The world of cheese is rich in colorful stories, questionable lore and, yes, alternative facts. Who knows what’s actually true and what’s just fun to imagine? Did Napoleon really slice off the top of a pyramidal cheese with his sword, inspiring the shape of Valençay? I’m going with it. But a few myths and misunderstandings about cheese really do deserve to die.

Myth: Cheese is high in lactose. I’m still fighting this one. A prominent restaurant critic told me recently that his lactose-intolerant daughter couldn’t eat cheese. And it may well be true that eating cheese makes this woman feel bad. But lactose is probably not the culprit because most cheese doesn’t have any, or so little that you’d have to eat a massive serving to get an appreciable amount.

When milk is coagulated for cheese, 98 percent of the lactose is removed with the whey. And in all but a few cheeses, the bacteria in the culture consume the rest. By the time most cheese reaches store shelves, there’s virtually no lactose left. Jeff Broadbent, a dairy microbiologist and expert on lactic-acid bacteria, is my source on this subject and you can read more from him here.

Myth: Cheese can be frozen. Well, that’s true if the sentence ends there. But frozen successfully? I don’t know any cheese that will be as good when it comes out of the freezer as it was when it went in. Freezing and thawing alter the physical properties of cheese—the mouthfeel and meltability. Water expands when it freezes and contracts when it thaws, so the more moisture in the cheese, the more damage. A hard cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano will still be grateable after freezing, but probably more crumbly. Plus, unless you’re super careful with wrapping, freezer burn—that yucky oxidized taste—can take a toll. Here’s more on freezing cheese and why it’s not a great idea.

Myth: Blue cheese contains gluten. I lead a cheese tasting every year for a group of medical professionals, and every year one of the attendees tells me her husband can’t eat blue cheese because he has celiac disease. I nod in sympathy. But this mistaken notion about blue cheese and gluten is one we can trace to Roquefort, which is indeed inoculated with mold spores cultured on rye bread. Thus every wheel of Roquefort AOP—the authentic Roquefort from France—could conceivably contain a minuscule amount of gluten, possibly enough to trigger a reaction for celiac sufferers. To my knowledge, Roquefort is the only blue cheese produced this way, and recent research suggests that, even in Roquefort, no gluten remains.

Myth: Parmigiano Reggiano is better than Pecorino Romano. Of course this prejudice is not subject to fact checking, but in my view, it simply ain’t right. Both of these aged Italian giants belong in the pantheon of cheese. They are similar yet different, and in stature they’re equal. Parmigiano is sweet, mellow and nutty, Pecorino Romano more savory and sharp. I use Parmigiano in pasta dishes with butter or where tradition demands it, like eggplant Parmigiana. I use Pecorino Romano almost everywhere else. Southern Italian dishes would taste all wrong with Parmigiano Reggiano.

Myth: Creamy cheeses are higher in fat and calories than firm cheeses. Typically not. If you are comparing by weight, an ounce of cottage cheese will almost certainly have fewer calories than an ounce of a hard cheese like Manchego. The cottage cheese may be almost 80 percent water, while the moisture content of the Manchego is closer to 40 percent. So if you are looking at nutritional data on an ounce of cheese, or an undefined “serving” of cheese, you really have to ask: which cheese?