File under: Duh

Cool. By this reckoning, disorderlies are less likely to develop cancer than other wine drinkers because they are more sophisticated in their peripheral purchases too.
 
Well, at least in the case of resveratrol, there is ample evidence to suggest that it does indeed impart salutary health benefits. I won't reproduce my grant application introduction, but resveratrol has been shown to reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases in animal models, admittedly at quite high doses. David Sinclair of Harvard has done some of the most interesting studies, showing that high doses of resveratrol increase the lifespan in certain model organisms (roundworms and zebrafish) though not, alas, in mice. However, Sinclair did show that high doses of resveratrol were able to counteract the health consequences of obesity in a strain of genetically obese mice, reducing the incidence of heart disease and diabetes to levels seen in a control group of mice. The problem for humans is that, to get comparable levels of resveratrol from wine we'd have to consume 200 bottles a day.

The study that gave rise to the notion of the "French Paradox" took into account dietary issues, too, showing that the wine drinkers consumed comparable levels of fat to the control group.

Mark Lipton
 
Also, I love that that parodic piece is by Noah Baumbach, a film director I've adored ever since "Kicking and Screaming," a classic. His films "The Squid and the Whale," "Margot at the Wedding" and "Frances Ha" are also great.

He's in this strange vector with David O. Russell, Whit Stillman and Richard Linklater—each in a different vein, but all of a kind of exhilarating looseness and paradoxical precision in their own milieu.

Also, in a spikier vein, Darren Aronofsky.
 
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