Blog Posts by Liz Brody

In the 10 seconds it takes to click around the dating sites, your small man-pool can expand into a teeming ocean:

It's a fact. Match.com has MORE dates, relationships and marriages MORE than any other site, reads the site's homepage.

At eHarmony: You've come to the right place. The place where millions of people are brought together.

And at Plenty of Fish: 135 Million Monthly Visitors, More Dates, More Relationships Than Any Other Site...20,000 New People Every Day.

Thousands of fresh singles? Millions of great catches? Who can't snag love with all these options?

Sorry, ladies, but here's a nubbly little paradox. Science has noticed something called consumer vertigo. "It's very well known in the online dating business that the more people you give someone to look over, the less likely they are to choose anybody at all," says Helen Fisher, PhD, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and Chief Scientific Advisor to Chemistry.com. Sam Yagan, co-founder of OkCupid

How many ways can you skin a woman's confidence? For years, we've lived with ads featuring models too gaunt to menstruate, and more recently, without enough of a waist to actually breathe (thank you, rambo Photoshopping). But now we've got a whole new level of feel-bad messaging.

Have you noticed the growing number of impossibly attractive stars who say they don't feel (insert a shrug of shoulders here) that hot? No, they see themselves, as plain or dumpy, as in, "I don't think I'm a sexy, beautiful woman. I look like Ted Nugent in a black wig." If Megan Fox can utter those words with a straight face, where on earth does that leave the rest of us?

Maybe this "nah shucks" stuff is some new form of reverse bragging, a media-savvy version of, "don't hate me because I'm beautiful." Or maybe these stars honestly feel they're not up to snuff. Whatever way you spin it, this is not a healthy trend for any of us.

Erin Matson puts it a little more bluntly than I have. "I believe

Should a Christian do the Downward Dog?

This is not a trick question, but rather an issue raised by Baptist leader Albert Mohler that, like an egg beater, has whipped up the yoga community's usual calm into a peaked, frothy fluster. Then again, aren't we all a bit confused about this body-bending, mind-enhancing practice from the East?
In the name of clarity, here is an attempt to answer what yoga is-and what it isn't.

The word yoga... Yoga traditions go back thousands of years, and today have spawned more than 100 schools, according to the American Yoga Association. This is partly why any discussion about the practice is so complicated. "In Sanskrit, 'yoga' can mean anything from an astronomical conjunction to yoking an animal to going to war; it's what you put in front of the word-hatha, raja, tantric-that defines it," explains David White, PhD, professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and editor of the forthcoming book,Yoga in Practice. "Not

Here's a "what-if" scenario: Your husband starts working late every night, you forget the last time you were physically intimate, and he seems to have lost interest in you. Shall we cut to the chase? The guy's having an affair. Slam dunk, change your Facebook status.

Maybe not. These signs are some of the lesser-known symptoms of depression. which affects nearly 1 out of 10 Americans, according to CDC figures released just in time for National Depression Screening Day. Throughout the country today, October 7, you can get a free, anonymous mental health evaluation at one of 1,500 facilities or by taking a three-minute test online (click here to get started). "You can do the screening for yourself, or for a loved one you're worried about," says Kathryn Quirk, spokesperson for Screening for Mental Health, which developed the special day that screened 250,000 people last year. "Depression is a treatable, under-diagnosed disease. And this is where you can take the first step."

In case you

Will "Teen Mom" die on the cable vine? According to a new study of 5,865 Americans, the most responsible lovers in this country are kids.

Despite its frumpy title, the "National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior" has been steaming up the news blogs since Monday when it was released. Conducted by researchers at Indiana University, home of the Kinsey Institute, it's one of the largest, heftiest studies on sex ever, and the results take up the entire issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine with nine research articles and four commentaries (inquiring minds can download it here.)
One of the most surprising findings is that, far from tossing their virginity like Big Mac wrappers, only about one out of five teenagers is having intercourse. And among those who do, condom protection is now the norm. A whopping 80 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds boys and 69 percent of the girls those ages said they'd used one during their last encounter. Dennis Fortenberry, MD, who led the adolescent

Fashion models in double-digit sizes? Christina Hendricks steaming up 'Mad Men'? We love our curvy girls. But let's not fool ourselves. Life, in general, is still easier for the lean. Yet another new study hammers home the reality that tall, thin women (bonus for weensy waists and long arms) are rated most attractive. And despite all the new science on the causes of obesity, it seems that a distaste for weight runs deep in the aquifers of the American psyche. Recently, in fact, it became clear just how dearly women pay for carrying a few extra pounds.


STRIKE ONE - Skinnier paychecks
Obese women earn about 6 percent less than thinner women for doing exactly the same work, according to Rebecca Puhl, PhD, director of research at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University. "That wage penalty has been consistently documented," she says. "It's pretty bad." What's new is that males don't take nearly the hit. A study just out from George Washington University breaks down the

The Container Stores must be doing a brisk business. According to the latest statistics, more couples than ever are bypassing the altar in favor of blending their possessions and shacking up.

New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that in 2009, marriage plunged to an all-time low, accounting for only 52 percent of the adult population. Also, in the last year, the number of opposite-sex couples living together jumped by 13 percent. "As much as we're seeing an increase in prenups," adds Marlene Eskind Moses, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, "we've also seen a rise in cohabitation agreements." So it's not just Mel Gibson? "Absolutely not. These agreements are becoming much more common."

Sadly, this all may sound more "spreadsheet" than satin sheets, but apparently we live in unromantic times: Weddings are expensive, and everlasting love may not be not the first thing that comes to mind when you're slipping all over the job market. Meanwhile, "splitting the

Ladies, we need to get down to brass tacks. The question is: how to tell a guy's lovemaking potential before you ever see the insides of his socks. Scientists don't study this, so it's up to us.

For example, does sexual prowess depend on skill and experience? A deep knowledge of the Kama Sutra? Or, is it really more primal than all that, you know, like being George Clooney?

Also, there must be tip-offs. At one time I thought rhythm was a dead giveaway, but after dating many a guitar player (as a child, I must have misheard my Bubby's "physician" for "musician"), I've decided that's not reliable. Then again, what about the way a guy dances? Surely this is telling. Or the way he bowls? Or drives a car? Or whips out his wallet with just the right mix of Don Draper (bless that far-off look and inexcusable manliness, even if you don't like stomach hair) with, say, Jon Stewart?

Speaking of which, does humor come into it? Generosity? Intelligence? Or, are we just fooling ourselves?

"I'm