On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Paul F. Getty wrote: > A lowcarb diet keeps insulin levels low, but in a > >nondiabetic there's always plenty of insulin present, and dietary > >protein causes insulin surges comparable to carbohydrates. So if > >there is a caloric surplus, there *is* insulin present to do the > >job of storing body fat. > > Todd, > I thought insulin was only released with carbohydrate intake....at least > that's what I learned reading Protein Power and CAD and Sugar Busters. Are > they not telling us the whole story, to get their point across that carbs > are bad and protein is good? Or did I miss something. I feel I need to > get my insulin down and hoped eating less carbohydrates would do it. If you look again at Protein Power (I unfortunately don't have my copy handy) you will find a table that shows the insulin and glucagon responses to various macronutrients. Also, most physiology textbooks document this. Protein and carbohydrates *both* cause insulin to be released. Carbs cause somewhat more insulin secretion than protein, but *both* are powerful insulin "secretagogues", to use the term that the academics seem to like. The mixture of carb plus fat causes the highest insulin surge. The difference is that carbs stimulate little or no secretion of glucagon, whereas protein causes a substantial release of glucagon. The insulin surge is immediate, whereas the glucagon surge doesn't appear for two hours or so after the meal. Ideally, you want the glucagon surge to balance and counteract the effects of the insulin surge. If you are eating too many carbs relative to protein, it won't. So the key is *balance*. The point that I was making is that in a normal human being, even on a low-carb diet there is plenty of insulin available to convert store excess calories as fat. In a diabetic this is not the case, however. If you have insulin resistance, your insulin receptors are not very efficient, so the insulin builds to higher serum levels and hangs around longer, making it harder for the glucagon to have any effect. Since saturated fat apparently causes insulin resistance, large meals of protein and saturated fat are going to cause weight gain, especially for a person already disposed to insulin resistance (such as myself). This is why Atkins recommends the "fat fast" for people who have reached weight loss plateaus. The idea is to reduce the protein and therefore keep the insulin as low as possible. Of course if the fats are saturated insulin resistance will still be there, but fat doesn't stimulate release of insulin or glucagon, and if you're not eating much of anything but fat there won't be much insulin around for your receptors to resist anyway. Of course, you can't stay on a "fat fast" forever, and when you end it you will still have the insulin resistance to contend with as you add protein back into your diet and experience insulin surges again. In terms of paleolithic eating, I think this means that an insulin resistant person who wants to remain compliant with the diet probably needs to place heavy emphasis on marine protein sources and monounsaturated fats. Todd Moody [log in to unmask]