Unlock Your Health Potential
Faizan Ahmed 
Introduction Three summers ago, during a heat wave that brought our apartment close to the greenhouse, I drank iced coffee as if it were the only thing that kept me standing. By the third week of that summer, my stomach was constantly uncomfortable, I couldn’t sleep well, and a friend who had come from Pakistan … Read more
Introduction After so much research and writing about the side effects, gastroparesis, trials, and warning updates coming years after Ozempic patients, I had quietly assumed that I had already stopped writing about the drug. Then, a Stanford study appeared in my feed that made me stop scrolling. The headline said that researchers point to a … Read more
Introduction My GP read my cholesterol number in the same nonchalant, nonchalant tone he uses for most things, but I noticed that he paused and then said, “Nothing concerning, but I should be vigilant.” This kind of phrase sticks with you longer than a dramatic warning, especially since it gives you a chance to act … Read more
Introduction For most of last winter, my mornings followed the same routine. Pressing the alarm twice, getting ready quickly, and picking up whatever was near the door when it came out, usually nothing happened. When I finally ate something, often breakfast on the table around 10:30, I was already feeling crushed, irritable, and weirdly heavy … Read more
What I Learned After Switching My Entire Kitchen to It My sister moved her entire kitchen to coconut oil about two years ago, through a wellness podcast she believed was healthier than anything in her wardrobe. He began to fry everything inside, even the things he had previously cooked on a fairly high heat, and … Read more
Introduction I thought I ate well. I’m Faizan Ahmed, and for most of my adult life I’ve described my diet as quite healthy: home-cooked food, whole bread, yogurt for breakfast, salad for lunch. Then, a week of honest diet monitoring brought out something that really left me behind. The ‘healthy’ foods I had been eating … Read more
Introduction I’m not excited for just one component. I’m Faizan Ahmed, and after years of writing about nutrition, I’ve developed a healthy skepticism about anything called a superfood. But California walnuts have quietly gained a different kind of attention in my kitchen, not because of the marketing but because of what they actually do and … Read more
Introduction My mother sat outside our family park last spring, claiming that her knees “are no longer what they used to be.” He had said the same thing at most family gatherings over the past few years, always in the same pessimistic tone, as if it were the fact that he was in his early … Read more
After My Sister-in-Law Went Vegan and Panicked About Protein A few weeks later when Sarah fixed the magnesium gap she had already fixed, she called me again, this time looking really concerned and not just curious. A friend at her gym asked her directly how she was getting enough protein “now that you don’t eat … Read more
Introduction My sister-in-law, Sarah, went completely vegan about a year ago, mostly for moral reasons and not for health. I was three months old when she called me around midnight, half laughing and half nervous, because her calf muscles were so tense that she couldn’t keep her foot straight on the ground. It happened again … Read more