Get Better Health with Every Bite: Boost Nutrient Absorption

Here’s how to boost nutrient absorption, so you’ll get more health-boosters in every bite.

Some nutrients and phytonutrients get tossed in the trash. Others are wasted in the cooking water. And more are trapped inside the food waiting to be unlocked. Let’s unlock them!

The idea of wasting the compounds in food that lower inflammation, act as antioxidants, improve insulin sensitivity, detoxify cancer-causing compounds and provide oodles of other benefits breaks my nutritionist’s heart. I want those nutrients and phytonutrients. My body wants them. I admit to being nutrition geeky. I mean … there probably aren’t too many people who look at a plate of berries or a bowl of lentil chili and imagine their cells and organs being pleased. You don’t have to be that weird or geeky to appreciate getting more from your food.

Below I’ve compiled a list of 10 ways to boost nutrient absorption. Try some of these strategies for lifelong wellness. Some take only a few minutes.

Watermelon and feta cheese salad boost nutrient absorption

You’ll better absorb the lycopene in watermelon because you’re eating fat in the feta cheese at the same time.

10 Ways to Boost Nutrient Absorption

Eating a balanced and varied diet with a strong plant slant is your best defense against nutrition-related health problems. But there are a gazillion variables that affect nutrient or phytonutrient absorption:

  • how much of a given nutrient you consume at one time
  • what your status for that nutrient is
  • how thoroughly you chew your food
  • what else you’re eating
  • your medications
  • your health
  • the pH of your small intestine
  • the types of microbes in your large intestine
  • and more!

Here are some things you can do to get more nutrition from your food to fight prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and more.

And for even more ideas about living a healthy life, grab my prediabetes self-care checklist today.

 

  1. Cook quickly and with little water. You’ll preserve vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients in your vegetables when you cook them quickly and in as little liquid as possible.
    • Steaming and microwaving your green beans, broccoli and other favorites in a small amount of water is a great way to boost nutrient absorption. Yes, definitely a small amount of water. Don’t submerge your veggies. Boiling leaches nutrients into the water, so skip that when you can or use that nutrient-rich water in soups.
    • Stir-frying is another good technique because your food cooks quickly without water.
    • Even though oven-roasting uses high heat and longer cooking times, it’s still a great (and super delicious) way to eat your veggies, especially since there’s no water involved. If you aren’t a frequent veggie roaster, I think you’ll be surprised to learn how easy and tasty it is!
      • Pro tip: don’t crowd the roasting pan.
  2. Use a little fat. Sprinkle some nuts, avocado or oil over your salad. Sauté carrots and spinach in a bit of olive oil. Or simply make sure there’s some healthful fat in your meals. Fat-soluble vitamins and phytonutrients  – like lutein in watermelon or spinach and beta-carotene in carrots – need some fat to boost nutrient absorption. Your eyes will thank you for both the lutein and the beta-carotene.
  3. Pair vitamin C with non-animal iron. Iron is under-consumed by adolescent girls and women through middle age. Though an excellent source, meat isn’t the only place to find iron. Plant-based sources of iron include fortified breakfast cereals, enriched bread, leafy greens, tofu, beans and lentils. But plant-based iron is poorly absorbed without vitamin C. And it’s easy-peasy to combine the two:
    • fortified cereal with berries
    • chickpea salad with tomatoes and bell peppers
    • leafy greens with lemon juice
healthy lentil salad in endive leaves

The vitamin C in the oranges helps deliver more iron from the lentils.

