👋🏼 Hey ladies!

Welcome to Bodytalk, where we discuss the realities of women’s health, culture, and more. This is our space: To unpack the double standards, to confront the misinformation, and to open up about the things we’ve been told are “TMI”.

If you’re in the path of the snow storm, I hope you’re staying safe. This has been a big one, and it happens to coincide with some incredibly dark unrest happening in this country right now. It’s a lot, and if you’re feeling that too, you’re not alone. More on how I’m handling it below.

Today we’re also talking about the food pyramid (is the major flip actually a good thing?), surrogacy shaming, and a term you may not be familiar with: Emotional outsourcing.

Anyway, let’s chat 🗣️

You may have seen that the food pyramid — yes, that thing we were all taught about in elementary school but probably haven't really considered since — flipped earlier this month, when the Department of Agriculture released a new set of dietary guidelines.

While the pyramid many of us grew up with featured a base of grains, the updated version places protein, dairy, and produce at the largest point of the pyramid. This isn’t terribly surprising: We have definitely been more focused on protein and fiber intake in recent years. But what does this mean in a larger context?

Our go-to registered dietician Anna Bohengel weighed in on the changes and the larger implications of them.

“The original U.S. food pyramid (1992) emphasized low-fat eating and placed carb-rich foods at the base. A ‘flipped’ pyramid prioritizing protein, fiber-rich plants, and healthy fats is now touted in the wellness world as a course correction — but an important shift already occurred with the USDA’s MyPlate model (2011), which urged filling half the plate with fruits and vegetables, 25% with protein, and 25% with grains,” she says.

When I saw this news, I found myself wondering if it would really have a major effect. After all, most of us don’t spend much time thinking about the food pyramid in adulthood. And when it comes to messages about what we “should” be eating and prioritizing in our diets? Well, it already feels like the advice is constantly changing.

According to Bohnengel, the overall impact of this is debatable. “Adherence is low, with most Americans’ diets falling well short of recommendations,” she says. “That said, a flipped food pyramid could have ripple effects beyond individual choice. Read more.

🔎 Ask Clara: How much protein should I be eating?

I haven't been single for 14 years, and as you can imagine, the world has changed a lot since then. I see so many obvious shifts, from the change in social behaviors, to the increase in digital dependence....and of course, all that affects how people are dating too.

There's a whole new lexicon, for starters. Ghosting, situationships...and now, emotional outsourcing has entered the chat.

Dating.com released its Millennial Intimacy Forecast for 2026, and coined the term to describe a new dating trend. Here's what emotional outsourcing looks like: Rather than putting all their eggs in one proverbial basket, people may start spreading their energy across multiple connections. 

Data from Dating.com backs this up: Nearly half their survey respondents said they'd be open to splitting their relationships, using one to satisfy their physical needs and another for emotional connection, for example. Enter: Emotional outsourcing, which may occur when a person is in a relationship, but has a digital connection they can open up to in different ways. 

But…is this a recipe for disaster? I have a hard time imagining that things wouldn’t get messy in a situation like this, but as always, communication is key.

“The research found that 40% say having a platonic online soulmate while in a relationship is acceptable, and this is happening more every day. People are finding that they are not emotionally fulfilled in their relationships, so they seek out a person online with whom they have a strictly emotional connection. If both parties are on board, then it can work,” says  Jaime Bronstein, LCSW , resident expert at Dating.com. Read more.

 🔎 Ask Clara: What is an open relationship?

So Meghan Trainor recently welcomed her third baby, and when announcing the baby's birth, the singer revealed that the baby was born via surrogate. 

Cue the opinions of the masses. Because any time a woman makes a choice around her own life, motherhood, and body...well, that's ripe for public criticism, right?

A few of the comments on Trainor's post include statements like "surrogacy shouldn’t be a thing. it is not ok to exploit women for their wombs" and "poor baby and mom. This is so dystopian and unnatural". One commenter asks: "How have we, as a society, come to normalize this?"

To which I ask: How have we, as a society, come to normalize being so judgmental of women and the reproductive decisions they make?

Trainor doesn't owe the public answers, but she does provide a bit of context.

"It wasn’t our first choice, but we had endless conversations with our doctors on this journey, and this was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family," she tells PEOPLE. "We are forever grateful for that option."

A lot of people are assuming that Trainor, who many people speculate is on Ozempic, turned to surrogacy to avoid pregnancy weight gain. We don't have the answers as to why exactly Trainor went the surrogacy route. We also don't deserve them. Read more.

🔎 Ask Clara: What are the most common misconceptions about surrogacy?

It has been a hard, heavy few days. Oh, who are we kidding? It's honestly been a hard, heavy few years.

I know I'm not alone in feeling pulled under by the state of the world right now. For me, and I'm sure many of you, it feels like I'm playing a constant game of emotional ping pong, my thoughts bouncing back and forth between dread and the mundane realities of real life. As hard as it is to show up in real life, we have to — for our jobs, our families, our responsibilities.

And between the mental load of life and the dread of living in this timeline, it feels like I have very little room for joy and escapism...but I also know that I owe it to myself to find those pockets for me.

And so for me, that looks like finding avenues for escapism. It means getting invested in a TV show (Tell Me Lies is so good and made for us millennials). It means treating myself to a new cozy sweatsuit, because sometimes physical comfort helps bring emotional comfort as well. It means reading lots of romance (I typically prefer thrillers or heavier reads in the winter, but this year, I'm sticking with my spicy romance novels even through the colder months).

I won't lie. I have a lot of guilt when I find myself caring about things that feel really frivolous right now, and this is something I've been struggling with for years at this point. Maybe even my entire adult life.

This is something we struggle with so much as women: Read more.

🔎 Ask Clara: How can escapism help us in tough times?