In this case it was cottage cheese. In that group of subjects the blood cholesterol went down, but not as much as in the almond group, which means there is much more to almonds and other nuts in their effect on cholesterol than just fat. It appears that the protein is a factor. It's the protein that is very high in a little known amino acid called arginine. This amino acid is very common in plant proteins, and especially in nut protein, but is generally found in much lower amounts in animal proteins.
Arginine does quite a few things.
The two main things it does are to help lower cholesterol and it relaxes blood vessels. So you can figure that a relaxed artery, blood vessel, is less likely to get into trouble, so to say. We don't know that. It's very new. But, it certainly is almost twice as much as you find in milk protein.