On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, Ingrid Bauer wrote:

> >It makes sense that a
> >large protein feast should trigger an insulin response similar to
> >that of a carbohydrate feast.
>
> That is the explaination of the fact that i am craving very sweet thing like
> honey everytime i eat lot of meat at one setting.
> How  large protein meal  can trigger an insuline response ?

Well, if the stuff I have read is sound, the insulin response to
protein is a curve that is relatively flat for portions up to
about 35g, but beyond that rises sharply.  At the flat part of
the curve, the insulin response to protein is about 40% that of
carbs.  Interestingly, this dovetails pretty well with the claim,
in physiology textbooks, that 58% of protein is burned as fuel
anyway.  There is some variation according to the amino acid
content of the protein, however.

I am interested in experimenting with this.  When I switched from
the Zone to Neanderthin, I pretty much stopped losing weight, and
my cholesterol went way up.  I think one of the things that I
started doing differently was to eat more protein at each meal.
Seduced by Ray's rhetoric about being able to consume "unlimited
quantities" of meat and other paleo foods, I got away from the
smallish portions allowed on the Zone.  Perhaps the problem was
simply that I was overloading myself with protein at meals,
causing an elevated insulin response.  This, in combination with
the tendency of saturated fats to increase insulin resistance,
may be the problem.  So I am going to try strictly limiting my
protein portions for the next few weeks and see what happens.  If
my weight and cholesterol begin to drop then I think I'll have a
good idea what's going on.

Todd Moody
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