Episode 158 | Dec 4, 2025

The Teen Health Revolution, With Abdullah Ansari

What will it take to reverse the rising tide of chronic illness and mental health struggles facing today’s teens? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi sits down with 17-year-old national speaker, podcaster, and upcoming author Abdullah Ansari to unpack why young people are struggling like never before. Abdullah brings the perspective of a teen who has lived this reality firsthand and is calling for a health revolution led by youth themselves.

“We have the power to take back our lives, to take back control of our future, and to change our path and cause the ripple effect in schools, in families, in our community, and with our friends.”

Abdullah Ansari

As the oldest of four brothers known as The Holistic Kids, Abdullah has spent years learning, teaching, and speaking about the lifestyle drivers of teen well-being. From their hit podcast to their upcoming book, The Teen Health Revolution, the brothers are passionate about educating their generation on the choices that influence mood, energy, inflammation, and resilience. Abdullah’s perspective is shaped by personal experience, from watching his brothers overcome eczema and sinus issues to recognizing how different he felt when he shifted away from ultra-processed foods toward real, nutrient-dense meals. He and Dr. Sandi explore the pressures teens are facing today, including digital overload, mindless scrolling, and the constant presence of addictive food products. Abdullah shares what he sees among his peers and explains how these inputs affect everything from gut health to emotional regulation. He also highlights simple, accessible tools that help teens feel more grounded and in control, such as deep breathing, label reading, and building meals around vegetables, clean proteins, and healthy fats.

For health coaches, this conversation offers meaningful insight into why teens often feel overwhelmed and disconnected, and how compassionate guidance can make a profound difference. Many parents find that their children are more receptive to hearing these ideas from a coach who understands teen realities and can offer relatable support. Abdullah emphasizes that today’s young people are inheriting a world of rising chronic disease and mental health challenges, yet they also have immense potential to reclaim their health once they understand the root causes at play. Coaches who work with families, youth, or schools are uniquely positioned to help build that awareness and support sustainable change. 

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Transcript

Dr Sandi: One of the reasons that I am so passionate about training people to become health coaches is because our children and adolescents are really hurting. We have skyrocketing rates of chronic diseases. These are physical conditions and also mental conditions as well. I want to share with you an interview with one of our future leaders. He is really such an amazing young man. I have known him for a while because I am great friends with his mom, Dr. Madiha Saeed. But let me tell you about her remarkable son who I had the opportunity to interview. His name is Abdullah. Along with his three brothers, Zain, Emaad and Qasim Ansari. They are currently 17, 14, 12, and 10. They are the hosts of the hit podcast, “The Holistic Kids Show.” They’re national speakers and co-authors of the recently published book, “The Teen Health Revolution: Lifestyle Secrets To Optimize Your Mind, Body, and Soul.” It is being released December 11th, 2025. These kids are the co-authors also of “Adam’s Healing Adventures,” a children’s health book series.

The Holistic Kids have lectured at the leading integrative and functional medicine conferences, including being the first youth speakers at the 2024 International Institute of Functional Medicine’s Annual International Conference, A4M in 2025, and the Mindshare Summit. They’ve also spoken at the Nourished Festival, served as keynote speaker at the YMCA Interfaith Mayor’s Breakfast, and presented at major conferences like MAS-ICNA, reaching audience of over 60,000. In May, 2025, Abdullah was featured in the docuseries, “Young and Thriving” as a young voice for mental health, who is bringing a unique perspective of today’s youth into the conversation. Abdullah and Zain have also made appearances on the Emmy Award-winning “Dr. Nandi Show.” I know that you are going to so enjoy my conversation with Abdullah. So, let’s start out by talking about, why do we need a revolution for teens?

Abdullah: Thank you so much for the introduction. We 100% need a revolution for teens, because right now, mental health issues are on the rise, depression is on a rise. Anxiety is arising like never before. Diabetes, prediabetes, actually, one in four teens right now have been diagnosed with prediabetes. And that doesn’t make any sense. Why is this happening? Studies and scientists have concluded that these issues are just going to continue and continue to get worse and affect teens globally. Right now, teen girls on a rate like never before are having suicidal thoughts, that should not be happening. It’s not just by accident, there’s a root cause to this. And us teens need to wake up to that root cause and figure out how to take back control of our bodies, and how to actually be ourselves, and figure out what we need to do next.

