I am not a doctor, I haven't written a best selling nutrition book (yet). The authors of protein power have me on that.
But, I have trained hundreds of people, conducted thousands of workouts, and have a group of friends that have competed as fitness competitors or bodybuilders.
I am saying all this because the GH response thing is such a SMALL thing to get all worked up over ... IF it even happens.
The body releases its own growth homone aprox. 90 mins after you go to sleep, usually in stage 4 sleep.
It also does it after INTENSE weight training. The arguement is that if there is food in the bloodstream that it will blint the GH response. Again, this is a point of major controversy that is like arguing which came first .. the chicken or the egg?
The universally accepted nutrition strategies that the majority of fitness/bodybuilders use before and after workouts looks something like this:
'
1 hour prior: consume a protein shake or meal replacement bar
during: consume water or sports drink
within 30 mins after: consume protein shake
within 1 1/2 hours: consume meal, protein rich.
People have been doing this for years and adding muscle. Was their GH response blunted? Who knows. But they are more muscular, and leaner so does it matter?
I say stick with what works.
But, do what your body feels right doing. Personally, I can't work out as intense if I have nothing in my system. While that is OK for AM cardio, for weights I would not be able lift anywhere near my normal intensity.
So, for me I get good results following the plan I laid out above. My body gets the amino acids from the protein into it before the workout (to act as fuel) and then again AFTER to be used in the repair/recovery process.
I get my GH every night.
Hope this helps ...