Blog Posts by DivineCaroline

For Better or for Worse? Are Humans Hardwired for Monogamy?Does the entire wedding industry these days seem like one big racket to you? In your lifetime, how many thousands of dollars have you spent flying all over the country (or out of it) to watch people say "I do," buying place settings and champagne flutes from couples' Williams-Sonoma registries, and oohing and ahhing over boulder-size diamonds on your girlfriends' ring fingers? Adding up the numbers can be a dizzying experience, but what's truly disarming is the fact that your total payout most likely pales in comparison with the price tag for just one of these celebrations. In 2009, industry-trend resource TheWeddingReport.com reported that the average cost of a wedding in the United States was $19,580-that's more than $12,500 greater than the median annual tuition at a four-year public college.

Read Be Mine: How Diamonds Became Synonymous with Love

What's worse, many of these marriages don't even last; in fact, some social scientists have estimated U.S. divorce rates to be

Burritos have a lot of calories. That's not exactly "news at eleven," but even the most calorie-conscious among us would be surprised by how quickly the numbers add up between the flour-tortilla folds. Sure, we could cut out the shredded cheese and even the tortilla itself and save a few calories, but that'd be ignoring one important fact-life is short. Too short, in my opinion, to waste it worrying about the occasional foil-wrapped indulgence. (Unless "occasional" means multiple times a week, in which case you probably don't give a flying fiesta bowl about calorie counts.)When it comes to burritos, I say go big or go home. And at these Mexican fast-food chains, it's hard to do otherwise.

8 Belly Busting Burritos From Your Favorite Fast Food Joint
Qdoba lets patrons build their own burritos, offering a plethora of meat, bean, and sauce options. So, what if you order ground beef on a flour tortilla with cilantro-lime rice, black beans, lettuce, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, and roasted chile corn salsa and top it with 3-Cheese Queso sauce?

Peppermint: Miracle Worker?I start and end most days with peppermint tea. It's my go-to remedy for stressful mornings and chilly nights. And while I love the invigorating flavor and scent, what's really made me a die-hard devotee has more to do with its soothing properties. As someone with what feels like a perpetually upset stomach, I've found that adding this herb to my daily routine has done wonders for my well-being. And it's not all in my head, either-growing evidence suggests that peppermint's a terrific natural remedy for digestive issues. In fact, its healing powers have been tied to a number of conditions, ranging from skin rashes to headaches to asthma. But it's important to distinguish which of these claims are scientifically proven and which are still hearsay. Peppermint may seem like an innocent herb, but taking too much of it can have dangerous consequences.

Read What Causes Stomachaches?

What It Does Help With
Peppermint tea is often recommended for people who have stomach

The Family That Eats Together … Why Family Meals Make for Happier KidsWhen I was growing up, dinner was eaten either in a rush before my family headed out the door or in the car on the way home from one of my myriad lessons, rehearsals, classes, and activities. As a highly scheduled child, I didn't have a lot of downtime, and since my mom didn't cook much and my dad was usually working, we didn't share many family dinners beyond Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Well, add that to the list of ways in which my parents apparently screwed me up big time, because recent research has shown that carving out time for a family dinner is one of the most powerful indicators of healthy, happy, and well-adjusted kids.

Read Why You Should Stop Drinking Soda

The Family That Eats Together …
In the past few years, a host of studies have emerged claiming that eating dinner as a family can provide serious benefits for children. In 2005, research at Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) found that the number of children

Green Eggs and Ham: How Food's Hue Affects Its TasteAnyone who doubts that a food's color affects how it tastes probably wasn't alive in the early '90s to witness one of the most infamous gustatory debacles in history. Intellectually, it's easy to think that the color of a food shouldn't affect how it tastes, but that was proven false when Crystal Pepsi hit the market. Except for its lack of caramel coloring, it was just like regular Pepsi. It should have tasted exactly the same, but it didn't. Consumers couldn't get past the odd juxtaposition of flavor and taste, and the feeling that something was just off. The gimmicky soda was an abject failure, destined to be inducted into the Bad Idea Hall of Fame.

We know that our sense of taste is very closely tied to our sense of smell, but it's also tied to our sense of sight. Humans expect their food to look a certain way, and when food has a surprising or incongruous color, our brains convince us that it tastes different, too. Color may not directly affect how a food tastes, but it

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Planet Guilt: How Men and Women Experience RegretI've lived with feelings of guilt for as long as I can remember-guilt about not calling my mother enough, guilt about not going to a good friend's wedding, even guilt about slamming my bedroom door on my brother's big toe when he was five. I try not to let my regret about my past missteps consume me, but every now and then it rears its ugly head just when I least want it to-say, right when I'm trying to fall asleep on a Sunday night. But even if I miss out on an extra thirty minutes of shut-eye on those occasions because I'm fretting about some birthday I missed or email I forgot to reply to, I'm glad I have a conscience-it's what allows me to learn from my mistakes. Plus, new research suggests that as a woman, I may just be wired to feel habitual remorse.

Read Why Getting Over Guilt is Good For You

What Is Guilt?
Simply put, guilt is an anxious gut feeling that arises in people when they believe they have done or are doing something wrong. Furthermore, it's such an

I just had a healthy-eating wake-up call.

After purchasing a few sessions with a trainer at my gym, I started writing down what I was eating. When I proudly showed up with my dutifully recorded log of healthy meals, I was expecting praise and maybe even a congratulatory high-five for my smart eating choices. After Sarah, my trainer, quickly tracked her finger down my neatly typed pages, she looked up at me and said, "Let's talk about condiments." Turns out, as she quickly explained, my seemingly innocent squirts and scoops were quietly adding on hundreds of calories to all of my meals.

Read The Worst (and Best) Midnight Snacks

In hopes of becoming better informed about what I put in my body, I took a closer look. All it takes is a glance down the grocery aisles to confirm that we're a condiment-crazed culture. From breakfast to dinner, and all our sips and nibbles in between, how much are these seemingly harmless add-ons really adding up?

Read The Sticky Truth About

Growing up, my family didn't do much "real" cooking. Most of our meals originated from boxes or take-out bags, as did our birthday cakes, brownies, and cookies. But during the holidays, suddenly the grocery cart was filled with flour and sugar, the good cookware was brought out from its year-long dormancy, and the house was steeped in the smell of home-baked delicacies. It was the only time of year I'd ever see real garlic, boiling potatoes, or our ancient can of baking powder. I think that our house was probably not so different from many others; my parents were usually too busy to cook from scratch, but during the holidays, they made time to make sure that we ate the real thing.

For many people, boxed brownies might suffice in May, but for the holidays, only the best will do-hand-rolled pie crusts, cookie cutters put to their intended use, and real, honest-to-goodness gravy. But when you only really cook once or twice a year, it's easy for seasonal chefs to feel like they're