Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Penn and Teller. Bert and Ernie. These dynamic duos make it clear that a twosome can become even greater than the sum of its parts.

The same holds true for the food on your plate.

Pairing certain foods brings out their best nutritional powers by improving your body's ability to absorb the nutrients they contain. Here are some tasty duos:

• Eat kale with ... nuts. One cup of chopped raw kale delivers a superdose of fat-soluble vitamins K (essential for blood clotting, bone metabolism, and regulating blood calcium levels) and A (for normal vision, immune system function, and reproduction). But some reports indicate you need to eat healthy fats along with those greens for maximum absorption of their nutrients. An ounce of walnuts loaded with omega-3s will do the trick.

• Eat avocado with ... salads and salsa. A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating 1.5 ounces of avocado with foods such as tomatoes and carrots — which contain the prostate-loving compound lycopene — boosts your absorption of those nutrients. Why? Because avocados are rich in monounsaturated oleic acid, the same healthy fat found in olives and olive oil.

• Eat spinach with ... salmon. Vitamin D-rich salmon (3 ounces of sockeye salmon delivers 447 IU) has what's needed to help you absorb the bone-, heart-, and muscle-loving calcium in spinach (1 cup has 400 mg).

• Drink green tea with ... lemon. Citrus fruits like lemons contain vitamin C, which helps boost absorption of catechins — the potent polyphenols in green tea that may prevent damage to lipids, proteins, and DNA.