We all know how important nutrition is to our health and well-being. The food that we eat provides all of the important vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are important to our long-term health. Taking vitamins, minerals and antioxidants as supplements is also helpful to our health but science has discovered that rather eating a healthy and varied diet is more beneficial to our health because of the synergy between foods.

Fruits and vegetables are abundant in antioxidants and phytonutrients which when combined together work even more effectively. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables and combining certain foods together can exponentially increase their health benefits compared to eating the foods alone. The synergy of nutrients expands their health-promoting abilities.

This synergy of nutrients appears to be something that cannot be duplicated. Even multivitamins that have many nutrients together in one capsule cannot duplicate this apparent synergy. So far, there has not been a supplement created that is as effective as just eating a healthy diet because nature has provided the best of nutrition for our bodies.

Some of the combinations that are very effective together are tomatoes and broccoli. While both of these vegetables are highly nutritious on their own when combined they offer supercharged cancer fighting ability. Tomatoes contain lycopene, an important nutrient that is a natural cancer preventative. The sulfur contained in broccoli helps to eliminate tumor-causing toxins. Together they offer a powerhouse of nutritional protection.

Green tea is very high in antioxidants but if you add a little bit of lemon to your tea you will actually be able to absorb up to 13 times the amount of antioxidants you receive. The citric acid and vitamin C in the lemon increase the efficacy of the catechins in the green tea. This can boost your immunity and reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular problems and Alzheimer's disease.

Spinach and oranges are both considered to be superfoods because of their antioxidant capacity and superior nutrition. But if you really want to boost your ability to absorb the iron that is contained in your spinach salad, add some oranges to it. They taste delicious together but more importantly the vitamin C will help your body to absorb up to twice as much iron from the same amount of spinach.

Apples are high in quercetin, a powerful antioxidant, which when combined with the catechins in blueberries, grapes or acai berries will react together in the body to stop platelet clumping, which can prevent heart attacks and strokes. When you combine apples with the berries you will absorb more of the important antioxidants in a much smaller serving than if you were to consume either the berries or the apple on their own.

There are also many other extremely nutritious combinations of fruits and vegetables. The important thing to consider is that even while all of these highly nutritious foods are excellent on their own, when you combine them the synergy of the combinations working together is even more effective and your body will absorb even more of the vital nutrition.