Carrier Foods - A Surprising Way To Help Improve Your Diet

If you’ve ever grabbed apple slices because you were already reaching for peanut butter—or poured a bowl of cereal mostly to enjoy it with cold milk—then you’ve experienced the power of carrier foods, even if you didn’t know it.

Nutrition science often focuses on the nutrients in a single food: calories, protein, fat, carbs, vitamins, minerals, and so on. But in real life, we don’t eat foods in isolation—we eat them in patterns. Certain foods subtly encourage us to eat other foods alongside them, which can meaningfully improve (or worsen) our overall diet quality. That’s where the concept of carrier foods comes in.

Recently, I published a new scientific framework describing carrier foods as those that indirectly shape diet quality by increasing the consumption of other foods during the same eating occasion, whether that’s a snack, breakfast, dinner, or anything in between. In simpler terms, a carrier food is something you eat that brings another food along for the ride.

The Four Types of Carrier Foods

Carrier foods fall a into four categories, each influencing diet quality in different ways.

1. Positive Carrier Foods

These are foods that are already nutritious and help you eat other nutritious foods. For example, research in U.S. adults shows that hummus eaters tend to consume more vegetables and whole grains compared to non-consumers—an example of a positive carrier effect in action.

2. Offset Carrier Foods

These are healthy foods that unintentionally encourage eating something less healthy. A theoretical example would be how grilled chicken may serve as an offset carrier that leads to higher intakes of white bread and calorie dense condiments. In this example, the nutritious part (the chicken) is “offset” by less-nutritious companion food(s).

3. Gateway Carrier Foods

These are less-healthy foods that surprisingly help people eat more nutritious foods. A common example is cereal. Even though cereal is often (and in many cases inappropriately) criticized for containing added sugars, studies show that cereal is a gateway carrier for milk—and sometimes fruit—in children.

4. Reverse Carrier Foods

These are less-healthy foods that encourage eating other less-healthy foods. Think cheeseburgers and French fries, a classic reverse carrier example.

Why Carrier Foods Matter

This concept helps shift nutrition away from overly simplistic “good food vs. bad food” line of thinking. Instead, it looks at real behaviors and real eating patterns. Here’s why that matters:

1. Reflects Real-World Eating Habits

Food choices are influenced by factors such as culture, convenience, cost, flavor, and norms. Carrier foods can help us understand what actually happens on the plate.

2. Improves Diet Quality in Subtle, Achievable Ways

Pairing foods strategically can nudge people—especially kids, busy families, or picky eaters—toward better choices without major effort.

Simple examples:

• Pair vegetables with a tasty dip
• Serve fruit with yogurt
• Add beans to meals anchored by familiar proteins

3. More Effective Nutrition Messaging

Instead of “don’t eat that,” nutrition professionals can recommend smart pairings, like “try whole-grain toast with avocado” or “enjoy apple slices with peanut butter.”

4. Food Equity

In communities with limited access to fresh produce, cost-effective carrier foods may help increase intake of healthier foods without requiring major dietary overhauls.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need perfection—just thoughtful pairings that help make healthier eating easier and more enjoyable.

Carrier foods help explain why we choose certain food combinations and how those combinations shape overall diet quality. It's a flexible, realistic framework that acknowledges the way we actually eat.

By understanding and using carrier foods in your daily routine, you can boost the quality of your diet in simple, delicious, and sustainable ways.

View the published article, "Defining Carrier Foods - A Novel Basis fr Evaluating Indirect Contributions to Diet Quality" in Journal of the American Nutrition Association.

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