FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Catechin in tea reduces oxidized LDL, but milk in tea destroyscatechin

**Marshall Price** · 27-04-2008, 07:12 AM posted to rec.food.drink.tea,sci.med.nutrition

valhealey wrote:
wrote:
Ah, but why is the LDL getting oxidized in the first place? How did
my Great Grandfather live to be 100+ without any medications or
antioxidant supplements (didn't drink much tea, milk, red wine, or eat
dark chocolate either)? He used a little olive oil, ate only small
portions of meat, and didn't have arachidonic acid in his cells.
Obviously, other things helped too - he got a decent amount of sleep
each night, for example, but the point is that aside from the
indisputable (like getting enough sleep), the key is not to allow
PUFAs into your LDL in the first place. I've cited studies showing
how much more susceptible LDL is to oxidation when it is rich in
PUFAs, so the evidence, when viewed as a whole, is about as strong as
any reasonable person could ask for.

Your grandfather probably had outstanding genes. Most of us
have much less.
With those genes you could smoke, drink to your hearts
content, not bother
exercising, eat a lousy diet and you'll still live and be
healthy. Those are the lucky ones.

To get back to the original article. Black (and pekoe) teas
are drunk with milk in
places like the UK, Ireland, etc because it has been known
that these teas have
tannens - tannic acids - that have been used for converting
animal skins into
leather. I have made many inquiries about alternatives to
the use of small amounts
milk in those teas to neutralize the tannens and found none.
If you want a leather
pouch instead of a stomach, drink these black teas without
milk and your arteries
will improve.

RuF

The tannins are supposed to be responsible for health benefits, and
despite your bad luck with inquiries, I suspect they do tend to join up
with proteins in the milk. In any case, your digestive tract is lined
with epithelial cells which reproduce rapidly and slough off,
contributing quite a bit of bulk to the output (pardon my French). So I
wouldn't worry about the leather pouch effect.

--
Marshall Price of Miami
Known to Yahoo as d021317c