  1. Eat the whole food. Whenever it’s practical, eat the nutrient-dense skins of fruits and vegetables. Also, choose whole grains often. Regularly eat intact whole grains like whole oats, quinoa and wheat berries instead of having them only in processed foods and convenience options like cereal, bread and crackers. I’m not saying cereal, bread and crackers aren’t good for you. I think they are. I think we miss some health benefits when we don’t eat whole grains that are still whole.
  2. Eat fresh when they’re freshest. The longer your fruits and vegetables sit on your counter or in the back of your fridge, the more nutrients are lost to air, light and aging.
  3. Embrace canned and frozen foods. Sometimes we can’t get what we want fresh or we crave the convenience of canned black beans, frozen peas and jarred pasta sauce. They can all be good choices! Typically, canned and frozen fruits and veggies are picked when they’re the ripest and processed within hours. They may even have higher levels of some nutrients than fresh produce because they didn’t sit on a truck traveling across country, hide in the back of the supermarket and then in your refrigerator before you have a chance to eat them. And by the way, cooked and processed tomatoes actually give us more of the antioxidant lycopene. Cooking (processing) softens the cell wall, making lycopene more readily available. Your heart says “thank you.”
    Healthy Meals for the Freezer
    Canned tomato products give us lots of lycopene in this Curried Chicken & Chickpea Stew.
  4. Chop garlic 10 minutes early. I know it sounds like a weird one! I cook with garlic nearly every day, and when I do, I make chopping or crushing garlic the first step of my recipe. Breaking the garlic apart activates its natural disease-fighting phytonutrients (studied for its role in preventing colon and stomach cancers). Unfortunately, heat instantly deactivates those same phytonutrients. So how do we get around that? Chop. Let it rest for a few minutes. Then heat. Allowing the chopped or crushed garlic to sit for as little as 10 minutes at room temperature gives an important enzyme time to act and preserve garlic’s health-boosters. Now how cool is that?
  5. Eat crucifers 1 of these 3 ways. Cruciferous vegetables – arugula, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, radish, turnips and many others – contain phytonutrients that can be converted to other compounds, which, among other things, may decrease chronic inflammation and detoxify cancer-causing compounds. But how we prepare these vegetables matters. Some heat is good; too much heat is not. Try one of these 3 methods.
    colorful radishes
    When you eat raw radishes with well-cooked cauliflower, broccoli or Brussels sprouts, you unlock some of the disease-fighters in these cruciferous vegetables.
    • Steam for up to 4 minutes, so your vegetables are still brightly colored and crispy.
    • Blanch in boiling water for about 30 seconds.
    • Combine well-cooked cruciferous vegetables with raw cruciferous vegetables. For example, pair cooked broccoli with a salad containing arugula or radishes.
  6. Eat a variety of fibers. Foods give us lots of different fibers. And just like vitamins, different fibers have different jobs. You can’t make up for a lack of vitamin C by consuming extra vitamin A, and you can’t make up for a lack of fermentable fibers by consuming lots of non-fermentable fibers. Some of those fibers are food for the good microbes in your gut. By eating foods with different types of fibers, you’ll get the mix you need for your gut microbes and other jobs. Among a host of other things, those gut microbes unlock disease-fighting nutrients and help us absorb minerals. Eat fiber-rich foods every time you eat.
  7. Sit down to food you enjoy. Something that you learn in Nutrition 101 is that food scraped into the garbage disposal doesn’t give you any nutrition at all. Find what you do like, so you actually eat it.

Bottom line on fruits and vegetables: Eat lots of them. Eat them raw. Eat them cooked. Any fruit and vegetable – even if boiled to total limpness – is better than no fruit or vegetable at all.

If your goal is to prevent type 2 diabetes, download this self-care checklist

Jill-Weisenberger_about-image-2
Jill Weisenberger

I'm Jill, and I believe simple changes in your mindset and health habits can bring life-changing rewards. And I don't believe in willpower. It's waaaay overrated. As a food-loving registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist and certified health and wellness coach, I've helped thousands of people solve their food and nutrition problems. If you're looking for a better way to master this whole healthy eating/healthy living thing or if you're trying to prevent or manage diabetes or heart problems, you'll find plenty of resources right here.

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Welcome to my Blog

Hi there! I'm Jill, a nutrition & diabetes expert and the author of 4 books.

Jill Weisenberger

I believe simple changes in health habits can bring you life-changing rewards.

And I believe willpower is way overrated.

Right here is where you can discover the mindset and habits to stick with healthy lifestyle choices most of the time - and drop the guilt when you don't.

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