What didn't make it to Instagram this week

Sunday means you get the stuff I couldn't fit anywhere else this week.

Not polished enough for a full newsletter. Not visual enough for a reel. But it's worth you knowing about.

Let's get into it.

THE MAHA SNAP WAVE JUST HIT A FEDERAL WALL

By March 2026, 22 states had received federal waivers to restrict what the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients can purchase, banning candy, soda, and certain sweetened beverages under the Make America Healthy Again policy framework.

Then on June 22, 2026, a federal judge blocked the restrictions in five of those states: Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The court ruled that the USDA had exceeded its legal authority. The pilot project authority the agency relied on was designed to test the efficiency of the SNAP program, not to improve recipients' diets.

The remaining states with active waivers are watching the appeal closely.

Here's my read: the public health intent behind these restrictions is real. Chronic disease rates among SNAP recipients are disproportionately high, and there's a genuine argument that taxpayer-funded food assistance shouldn't subsidize the products most linked to those outcomes. But the intent being good has never been sufficient legal standing, and the court's reasoning, that the agency used the wrong authority, is hard to argue with.

This one is far from settled.

Read the full ruling here 

THE RICE FINDING THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HEALTH BUT IS GENUINELY INTERESTING

Scientists at the University of Birmingham discovered that rice grains behave in a way that defies what most materials do under pressure.

Most materials get stronger the faster you compress them. Rice does the opposite. When compressed quickly, packed rice grains get weaker, because friction between the grains drops sharply at higher speeds, collapsing the internal force networks that normally hold everything together.

Researchers published this in the journal Matter and used the finding to design a new class of adaptive materials: structures that automatically change their stiffness based on the speed of impact. Helmets. Body armor. Robotic joints. No electronics. No sensors. Just physics.

Read the research here

I include things like this because interesting science is happening in every direction simultaneously. Health is just the slice most people are paying attention to.

WHAT I'M ACTUALLY DOING THIS MONTH

People are always asking me what my current routine looks like, so here it is.

• Morning light is non-negotiable right now. Ten to fifteen minutes outside within the first hour of waking. No sunglasses. This came directly out of the light protocol video we dropped a few weeks ago and the difference in morning clarity has been real.

• Magnesium before bed. Sleep quality is the thing I notice most. I'm a lighter sleeper than I'd like and this has moved the needle more consistently than anything else I've tried in that category.

• Qualia Senolytic two days this month. If you missed Thursday's email on senescent cells and why clearing them matters, go back and read it. The two days a month protocol is the lowest effort thing I do with arguably the highest long-term upside.

That's it. Nothing complicated. Nothing exotic. The same thing I always say: get the fundamentals right and apply them consistently.

That's the week. Reply and tell me which one hit hardest. 

The replies from the last two weeks have been great. Interest in creatine, statins, peptides, hair loss, natural flavoring, sugar substitutes, the sea anemone story... These are the topics becoming videos and newsletters. Keep them coming.

Until next time,

Kashif Khan

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