Whole-Food  Plant-Based (WFPB)


Food Synergy

Food synergy is when nutrients interact with each other to create greater health effects compared to nutrients in isolation.

Food synergy examples

Food synergy: an operational concept for understanding nutrition by Dr. Jacobs, 2009.
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1543S/4596924
Examples of food synergy:

  • Grain example: in long-term follow-up, fiber from refined grain was not related to mortality, but the fiber in whole grain was.
  • Apple example: cancer cell proliferation was inhibited more by extracts of the whole apple with skin than by extracts of the apple flesh only.
  • Tomato example: whole tomato consumption had a greater anti-cancer effect on human prostate tissue than did an equivalent amount of lycopene.
  • Whole pomegranates had greater anti-cancer effects than did some of their individual constituents.
  • Whole broccoli had greater anti-cancer effects than did some of their individual constituents.

Food synergy is complex

There are thousands of naturally occurring chemicals in food. And there are thousands of chemical interactions inside the human body as foods are digested and metabolized.

We don't have to know the specific food synergies to eat healthily. The human body has evolved to depend on whole foods as they were found in nature. Whole foods from plants provide all the synergy we need.

Dr. Greger explains food synergy: