Head into any pharmacy, and you’ll encounter an alphabet soup of vitamins and minerals. But if you’re not careful about which supplements you incorporate in your diet — and which nutrients you’re pairing in your body — you could be wasting your money.
“Nutrients have synergistic effects; they don’t work in isolation,” explains Dr. Joseph Mercola, Board Certified Family Medicine Osteopathic Physician (DO) and Author of Your Guide to Cellular Health. “Most need cofactors or other nutrients to unlock their full potential.”
Fat-soluble vitamins like D, A, K, or E, for example, are absorbed to a far lower degree when taken without fat. Without vitamin K2, vitamin D would have no idea where to go. And some nutrients, like zinc, can actually interfere with your absorption of others, like copper.
This doesn’t mean that nutrients are completely useless if you don’t pair them. “But some are significantly less effective without the right cofactors,” explains Mercola. “If you’re not mindful of nutrient interactions, you could be consuming plenty of a certain vitamin or mineral without reaping the full benefits.”
Luckily, long before modern science could clue us into exactly why, cuisines around the world have taken advantage of certain nutrient pairings to craft delicious meals that deliver vitamins and minerals in bioavailable pairs and groups. Here are five particularly delicious nutrient pairs to enjoy.
1. Curcumin and Piperine
Buttery, golden-yellow turmeric lends a fresh yet earthy flavor to a host of Indian dishes. It’s also rich in curcumin, a polyphenol that has been clinically proven to help manage inflammatory conditions like metabolic syndrome, arthritis, and even muscle soreness1.
But as a 2017 research review in Foods explains, curcumin is not very bioavailable: It’s poorly absorbed, and it gets metabolized and eliminated far too rapidly to offer many benefits on its own. Luckily, when taken with piperine, the major active component of black pepper, the bioavailability of curcumin is increased by a whopping 2000%.
Dishes Featuring This Pairing
It’s unsurprising that turmeric is so often paired with pepper, like in a cozy vegan coconut dal or this anti-inflammatory turmeric tonic. You can also reap the benefits of this pairing with a quick and easy turmeric roasted chicken breast recipe or a side of comforting mashed sweet potatoes with turmeric and pepper.
2. Calcium and Vitamin D
Calcium is essential for healthy bone formation, but it’s nothing without its buddy Vitamin D. “You can consume all the calcium-rich foods in the world, but without enough vitamin D, your body won’t be able to absorb and utilize it effectively,” explains Mercola.
Vitamin D helps boost absorption of calcium in your intestines, and it also helps regulate calcium levels in your blood — which is why the calcium and vitamin D relationship is so important. “This makes sure it reaches your bones, where it’s actually needed,” says Mercola, “instead of ending up in your arteries and other problematic places.”
Sources of Vitamin D
Egg yolks are a great source of vitamin D, especially when they’re pasture-raised. A 2020 study in Trends in Food Science & Technology found that feeding hens more vitamin D3 and exposing them to UBV could significantly increase the vitamin D content of their eggs2.
Fatty fish are also one of the best sources of vitamin D out there, with just one 3.5-ounce portion of farmed Atlantic salmon covering 2/3 of your recommended daily intake. Nature clearly knew what it was doing — salmon is also an excellent source of calcium. You can further increase your calcium intake and absorption by pairing your fatty fish with foods like sesame seeds, beans, lentils, and leafy greens like spinach and collard greens.
Dishes Featuring This Pairing
To reap the benefits of this pairing, dig into a baked salmon dinner with tahini dressing or enjoy these easy paleo egg muffins with spinach.
3. Zinc and Copper
Zinc is an essential mineral that helps promote immune function and wound healing. It facilitates DNA synthesis and over 300 enzymatic reactions, including ones that aid in metabolism, digestion, and nerve function. Dave Asprey, 4x NY Times Bestselling Author of Heavily Meditated, Health Science and Biotech Entrepreneur and “The Father of Biohacking,’ notes that too much zinc can actually lead to a deficiency in another essential mineral: copper.
“If you’re not getting enough copper, you might experience a low sex drive, brain fog, less resilience, excessive urination and stress,” he says. “A deficiency in copper also contributes to gray hair and osteoporosis.” To avoid a copper deficiency, experts recommend a zinc supplement be taken alongside copper3.
Dishes Featuring This Pairing
Some foods, like oysters, are rich in both zinc and copper. But if you’re already taking a zinc supplement, choose copper sources that are less rich in zinc, like shiitake mushrooms and leafy greens, to ensure you’re actually getting enough of the mineral. A one-bowl shiitake and kale ramen recipe is just the ticket. And finish with a few pieces of dark chocolate — just 25 grams can give you half your recommended daily intake of copper4.
4. B Complex Vitamins
What are B vitamins? The diverse class of water-soluble B vitamins includes B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B7 (niacin), B9 (folate), and B12 (cobalamins). These vitamins, Mercola explains, “work synergistically with each other. For example, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 have synergistic effects for brain health.”
