Does it really matter?
 

We hear so many things/suggestions about food pairing/combining. It can be very confusing.

Example: Eat protein and or fat with fruit, my question is why? If I ate 1800 calories today and ate my fruit by itself what would the difference be if I had eaten it with a protein? Isn't it still 1800 calories?

Does everyone eat a protein or fat with fruit (or with any carbs for that matter).

Hope I didn't just confuse everybody ;)

The linking you are talking about sounds an awful like the insulin resistance diet or a way of eating to control blood sugar. Linking proteins with carbs helps keep the carbs from spiking the blood sugar. This is important for people who have insulin resistance with disorders like diabetes or PCOS.

Also, linking protein with carbs helps you to feel full longer because of the blood sugar spike.

What Eliana said- but, yes, 1800 calories is 1800 calories.

I often eat fruit by itself. If I have a sugary treat, I try to have it right after a meal, that way I feel satisfied on a smaller portion. Just my experience- do whatever works for you!

Calorically your body doesn't care. If you have a medical issue that you've been advised to eat a certain way, that would be a different issue.

1800 calories is 1800 calories... but nutritionally speaking - You need fiber to rid your body of what it doesn't need or of what it's used up. You need fat to disolve and help your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins. You need protein to restore muscles and for long term energy. You need carbs for brain function and for quick energy.

I try to pair a protein with a carb. But if all I have is one or the other, I don't make myself crazy about it. I do find pairing them does help to keep me fuller longer. I like to do Low fat cottage cheese with fruit. Or almonds with a fruit or veggie. But if all I have time to eat is a bit of fruit... so be it!

I lose more weight on 1800 calories of low-carb foods than on 1800 calories of high-carb foods, so "a calorie is a calorie," seems to be an oversimplification for my body.

There's actually a fair amount of sciece behind why the body (and why some bodies in particular) do treat some calories a little differently than others (it's possible that what you eat can change your metabolism, the "calories out" part of the calories in/calories out equation."

I know when I was younger, it didn't seem to make as much difference as it does now (although I never ate low-carb long enough to notice any possible difference).

I'm not saying that low-carb is for everyone, I'm just saying that for many people, at least, what they eat makes a difference.

An issue where it can also make a difference is in hunger control. I find certain foods and food combinations increase hunger, and others seem to control it. It makes a lot more sense to eat 1800 calories of low-carb/high fiber (on which I am not hungry) than 1800 calories of high carb/low-fiber (on which I am painfully and insanely hungry).

At first, when I started studying my food journals, I thought that low-carb was working better than high-carb only because of hunger control (because I was eating off-plan more because of the extra hunger when I ate high carb). Then I found that even when I strictly stuck to the 1800 calorie limit, I still lost more on low-carb (only some of which can be accounted for by the fact that I retain less water on low-carb).

There are good reasons for pairing some foods together, but there's no magic involved. If you don't have blood sugar issues, and don't find high-carb foods hunger-inducing, you may not need to deal with it at all.

Only experimentation will tell you, if you need to do more than count calories.

As for why you would pair fruit with fat or protein, is (in a nutshell) - it would slow the digestion and impact on blood sugar, which means you will be satisfied longer.

I'm insulin resistant, and if I eat fruit for breakfast, I am STARVING within two hours. This wasn't always true, and when I get thinner and less insulin resistant, I may be able to go back to fruit only for breakfast, but at least for now eating fruit as a meal isn't very practical.

Yes, it can be confusing, but my philosophy is to go with the simplest plan that works. Assuming that you eat a balanced diet (and not complete junk), I would suggest only counting calories (or exchanges, or points or whatever way you want to portion-count/control), and if you're satisfied with your results, that's as far as you have to take it.

1800 calories is 1800 calories, for weight loss it doesn't matter where it came from. Just like if I gave you $1800 in $1 bills or in $100 bills its still $1800.