You’ll lose friends you go out to eat with. If you’re trying to date, you’ll lose dates. You might not lose them all, but you’ll lose all the decent ones. You’ll get subpar food and service if you return.

And then there’s the fact that you’re harming your server without helping anything. But that’s not about you, so it sounds like you don’t care about it.

That's a story about an amazing friend. In 5 years you'll laugh about it. Until then, ignore it and go back over when invited... maybe put a little more distance between yourself and the wife until it's clear both she & husband are comfortable again. You sound like a godsend of a friend.

This will clearly be an unpopular opinion, but I’m with your grandparents, mostly. They are your guardians right now. Your mom is unfortunately unreliable and maybe not trustworthy. You didn’t tell anyone they could trust that you were ok. They are deeply scared that you will face the same issues as your mom.

Your grandparents could have asked your mom. But she’s effectively sick right now, and not reliable. Your grandparents could try to talk more and control less. It sounds like you could also try to communicate better. Frankly, a family therapist sounds like they could be helpful in improving your family’s communication.

Experiencing some social embarrassment because your grandparents love you is far from the worst thing in the world. And they clearly love you.

I’m amused by your assumption that the things we are 300,000 years ago didn’t make us sick.

It’s also interesting that you think our highly omnivorous teeth were primarily used to eat meat. Plants have plenty of nutrition our bodies readily use even while being low calorie. And back then, high sugar fruits were likely common in the tropical regions. They certainly thrive today in the wild areas of the tropics, if a different variety than would have existed back then.

I never saw Clare as primarily a homemaker.

You’re reading way too much into the prologue. While correct in the context of the prologue, it’s giving you a very misleading perspective on Clare. The prologue sets up the story, but does not always, or often, give you a good perspective on the characters. It’s jarring to those of us who have read the book, especially since you don’t say in your post that you haven’t read the book yet.

Note the article never calls prison labor slavery.

Usually. A glass per week has not yet been shown to be correlated with fas. But one serving per day has at least some anecdotal evidence linking it with fas. Whether one serving per day sounds like a lot may depend on the person.

Pain levels vary drastically in women's reproductive areas. A simple pap smear has no pain for some women, and is extremely painful for others. An IUD insertion is a minor pinch for some women, and the worst pain of their life for others. It's kind of incredible how bodies vary.

It is an odd definition, but the more natural definition has already been done by Daniel Laurison and Sam Friedman in Class Ceiling. It’s a great book, and this study is adding another piece of evidence to the pile.