Every meal I make begins with a single choice: extra-virgin olive oil or canola? For as long as I’ve cooked, these have been my kitchen workhorses, because they’re versatile, affordable, and—most of all—healthy. Or so I thought. These days, every trip to the grocery store makes me second-guess myself. Lined up next to the bottles … Read more
This article was originally published by Undark Magazine. When Ina Chung, a Colorado mother, first fed packaged foods to her infant, she was careful to read the labels. Her daughter was allergic to peanuts, dairy, and eggs, so products containing those ingredients were out. So were foods with labels that said they “may contain” the … Read more
Nothing compares to the perfect summer run. All winter, even through spring, I sustain myself with the dream of jogging in shorts down a dry, grass-lined path, unencumbered by puddles or black ice. But that dream is becoming more elusive. Now, in mid-June, I already dread the prospect of being outside past about 7:30 in … Read more
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. On New Year’s Day 2020, I was zipping up my fleece to head outside when the phone in the kitchen rang. I picked it up to find a reporter on the line. “Dr. Fauci,” he said, “there’s something … Read more
The only immovable object on my weekly calendar is a Sunday-night basketball game. We play in a rented gym in Washington, D.C., usually at a high school, because we’re all conserving cartilage and the local middle schools don’t place much cushioning underneath the hardwood. The game has been running for more than 20 years, but … Read more
There’s no such thing as a miracle cure for obesity, but the latest weight-loss drugs seem to come pretty close. People who take Ozempic or other weekly shots belonging to a class known as GLP-1 agonists, after the gut hormone they mimic, can lose a fifth or more of their body weight in a year. … Read more