemon by Kevin

Tomato + Broccoli

Food combination:

Tomato with broccoli

Effect:

Lower prostate cancer risk

Background:

A study made by University of Illinois showed that tomato and broccoli together may lower the risk of prostate cancer. The combination of these two ingredients even decreased the size of tumors on some test subjects.

Now we've known for a long time that tomatoes and broccoli are loaded with healthy substances like the lycopene in tomatoes and the phytochemicals in broccoli but finding out that these positive effects can be even boosted to an extent is interesting. Of course one should not consider broccoli as a full-blown cancer cure but instead realize the potential of this food combination in advancing health in general.

Broccoli is not the favorite of all kids but there are simply wonderful ways of cooking broccoli present in food tradition. Try for example this mediterranian way of cooking the two ingredients!

The Illinois study was made on rats and the test setup makes it difficult to confirm the findings on people - but there is good reasons to think the same combination would work on people.

Other related readings:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070724161644.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110913091559.htm

Photos (cc):
Tomatoes by St0rmz, broccoli by jules

Food Synergy - powerful food combinations for health

This blog explores the synergistic relations of foods. Did you know for example that the traditional way of eating tomatoes with olive oil is not only tasty but also the optimal way of extracting lycopen from the tomatoes? Or the traditional way of eating corn with chalk which allows you to extract niacin from corn? Tea with a slice of lemon, garlic and fish - the list goes on and on.

In school we're taught to think that 1 plus 1 is always 2. There are fields in life where this logic does not apply and food is one of them. We see it over and over again that foods are effective especially when you combine them.

In the past 50 years we've been taught to think of food as simply the sum of it's nutrients. Bread is no more than a bunch of carbs, fats and a little bit of fiber. This view is outdated - it is time to look at food from a synergistic perspective.

We know that people who eat whole foods are so much healthier than people who eat refined foods like white flour, white rice, white sugar - and even white salt. Modern, industrially produced food has lost a significant amount of its natural ingredients that your body is left craving for. It's no wonder we're all the time hungry when we eat industrial food as there is no nutrition in it!

It is when you remove a nutrient from its natural context that you expose yourself to unhealthy quantities of say carbohydrates. Yet, it's really hard to get too many carbs by eating 100% full corn bread as you will be stuffed after just one piece of it.

I hope this website will help you explore new ways of combining foods in tasty and healthy ways!

Photo by: CC - Peter Grima