Blog Posts by Jessica Ashley, Senior Editor

We're so used to hearing celebrities blame/credit their sub-size-zeroness on super-fast metabolism or similar that it's startling to read something that sounds a lot more true -- that they are painfully, chronically hungry in an effort to meet the insurmountable standard for a famous woman's body size.

Kathy Griffin, who paraded on stage in a camouflage bikini for active-duty soldiers for the "VH1 Divas Salute the Troops" concert over the weekend, once jokingly told Giuliana Rancic her personal combo for staying thin: "It's frustration and starvation. I'm cranky all the time and I'm hungry all the time."

Like most of what Griffin says, it is likely part of her never-ceasing comedy set. But the truth behind it -- yep, whittling down your body to concave abs and protruding ribs will likely entail some pretty hardcore calorie reduction and horrible hunger pangs -- is not so funny. Think I'm taking this too seriously? Consider that people don't starve to just lower weights, they also

Perhaps you steer clear of creamy sauces or don't eat anything orange. Maybe you cannot tolerate dairy or detest any foods that are crunchy on the outside and mushy on the inside. Most of us have some kind of eating quirk. But what if you were such a picky eater that your diet was narrowed down to just a few food choices?

What if you felt intense stress in social situations when appetizers are passed or the buffet is full of food you know you cannot stomach? What if professional networking, friendships, or even marriages were ruined because of what you wouldn't eat?

Researchers from the Duke Center for Eating Disorders say that picky eating to this extreme could torment thousands of people. Nancy Zucker, the director of the center based at Duke University, says that this illness has not previously been recognized but is now labeled as selective eating disorder.

Sufferers often eat only a few foods, which can be very embarrassing, stressful and interfere with healthy functioning in

Of course, Cher's icon status spans a nearly 50-year music and acting career as well as many notorious affairs with big names (Warren Beatty, Sonny Bono, David Geffen, Gregg Allman, Tom Cruise, Richie Sambora) and much-younger men (remember Robert "Bagel Boy" Camilletti?).

But she didn't meet her most recent flame, comedy writer Ron Zimmerman, on the set of a movie or while ordering a tub of schmear. Cher found her new beau -- and how I adore this -- on Facebook.

She recently told Jay Leno that she was intrigued by his sense of humor and "strangeness" when she saw Zimmerman's comments on a friend's page. She began a message exchange with him, but because her profile is under a different name (Cher says it's because her own name was already claimed on Facebook) and because she kept mentioning her travels to Las Vegas, he assumed he was conversing with a "hooker, a female impersonator or a transvestite."

Ahhh, Facebook at it's finest -- anonymous conversations, strangeness, and the

It somehow seems skewed to refer to Brooke Hogan, daughter of the wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and pursuer of pop-singing fame, as a reality star. But she's certainly spent plenty of time in front of the camera on the shows "Hogan Knows Best" and its follow-up "Brooke Knows Best" and most recently, on an accidentally-on-purpose beach photo shoot, where she showed off her bikini body.

Baring abs, obliques and solid quads in an animal-print two-piece, Hogan reportedly got into shape on a strict diet and by following a twice-daily workout routine led by her father.

Like nearly every other woman on any screen, Hogan's weight ups and downs have been well-documented. However, according to Daily Mail, she says she feels confident in a bikini no matter what size she is.

"I love my body. Thick or not, I'm firm. I don't have cellulite. I'm happy with how I am," Hogan said.

I have to say, I was taken aback to read that. As much as I don't need to read about a celeb's cellulite (or metabolism

Obesity? Lung cancer? Malaria? Bed bug infestations? Put those pandemics and public health concerns aside. What we really need to be focusing on is apples getting brown, people.

A biotech company in Canada has requested USDA approval to produce genetically modified apples that take longer to brown once they're sliced. The company contends that growing these apples in the United States will up apple sales and thereby boost health.

The anti-browning technology was originally developed in Australia for potatoes and was procured by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, based in British Columbia, for apples. The process entails halting the enzyme that causes apples to brown.

The president of the company says growing this variety -- named Artic but dubbed "Botox apples" by others -- will lower the cost of producing fresh slices packaged for fast foods, salads, snacks, and children's lunches.

Even though genetically engineered foods have come under fire, Carter maintains the technology of Artics is

Beth Twitty, Natalee Holloway's motherHope in the form of a partial jawbone with a tooth attached, found by a boy at a resort beach in Aruba, has been lost following forensic results released this morning. Officials believed it might belong to the American teenager Natalee Holloway, who was last seen vacationing there in 2005. Aruban prosecutors announced this morning that although the bone is indeed human, dental records indicate it did not belong to Holloway.

Holloway was 18 and on a class trip when she was witnessed leaving a nightclub with Joran van der Sloot and two other men. Although van der Sloot was taken into custody by police twice under suspicion of participating in Holloway's disappearance, the only charges against him have been for fraud and extortion after allegedly demanding $250,000 from the girl's family to reveal where her body was hidden. Van der Sloot will be tried, however, for the May murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old student found dead in his hotel room in Peru eerily five years to the day

Parties, big dinners, holiday celebrations, and events where there's a bounty of food and drinks don't normally worry me. If I eat a lot at one of those meals, I'm pretty good about scheduling some kind of activity the next day or counter-attacking with lots of vegetable and healthy stuff. I also recognize, however, that sometimes out of boredom, nervousness, or buzziness from a glass of wine or two, I eat more than I really want. Usually, that slow-building binge starts at the bowl of chips.

Salt does me in way more than sugar -- even in the form of delicious pies and delicate truffles and gooey brownies. I'm happy to eat one or even just take a taste of those desserts. But chips and salsa? Parmesan breadsticks? Cashews and pretzels? Forget it. I'll clear out the bowl long before the host comes by to pour out more salty goodness.

Then, of course, I usually need more to drink. Then I'm heading into the meal with a full belly and diminished inhibition. While it's not likely I'll be an

via Oprah.comToday, the shrills and near-fainting and heads shaking in disbelief of such good fortune hit a new high when Oprah announced her Ultimate Favorite Things. As the final of such shows in her 25th season, the gifts were pretty great and the audience was more entertaining than ever.

Sure, it's fun to talk about the $550 earrings and overpriced luxe candles that give off just enough scent to make your office smell divinely cucumbery as you might imagine O's downtown Chicago condo to smell on any given Friday morn. But I watched -- yes, from the treadmill, thankyouverymuch -- with delight as some delightfully healthy products made the ginormous giveaway list.

Whether you or Oprah and her entourage (that's me giving a little special wink to Nate Berkus) actually use them or put them to the test for healthy purposes -- well, that's the personal part of this very public display of product placement and big television budgets.

However, if I was on the receiving end of all this fabulousness