Issue No.180: Pair these foods and absorb more nutrients

Spring is here, and I am so incredibly excited! It’s my favourite season, it’s also my colour wheel, I am Monet all the way . It has a way of making me want to do everything differently: exercise more, socialise expansively, eat lighter and fresher.

It’s also the perfect time to rethink not just what food is in season, but how we’re combining it.

There’s a bunch of apps out there where instead of counting calories, you count portions of vegetables, fruit and so on. I used to think nutrition was a shopping list you tick off like that. Turns out it’s more like a dinner party. Some nutrients are terrible guests when seated next to the wrong person, and brilliant when paired with the right one.

Stanford’s Maryam Makowski calls this nutrient synergy: certain foods, eaten together, help your body absorb more than either would alone. Think of it less like a checklist and more like matchmaking, the same instinct a good sommelier uses pairing wine with your meal. Nobody thinks a crisp white and a plate of oysters taste better in isolation, it’s the right combination that makes it special. Nutrients work the same way, just inside your gut instead of on your tongue.

The Well-Researched Pairings

Banana + yoghurt. A classic for a reason. Bananas contain inulin, a fibre that feeds the good bacteria in your gut, and those bacteria help you absorb the calcium sitting in your yoghurt. It’s not the banana handing calcium directly to your bones, it’s more like the banana throwing a party the calcium absorption crew happens to show up to. Add berries and you’ve got a genuinely excellent breakfast, not just a tasty one.

Salmon + spring greens. Vitamin D is the door opener here. Your body can’t absorb calcium properly without it, so pairing a vitamin D source like salmon with a calcium source like the season’s kale, silverbeet or asparagus means the calcium actually gets let in, instead of loitering outside.

Turmeric + black pepper. The pairing that surprises people most. On its own, turmeric’s active compound, curcumin, is poorly absorbed. Add black pepper and its compound piperine, and absorption jumps dramatically, by some estimates around 2000%. So that golden latte you’ve been sipping without any pepper in it has been mostly decorative.

Peas and broad beans + lemon. Spring’s other great plant-based iron sources, but iron from plants is stubborn stuff, the kind your body has to be talked into absorbing. Vitamin C does the talking. A squeeze of lemon over a bowl of fresh peas or broad beans, or tomato through your lentils, makes a real difference to how much iron you actually take up.

Kale + olive oil. Fresh research backs this one up directly. A University of Missouri study found kale’s carotenoids, the antioxidants behind its reputation, are far better absorbed when the leaves are dressed with a little olive oil and water, raw or cooked, it doesn’t matter which. The fat is what unlocks them. Eat kale bone dry and you’re mostly just chewing, a drizzle of olive oil or a handful of avocado or nuts alongside it is what actually gets the goods into your system.

Now for the two pairings I’d call genuinely on mission for Be Wellers. These aren’t just about absorbing a vitamin, they’re about the thing that actually determines how well you move through your 60s, 70s and beyond: muscle.

Protein + berries. After 40, we start losing muscle mass every year unless we actively work against it. This is sarcopenia, and it’s the single biggest driver of frailty in later life. Recent research shows polyphenols, the compounds that give berries their colour, help switch back on the pathway your muscles use to rebuild themselves, and protect the stem cells your muscles rely on for repair. Pair a protein source, Greek yoghurt, eggs, chicken, with a handful of berries, and you’re actively defending muscle. Add a resistance session that week and the effect compounds.

Salmon + walnuts. A step further from salmon and greens: trials combining protein with omega-3 fatty acids have shown measurable improvements in muscle strength and gait speed in older adults, more than protein supplementation alone. You don’t need fish oil capsules for this. Salmon brings the omega-3s, walnuts bring more of the same plus a plant source, and together they do double duty for your joints and your muscle fibres.

One watch: calcium-rich foods like milk and yoghurt don’t pair well with high-oxalate foods like spinach or rhubarb in the same bite, since oxalates bind to minerals and block absorption. Doesn’t mean avoid them altogether, just don’t expect your spinach smoothie with milk to be a calcium bonanza.

None of this requires a supplement cupboard or a nutritionist on speed dial. It’s mostly about noticing what’s already good together. Spring is nature’s way of putting the good pairings right in front of you.

Five Easy Swaps To Try This Week 

• Add banana slices to your morning yoghurt instead of eating them separately
• A pinch of black pepper in anything with turmeric: curries, golden lattes, roasted cauliflower
• Dress your kale salad in olive oil rather than eating it plain
• Squeeze lemon over fresh peas, broad beans or asparagus instead of saving citrus for dessert
• Scatter berries over your protein at breakfast, or walnuts over your salmon at dinner

Your Lifestyle Is Your Medicine

The research is long in: a small 1% better every day is all you need to compound incredible results in whatever area of your life you focus on. We think holistically at Be Well, our mantra is that your lifestyle is your medicine. Nothing works in isolation, and small, sustained changes contribute enormously to our overall health, wellbeing and longevity.

Here’s to your fabulous Spring!

See you at Be Well again soon.