The Mix Lab 🥣
Tap two ingredients to drop them in the bowl. Every pair gives an answer, and the interesting ones give a reason you can take back to the kitchen.
- 1Tap any two ingredients. There is no submit button — the verdict appears the moment both slots are full.
- 2Read the reason under the badge. That is the part you can take back to the kitchen.
- 3Tap a filled ingredient to remove it, or a third to push the oldest out. Surprise me always lands on something that does more than shrug.
- Classic combo
- Nutrient boost
- Blocks or slows
- Brace yourself
- Weird but fine
- Old wives' tale
- What these mean →
The pantry
109 things · tap any twoWhat the verdicts mean
Curious what happens after you eat it? Send it through the gut → Or if something you ate is bothering you now, try the pattern decoder →
Questions people actually ask
Are these food combinations actually dangerous?
Almost never. Nothing in this pantry becomes toxic when mixed with anything else here. The verdicts describe texture, flavour and nutrient absorption — a "skip this one" means it works badly, not that it will hurt you. Genuine food danger comes from allergens, undercooking and poor storage, none of which this tool models.
Is food combining a real science?
Two different things share that name. Specific chemical interactions are real and measurable — acid curdles milk, vitamin C improves iron absorption, tannins reduce it. The 1900s "food combining" diet system, which claims you must never eat protein with starch, is not supported by evidence. This lab shows the first kind and badges the second as folklore.
Why does tea block iron but steak does not?
There are two kinds of dietary iron. Heme iron, from meat and fish, is absorbed through its own pathway and is largely unaffected by tannins. Non-heme iron, from plants, is much more sensitive — vitamin C boosts it substantially and the tannins in tea and coffee bind it. If you are low on iron and eat mostly plants, moving your brew an hour either side of a meal is a real intervention.
Sources & references 📚
Every absorption claim in the Mix Lab traces to one of these. They are about nutrients and food chemistry specifically — not a general health-site block reused across the site.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Iron — heme vs non-heme absorption, and the effect of vitamin C and tannins
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Calcium — why oxalate-rich foods like spinach deliver little of the calcium they contain
- British Nutrition Foundation — general nutrient and food-composition background
Where a claim is traditional rather than demonstrated, the lab labels it as folklore instead of citing something that does not say what we would need it to say.