>And insulin presence promotes the "bad" pathway.
>I hope I'm right so far.

I think it would be more correct to say that when insulin *gets out of
ratio* with glucagon, then the "bad" pathway will be promoted.

>My question:
>Does glucagon *reduce* insulin, anyway?
>I think they only work against each other?

In a manner of speaking, glucagon does reduce insulin.  But I prefer to say,
'glucagon keeps insulin in check.'  By that I mean that if there's enough
glucagon in the blood stream, then insulin will be secreted much slower.
This is why I always eat my protein serving by my carb serving - so I can
get the glucagon release before the insulin release.

>Can (high, any, whatever) protein in a meal reduce it's insulin peak?

Yes, especially if you eat your protein before your carbs.  But if you eat a
fatty cut of meat for your protein and a low fat serving of carbs (eg
apple), then the carbs will empty from the stomach before the meat - even if
you eat the meat first.

>I didn't find any reference for this claim.

Just my opinion, but I never thought references amount to much.  Most of the
people doing these nutritional studies are biased and will do whatever it
takes to villanize the high protein, low carb diet.  And sometimes they just
flat out do the exeriments wrong b/c they don't know what they're looking
for.

>Can anybody mention a reference or study, why or how or when
>protein can decrease insulin levels if protein is *added* to a meal?

Flax oil and Cod Liver oil will improve insulin sensativity too.

>These question seem to be essential for the zone diet- aren't they?

I think these are some of the primary questions to be asked for any diet.

>What i found to be inconsistent in the theory:
>Many small meals or snacks per day are recommended, each including
>carbohydrate foods. But insulin goes up for a certain time after a >meal
>only. So with many meals or snacks you won't let the insulin ever
>come back to normal - exept at nicht when sleeping.
>Wouldn't it be much better to have few meals only, so there would be
>only few insulin peaks over the 24 hours?

Assuming that your eating the same number of carbs per day, spreading your
carbs throughout the day will help control insulin levels.  For example, if
you're eating 100g carbs per day, then eat about 20g carbs 5 times a day.
If you eat all 100g in 1 meal, then your insulin levels will be spiked for
the next 7-10 hours (not 3-4 hours, which is the number commonly sited).

xx Justin xx
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