For years, researchers have sliced and diced foods in laboratories in a quest to discover a miracle nutrient-one that helps prevent cancer or heart disease or otherwise grants us good health. Their findings helped make lycopene, beta-carotene, and resveratrol practically household names.

The nutrient-centric approach also may have made us miss the big picture, some scientists are now saying. "A tomato isn't just lycopene. An orange isn't just vitamin C," says David Jacobs, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota. "The foods we eat are living systems, with a careful balance of thousands of constituents, many of which are crucial to health. Even the balance in which they occur may be important." Indeed, scientific studies that have isolated a single nutrient, such as beta-carotene, and given it to study participants in the form of a supplement have often belly flopped.

The whole, in other words, adds up to far more than the sum of its parts -- an adage that rings even truer when several nutritious foods are combined in one dish, such as a salad.

Instead of getting the "right" nutrients, the new thinking goes, we should focus on getting enough whole, healthful foods. Sure, a tomato contains antioxidants, but it's also bursting with vitamins A, B, and C, fiber, and minerals. Nutritionists prize whole grains for their fiber, yet new studies show that whole grains pack a combination of beneficial components.

Researchers refer to the complex web and workings of nutrients as "synergy of the food matrix." The rest of us can call it one more commonsense reminder to eat a varied diet.

Recipes
Baby Greens with Tuna and Mixed Vegetables
Baby Beet Salad with Sugar Snap Peas
Fava Bean Salad with Roasted-Garlic Vinaigrette