I say that you should be fine IF your insulin sensitivity is actually under control. Check out Robb Wolf's newest post on insulin resistance and eicosanoids, or you could take a look at the one from wholehealthsource. Also make sure to be getting enough magnesium. If you really go heavy on the fish oil, saturated fat, nutrients and vegetables you will improve your insulin sensitivity and it won't be an issue.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/05/eicosanoids-fatty-liver-and-insulin.html http://robbwolf.com/2010/09/27/how-to-jump-the-shark-with-fish-oil-and-moderation/ http://robbwolf.com/2010/09/27/how-to-jump-the-shark-with-fish-oil-and-moderation/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15223977

Neither starch nor saturated fat causes insulin resistance, only problems with people who have insulin resistance. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/08/saturated-fat-glycemic-index-and.html

Neither low carb or low fat is a solution to insulin sensitivity. The above recommendations are and are all that should really be focused on, whether or not someone feels that low carb is optimal for health and longevity and decides to do it anyway. I usually need starch after workouts to feel my best.

Many athletes and fitness enthusiasts eat high starch diets and live to a ripe old age. For example, Clarence Bass, of "Ripped" fame:

http://www.cbass.com/index.html

He's, well, ripped. And he's in his 70s, eating whole grains and starches regularly. Insulin spikes when your cells are full of glucose is one thing, but timing starch around workouts is another thing. Another example is Martin Berkhan of Leangains, who I'm sure you've read. See his roast beef and potato platter here:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/08/intermittent-fasting-meals-part-two.html

Bodybuilders and strength athletes actually inject themselves with insulin as a "performance enhancing" drug. Given that this practice is extremely dangerous and can even be fatal, I suspect it must also be effective (or why would they do it?). Eating carbs post workout also causes an insulin spike (although smaller), so I suspect that it might be "performance enhancing" as well. I've recently increased my carbs post workout and feel that it has a very positive effect on my recovery. As to whether it's improving my health...

Starch, besides its effects on insulin metabolism could have other detrimental effects. Google Klebsiella and starch. Both Peter at Hyperlipid and Dr. Ayers at Cooling Inflammation talk about it. Interesting...

I tried to increase starches a bit, but have seen my psoriasis flare up again (not that bad though). Now other things could also have caused this, so n=1 is ongoing, from now on it will be avoiding starches and wait and see...

Steven, good post. I have been VCL meat and a few greens for 5 months to fix an out of whack metabolism, whatever you wanna call that. Carbs were making me sick. Once in the middle of that, I tried just 50g carbs in sweet potato, PWO, and felt terrible.

Fast forward to last week; I tried leangains. 3x a week Ive been eating super lean beef with 340g of carbs in sweet potatoes (divided over two meals), and just 10g coconut oil added fat. During rest days, I eat the same as I have been; fatty meat and a tad of greens. Hormonal hunger signals didn't return. Seems I go right back into ketosis (but I think the 16/8 fasting schedule plus fasted training helps induce it).

Its just been a week now, and even though I thought I may keel over dead if I ate that much carb at once, nothing bad happened! In fact, after 5 months of lifting glycogen depleted, It felt pretty damn good. My next lift was great. Recovery was great.

Too early to know about body composition changes. I'm going for a leangains cut cycle.

All you paleotards are too carb-phobic. You turn insulin and carbohydrates into such a big deal. Why are grains, fruits, and potatoes supposed to be the cause of cancer, obesity, type II diabetes, and such on when people have been cultivating and eating them for 4,000+ years without problems? It's only recently in the past few decades that people started getting sick. Several thousand years ago, people ate grains and roots but were rarely obese. Get that fact straight. Even our paleolithic ancestors ate plenty fruit when they were in season and roots as well.

Here's another fact: All of the larger and stronger civilizations had either grains or potatoes in their diet. Civilizations with almost zero carbs like the inuit or eskimos are small and weak.

But if it makes you feel better, then you can go ahead and wear your paleolithic tarzan-skirts and start running around the place like monkeys.