Fat Soluble Vitamins: Optimize Your Diet Part 2

Perfect Food Pairings

In my last installment of my Optimize Your Diet series I introduced you to the idea of pairing your tomatoes and greens with good fats so that your body can fully absorb the carotenoids lycopene and lutein. This installment will show you that there are other foods that pair well with fats such as those which are rich in the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E.

Foods Rich in Fat Soluble Vitamins

First of all let’s identify some foods which are rich in these vitamins. Carrots, broccoli, and sweet potatoes are all very high in vitamin A. Vitamin D, aside from getting more sun, can be had by drinking milk, eating yogurt, or by eating fish. Salmon and herring have some of the highest concentrations of vitamin D. To get vitamin E from your diet you will find the highest concentrations in your oils and spices such as hazelnut oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower seeds, almonds, paprika, and chili powder. Vegetables containing vitamin E, in far less potency, include sweet red peppers, spinach, sweet potatoes, and broccoli.

All of these vegetables you will notice are usually purchased at the store and cooked at home on a regular or semi-regular basis depending on the household but often the food synergies are not understood by the everyday home chef. All of these foods are good for you in many ways but the primary vitamins we’re looking at here are fat-soluble vitamins, which mean that these vitamins will not absorb into the body without piggybacking on fats such as olive oil, nuts, avocado, and dairy among others.

A Few Good Food Pairings

Some synergies are quite easy to identify, for instance, milk contains vitamin D and fats and almonds contain vitamin D and fats. These are foods that are naturally conducive to absorption of the vitamins into your system. Others take some recognition and creativity. When sautéing your dinner in olive oil, splash some paprika or chili powder into the pan, for some added spice and vitamin E. You can drop some nuts into your yogurt in the morning to optimize your diet, or add avocado slices to your spinach salads and dishes. You can even mix in some grapeseed oil into your cooking regimen (it will make you feel full too) by using it as the base oil for your spinach salad dressings or for sautéing your sweet peppers.

When my wife and I steam broccoli (vitamin A) we like to coat it in a pinch of melted butter and plenty of sauted garlic. The possibilities are endless if you just get creating and learn what foods contain which vitamins. The point however is that these are foods that we all eat all the time. If we’re not going out of our way to eat something different we should easily be able to at least eat these foods in harmony with each other so that we can realize their full potential for our own health.

If you have any doubt as to what your food contains or if you wish to learn what foods contain which nutrients I highly recommend spending some time over at NutritionData.com. Their food database is amazing. Just come back for more here at How To Live A Longer Life; I’ve got lots of things planned for the future including additional posts in this series: Optimize Your Diet. Thanks for reading.

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This post is part of a series on how to optimize your diet. This series does not address which foods you should or should not eat, it should instead educate you on how to optimize what you are already eating, hopefully high quality foods. I hope you find these posts helpful.

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