Saturday, January 24, 2009

Skinny Deemed Unnatural and Impossible Without Starvation

http://www.bettyconfidential.com/ar/ld/a/Detox_if_a_myth.html

Betty Confidential's Judy McGuire has decided that eating healthy is useless and size 6 bodies cannot be accomplished through short daily work outs and healthy eating.
How did she decide this? It's unclear, except that she cites this article that, if read, debunks detox product myths. However, cutting fat, sodium, and processed foods out of your diet is still healthy. (Too bad, huh?) McGuire continues to rant about Gwyneth Paltrow's skeletal figure and her desire to "shed a few pounds" after the holiday.
I'm not about to pretend that all actresses are healthy, but can we stop with the skinny-bashing? I've seen enough. At least once a week when I'm headed to the gym someone says "but you're skinny." Whenever I eat a salad someone says "you need to eat some [fattening food], you're too skinny!" In high school, girls spread rumors that I was taking "body shaping pills" and the anorexia rumors started in when I moved to a new town in middle school.
I hate to burst your bubble McGuire, but some people are thin without even starving.

If Paltrow is trying to live a healthy lifestyle, that's great and if she has a problem there's no reason to hate her for it, she just needs help. And NO I am not and wasn't anorexic, some people just need less exercise, more food, less food, whatever. Not everyone thinner than you is cheating to get there, ladies. It sucks for those with genetic or other disadvantages, but shouldn't everyone be encouraged to eat well and excersize?

Monday, January 19, 2009

Little Sperm Attempts to Escape Egg, Biologists Note Sperm's Manliness

http://discovermagazine.com/1992/jun/theaggressiveegg55

The Aggressive Egg. I have to say I was shocked. In high school the sophomore bio classes would have a sperm race- one girl would stand at the end of a hallway (our school even kind of looked like ovaries at the time) and the rest of the class would race to her.
According to this article, that's not quite how it goes.. Check it out, and prepare to have some reproductive preconceptions battled!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Divorce and Religion

Apparently atheists and agnostics have lower divorce rates than Christians and Jews.
Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience.

-http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

Many guess that this is due to the fact that atheists and agnostics wait to get married, tend to date longer because they don't believe in waiting until marriage, and studies have linked higher education and wealth with lower religiosity.

I'm thinking this actually all comes back to wealth. Cohabiting couples are more likely to end up divorced. If they are living together for the sake of affordability then they can't be very wealthy. Divorce rates correlate to poverty and education level. If it's true that the wealthy are more likely to be agnostics and atheists then it follows that they are less likely to end up divorced. Unlike their less wealthy religious counterparts, they are less likely to experience those other stressful external factors.

Of course, that doesn't change all the hypocrisy that results from people who want to protect the sanctity of marriage forsaking their own marriage vows and ending up divorced more often than the non-religious.