This is what I have gleaned from the diet (book) that you're following...
1. It was not written for athletes.
2. It might be great for a few people...you can't write an all encompassing diet plan for the masses. It just doesn't make sense.
3. If you were to write an all encompassing diet plan for the masses, it would most likely be best to prescribe a low GI impact diet with a very high protein intake.
4. The author structured the diet plan the way that she did because most people aren't disciplined enough to follow a
better diet than what she laid out.
5. Rather than explaining things clearly (such as insulin), she only wrote a one sided (aka misleading) account of several different hormones and ideas.
6. While there are undoubtedly some good ideas in the book, it was not written for very educated (or smart) people.
You can do better by reading up a bit yourself and forming your own diet. You can follow this one for a while, but wouldn't you be more successful following a diet that was customized for your needs? You're on the right track though.
It just irks me that this author wrote the book in the manner that she did. I guess it's because I've read a lot of books that were all around better. Lyle McDonald for example, always explains in detail what's going on in your body. He tells what is/might/will happen in your body, and then explains the reasoning for his logic. And maybe the author did so in the 40-30-30 diet book...but if she did, then her logic was flawed.
Ok, rant over.
I wrote that more for other people that will read over this thread. I think that you had picked up on a good bit of this by now.