Very meta: a high level view of drinking confirms the J-shaped curve (again)

Much has been made of recent mega-studies reporting that any level of drinking is bad, and that if there ever was a J-shaped curve for wine & health, it has disappeared. “We can’t even pretend that drinking is good for us anymore” proclaimed one headline. If you have read Wine & Health you know that these conclusions are highly debatable, even misleading,

Source of red wine headache discovered! Probably. Maybe. We’ll see.

Many people experience headaches after drinking red wine, which limits their ability to enjoy it and negating any potential benefits. So when a new study [1] heralds that the cause has finally been identified, it gets a lot of press. The widely reported study, from respected researchers at the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis, does provide important insight that may very well result in answers, but not until the hypothesis is actually tested in human subjects.

Wine, Health, and the Triumph of Bacchus

For the cover of my book Wine & Health: Making Sense of the New Science and What it Means for Wine Lovers, my publisher chose an image depicting the Triumph of Bacchus. It’s an understated nod to my defense of wine’s role in healthy living, but it also underscores the temptation to oversimplify the topic.

What we got right – and where we went wrong with wine and health reporting

discouraged about the drumbeat of news warning of the dangers of wine & alcohol? You’re not alone. Wine sales have been declining, and the industry as a whole is facing significant challenges. It doesn’t seem to matter that the studies claiming to debunk the role of wine as a healthy thing are mostly misrepresented. Alcohol-related premature deaths worldwide are actually in a state of steady decline,

Go with your gut: Is red wine a probiotic?

We all know that maintaining a healthy gut microbiome has rewards beyond simply good digestion. Indeed, it is difficult to find any aspect of health and disease that is not influenced by the makeup of the organisms in the intestinal tract. Taking probiotics has become a routine for many, but there’s mounting evidence that red wine should be part of a digestive health strategy as well