love

1. I have been a proponent of wholesome eating as the guarantee of good health and optimal weight. The approach has worked great for me, but I am still curious to know if eating high caloric density foods – but within strict daily caloric “budget” – is detrimental to one’s health? I have no cravings or addictions of any sort, it is almost an “academic” question mostly concerning socially inflicted foods like BBQ, wine, cheese, etc.

2. My girlfriend often slips into baby talk — and it grates on my nerves, but I don’t know how to stop it.  Any suggestions?

3.  I’m wondering, why we’re having so many beautiful women in Russia, but much less of handsome men. Is there any explanation?

4.Plomin states that the heritablity of weight is 70%.    Is this statistic a byproduct of our modern food environment and therefore an explanation of the obesity problem?  How would the heritability of weight differ in a stone-age environment?    How would it differ if we measured a cohort from Chef AJ’s group?   That word heritability, is also confusing.  Please explain.

5. Whats up with corporate jargon, like “Could you action this item?”, buzz words like “synergy”, being told to “think outside the box”, needlessly fancy job titles and the like. I realize it’s bound to be several things: conferring status cheaply, trying to motivate by conveying positivity, obfuscating to avoid concrete promises and cover asses, trying to sound smart and adjusting language use to match the in-group. Am I mistaken or missing anything? Where does this jargon come from -is it perpetuated by business schools or the fanciest companies? Am I penalizing myself significantly if I don’t go along with all this BS?

1. If it is true that we can’t change people, why would evolution waste energy engineer feelings in us that make us feel incline to try to change others? If we can’t change others, why do people come to believe they can or enter relationships with others on that premise?

2. My brother has always been very private about his relationship with his significant other, to the point that it makes our family uncomfortable.  She was a foreign exchange student when they met, failed to meet requirements for her work visa this spring, and my brother finally told us they got married this past May to keep her in the states. He also expressed as recently as one year ago he is not even sure he likes her, but does enjoy her attention and having company. I guess my question here is twofold; is it worth expressing concern to him about this being that’s it’s done? It was a particularly hard blow to my parents, who are practicing Catholics, and I don’t see how he could fail to see the hurt it would cause them. Second… from a gene standpoint, why did he do this?

3. I have a 15 year old son who did poorly in school after it moved online last spring – eventually he stopped doing any of his work and lied to my husband and I about it. He is returning to a hybrid model in a couple of weeks, and I am already dreading the acrimony that will follow. My husband is our son’s stepfather with no biological children of his own. In the past, there has been conflict between my husband and I about how to handle this – I think my husband is draconian and he thinks I’m too relaxed. How much freedom is appropriate to give kids when it comes to schoolwork? What about lying? Is there any way to protect my relationships with both my husband and my son through this? And finally, why do some step-parents (like my husband) get so invested in kids that will not be carrying their genes forward?