Evidence, allegedly

The French Paradox Files

Health-adjacent curiosity handled carefully: studies, caveats, and the wellness claims that deserve a raised eyebrow.

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Dom Pérignon Didn't Invent Champagne (And 4 Other Things Wine Drinkers Accept Without Questioning)"

The Evidence

Dom Pérignon Didn't Invent Champagne (And 4 Other Things Wine Drinkers Accept Without Questioning)

A Benedictine monk, a screw cap, and a pink wine walk into a bar. Everything you think you know about them is probably from a marketing deck. Here are five wine myths worth retiring.

5 min read·September 2026

Read The Prescription→

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Butter Is Not a Personality: The Saturated Fat Story Scientists Are Still Writing"

The Evidence

Butter Is Not a Personality: The Saturated Fat Story Scientists Are Still Writing

For fifty years, saturated fat was nutrition's clear villain. Then researchers started looking more carefully at what people ate instead, and the story got considerably less tidy.

5 min read·September 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The Wine That Fixed a Tuesday: A Beginner's Guide to Crozes-Hermitage"

The Evidence

The Wine That Fixed a Tuesday: A Beginner's Guide to Crozes-Hermitage

Crozes-Hermitage is the largest cru in the Northern Rhône and, by considerable margin, the one most willing to show up on a Tuesday. A field-tested introduction to the appellation that delivers Syrah at weeknight prices without the existential weight of Hermitage.

4 min read·September 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The 10-Minute Walk After Dinner That Outperforms Things You Pay Monthly For"

The Evidence

The 10-Minute Walk After Dinner That Outperforms Things You Pay Monthly For

A brief walk after dinner measurably blunts post-meal blood sugar spikes, and the research on timing is specific enough to be genuinely useful. You do not need a kettlebell.

4 min read·August 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The French Don't Count Macros. They Spend 2 Hours Eating Lunch."

The Evidence

The French Don't Count Macros. They Spend 2 Hours Eating Lunch.

French adults spend roughly 2 hours and 22 minutes per day eating — seated, in company, across three courses. The $72 billion wellness industry would like you to believe there's a more efficient approach.

4 min read·August 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Resveratrol Was a Lie (Sort Of): What Wine Science Actually Shows"

The Evidence

Resveratrol Was a Lie (Sort Of): What Wine Science Actually Shows

For two decades, resveratrol was the molecule that made wine virtuous. Then the human data arrived. The compound didn't disappear, exactly — it just got demoted from hero to garnish.

4 min read·August 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Clean Eating Has No Definition. Orthorexia Does."

The Evidence

Clean Eating Has No Definition. Orthorexia Does.

Clean eating is a marketing term with no clinical definition. Orthorexia nervosa is a peer-reviewed obsessive eating pattern with real consequences. At some point, one became the other and nobody noticed.

5 min read·July 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The Paleo Fantasy: What 15,000-Year-Old Bones Actually Say"

The Evidence

The Paleo Fantasy: What 15,000-Year-Old Bones Actually Say

A 2024 isotope study of 15,000-year-old remains from Morocco found that prehistoric hunter-gatherers ate substantial plant protein. The caveman ribeye narrative, it turns out, was always more branding than biography.

4 min read·July 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Burgundy Never Apologized for Anything, and Neither Should You"

The Evidence

Burgundy Never Apologized for Anything, and Neither Should You

Food guilt is not a health strategy. It is a psychological reflex that research confirms makes you eat worse, not better — and Week 2 of the protocol is where we dismantle it.

5 min read·July 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Americans Stopped Eating Together. A Cheese Board Is a Surprisingly Reasonable Response."

The Evidence

Americans Stopped Eating Together. A Cheese Board Is a Surprisingly Reasonable Response.

The data on shared meals in America is not great. Only 38% of younger working-class Americans grew up eating together daily. A well-assembled cheese board is not a policy solution, but it is something you can do this weekend.

4 min read·July 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The $8 Mushroom Latte vs. a $14 Glass of Burgundy: A Scientific Comparison"

The Evidence

The $8 Mushroom Latte vs. a $14 Glass of Burgundy: A Scientific Comparison

Both promise to fix your brain, calm your nervous system, and justify the price. One has human clinical trial data. The other has very compelling packaging and a lot of mice.

5 min read·July 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "1.8 Million People Were Studied. Cheese Was Not the Problem."

The Evidence

1.8 Million People Were Studied. Cheese Was Not the Problem.

A landmark meta-analysis covering 1.8 million participants found that moderate cheese consumption is not linked to cardiovascular disease — and may actually reduce the risk. The $72 billion wellness industry has been unusually quiet about this.

4 min read·June 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Why Champagne and Triple-Crème Brie Feels Like Cheating (The Chemistry)"

The Evidence

Why Champagne and Triple-Crème Brie Feels Like Cheating (The Chemistry)

Brut Champagne and triple-crème Brie is not a pairing so much as a loophole — one engineered by acidity, carbonation, and an unseemly amount of butterfat working in perfect, clinically unverified harmony.

4 min read·June 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Meal Replacement Shakes: 50 Years of Replacing Food with Disappointment"

The Evidence

Meal Replacement Shakes: 50 Years of Replacing Food with Disappointment

From Metrecal in 1959 to Soylent in 2013, the meal replacement industry has spent six decades solving a problem most humans did not have. The promise stays identical. The food does not improve.

4 min read·June 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The Night 22 Million Americans Decided Red Wine Was Medicine"

The Evidence

The Night 22 Million Americans Decided Red Wine Was Medicine

How a 1991 60 Minutes segment turned observational epidemiology into the most successful wine marketing campaign in television history.

3 min read·June 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Your Detox Tea Is Mostly a Laxative (And One Had Prozac)"

The Evidence

Your Detox Tea Is Mostly a Laxative (And One Had Prozac)

A systematic review of detox diet claims found no compelling evidence they work. Meanwhile, the FDA discovered one brand was secretly dosing customers with antidepressants.

3 min read·June 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "Époisses: The Cheese That Got Famous for a Crime It Never Committed"

The Evidence

Époisses: The Cheese That Got Famous for a Crime It Never Committed

The legendary Burgundian cheese supposedly banned from Parisian public transit. Spoiler: it wasn't.

3 min read·June 2026

Editorial wine and cheese photograph for "The $6.8 Trillion Guilt Machine vs. a Tuesday Night Pinot"

The Evidence

The $6.8 Trillion Guilt Machine vs. a Tuesday Night Pinot

The global wellness industry has manufactured a perfect economic engine: first create the guilt, then sell the cure. Meanwhile, the French have been doing Tuesday night dinners for centuries without a subscription model.

4 min read

Is Wine Good For You? A Carefully Selected Literature Review

The Evidence

Is Wine Good For You? A Carefully Selected Literature Review

We reviewed the available scientific literature on wine and health, excluding the studies that disagreed with our thesis.

7 min read·March 2026