On Tue, 13 Mar 2001, Charles Alban wrote:

> Well ,Todd, what do you think?

I'm not sure what to think, frankly.

> Do you think milk proteins are implicated in CHD?  He mentions a possible
> mechanism -- can you quote that?  Proteins just get broken down and
> reassembled, don't they? Atkins' insulin explanation seems the most plausible
> to me, which would have nothing to do with proteins.

Well, there is some evidence that the lysine:arginine ratio in a
protein affects the LDL cholesterol receptors, with a higher
ratio having a greater downregulating effect, resulting in higher
LDL levels.  But this presupposes the validity of the LDL theory
of CHD, and it leaves unexplained why cheese would be exempt.

> Surely the high sugar correlation with CHD suggests that it is the lactose in
> milk which is the culprit. Wouldn't the lactose correlate just the same as
> the proteins? When he says he corrected for sugar, that wasn't milk sugar.
> Cheese does not contain lactose, hence its low correlation. (Neither does
> butter, or yogurt, (I think).)

Butter also contains very little protein, so that doesn't help
much.  Yogurt, however, has a significant amount of milk protein,
but little lactose.  Buttermilk too.  Does Seely find that these
products also don't correlate well with CHD?  If so, that would
be pretty strong confirmation of the lactose theory, but I
haven't found anything from Seely on that, have you?

> My feeling from reading Seeley is that he was expecting to find fat
> consumption as the cause of dietary disease, and was surprised by his own
> results showing sugar and milk as the main causes.

That's the sense I get too.

Todd MOody
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