Generally found in high concentration in animal-derived foods like meat, eggs, and dairy, B vitamins can also be found in leafy greens, legumes, and whole grains. B12 specifically is difficult to find in plant sources. While you’ll find it in some fermented vegetable products, mushrooms, and seaweeds, the bioavailability of these sources is still not understood5.
Dishes Featuring This Pairing
A vitamin B powerhouse of a meal might see paleo coconut-crusted salmon paired with brown rice and a spinach salad. Vegetarians could skip the salmon in favor of a hearty shakshuka, but vegans will likely need to supplement their diet with B vitamins to ensure they’re getting enough.
5. Vitamins A, D, E, and K
Vitamins A, D, E, and K tend to work synergistically, Asprey explains, and it’s not just because they’re all fat-soluble.
“Vitamin D helps you absorb calcium, and vitamin K2 tells your body where to put the calcium — in your bones and teeth instead of in your soft tissues,” he says. “If you take vitamin D without K2 you risk the calcium going into your arteries and soft tissues, causing calcification, and increasing cardiovascular risk.”
Specifically, vitamin K2 and vitamin D3 should always be taken together for proper vitamin D efficacy. Vitamin K2 is a form of vitamin K found in animal foods and fermented foods, and vitamin D3 is the most important D vitamin for humans.
Meanwhile, Vitamins A and E “work as powerful antioxidants to prevent lipid oxidation and DNA damage,” Asprey explains.
What Are Fat-Soluble Vitamins?
Fat-soluble vitamins get stored in the body in the liver, fatty tissue, and muscles. Unlike water-soluble vitamins, which are dissolved in water and don’t get stored in the body, fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed more easily when they’re consumed with dietary fat.
Dishes Featuring This Pairing
While there isn’t a single food that includes all four vitamins A, D, E, and K, there are many foods with one or more. For example, dark leafy vegetables include vitamins E and K, while avocados include vitamins A, E, and K. Fatty fish are one of the best food sources of vitamin D3, vitamin A, and vitamin E, while vitamin K2 is present in fermented foods like natto and sauerkraut. It’s no surprise that so many cultures around the world pair these foods, from the fish-and-sauerkraut choucroute de la mer popular in Alsace to the classic Japanese breakfast of salmon and natto.
Add Some Magnesium to the Mix
Magnesium is another essential element to help your body absorb these vitamins, explains Mercola. “Without enough magnesium,” he says, “your body can’t activate vitamin D.” If you take vitamin D, K2, and magnesium together, “the required dose of vitamin D to reach sufficiency decreases by 244%,” he explains. Taking magnesium with vitamins can make all the difference for your health.
But this is easier said than done. It typically requires more than just reaching for a square of magnesium-rich dark chocolate. While Mercola generally recommends getting nutrients from whole foods, he says magnesium is “a rare exception.”
“Nearly everyone is deficient,” he says, “and getting enough from diet alone can be challenging for several reasons.” He cites soil depletion as “a major issue,” with factory farming stripping magnesium from the soil and downgrading once-reliable plant-based sources of the mineral. “This means even if you eat a whole-food, plant-rich diet, you may still fall short of the recommended 400 mg daily intake.”
“What’s more, some of the richest sources of magnesium — nuts and seeds — are also high in omega-6 fats like linoleic acid,” adds Mercola. “Given the widespread consumption of vegetable oils, most people are already getting too much linoleic acid, which drives inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction. So, limiting these foods while still trying to meet your magnesium needs is difficult.”
For this reason, he recommends supplementing your diet with magnesium in the form of easy-to-absorb magnesium glycinate and magnesium malate.
Be Wary of Antinutrients
Soil depletion isn’t the only thing to bear in mind when building a diet rich in essential vitamins and minerals. Certain natural compounds found in plant-based foods are known as “antinutrients” in certain health and wellness circles, because they tend to bind to minerals and make them more difficult to absorb.
An excess of phytic acid, found in many nuts, seeds, and grains, prevents full absorption of iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium. Oxalates, present in foods like spinach, sweet potatoes, almonds, beets, raspberries, and kale, can bind to calcium, forming what Mercola characterizes as “razor sharp crystals that deposit themselves in your soft tissues.”
While antinutrients “are not inherently harmful,” says Mercola, “they can interfere with your body’s ability to absorb and use nutrients through several different mechanisms, including binding and chelating, inhibiting digestive enzymes, interfering with nutrient transporters, reducing transit time through your digestive system, and by forming insoluble complexes.”
To help reap the benefits of these foods to the fullest, he recommends soaking, sprouting, fermenting, or cooking these foods to help break down antinutrients and increase their nutritional value.
Sources:
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5664031/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924224420304799
- https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/zinc
- https://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(11)00215-9/abstract
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5788147/