Dr Sandi: Yes. Well, I could not agree more. I keep thinking of that Beatles song, “You say you need a revolution.” I am a baby boomer and I was of the generation, so when I was your age, it was around 1967 or so, and it was a complete revolution, and we rebelled against what was going on in the world at that time, and created a movement. And what I see your mission as, it’s in many ways similar. Your movement..Let’s start with looking at how kids need stress management in their lives, how they’re not mindful. So, can you talk about how that can be really important, how kids can bring stress management or more mindfulness into their lives?

Abdullah: So, right now, teens need to be more mindful if we wanna change any of what I said. Like I mentioned, three-fourths of adolescents have experienced depression or anxiety. This is actually directly connected to the lack of mindfulness. Teens, we’re just stuffing whatever we can find upon our mouths. We’re just scrolling mindlessly, not focusing on what we’re visually consuming, just living our day, not focusing on what we’re doing, just living without purpose, living without being mindful. And if we wanna cause change, we have to wake up and realize what we’re doing. We have to start reading labels, start figuring out what we’re putting into our mouths. What does Red 40 do? What does Yellow No. 5, which is a carcinogen, do? What are we doing to ourselves? And if we want to be able to change our bodies, that’s the first step to start.

You talked about stress management. Teens, with tests in high school and middle school, we’re really stressed right now. And I’ve seen that with my peers, with my classmates. We need to start managing our stress because if we don’t manage our stress, that’s just gonna lead to more chronic inflammation, more gut problems. That’s gonna lead to more mental health issues, more anxiety, more depression. And we need to start now. I know for us, me and my brothers, what we love to do is just deep breathing. And deep breathing is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself because it’s like a reset for your brain and body. Just taking a deep breath and then letting it go, belly breathing, and box breathing. There’s so many different kinds of breathings. But just starting that simple thing, which is free, anybody can do it, it’s not that hard, can help you focus and do so much better.

I know that’s what I do on my tests. That’s the most stressful time for us, for teens, I know maybe even for parents because their teens are taking tests. And for teens that are stressed with their life with everything that’s going on, and as a parent, you might see that, just teaching them how to mindfully breathe when they’re not stressed so that they can then use that as a tool for when they are stressed. Science has come out back saying that deep breathing is linked to better memory, more relaxation, better control over your body and your emotions. And when you can do that, come on, anything is possible.

Dr Sandi: This is music to my ears. And Abdullah, I want you to know that back in the ’70s, so many years ago, this was what I was doing. This is how I started my career. I was a teacher, I then became a psychologist. But what I was doing was teaching breathing techniques, and especially to kids. And I created a relaxation, at that time, it was on a cassette, which your generation doesn’t know much about. But I really would have kids come in, teenagers with migraine headaches, with anxiety, and panic, and gut issues, and they couldn’t fall asleep, and they were really suffering. It was so simple. All I did was teach them some breathing techniques, which they would do throughout the day. And at that time, we didn’t have apps or cell phones, so we had a big computer in my office. It was biofeedback, and they would see on the screen, “Oh, when I breathe slowly, this is what happens.”And they could tell through biofeedback they were getting into a relaxed state. So, it is so, so critical.

So, you mentioned social media. Do you see that’s a big form of stress? And even just having a phone. Every time I was at the airport, and I’d look around, not one person, especially all the kids, everyone is on their phone. They’re not talking to one another. I wonder your thoughts on that as a teen and what you see with your peers.

Abdullah: I can’t stress how much teens are addicted to their phones. Right now, this mental health epidemic that we’re going through, phones have a part in that. And more teens now need to start waking up to that reality. Right now, about 91% of teens own a smartphone by the age of 14. There’s kids in one of my youngest brother’s classes, who’s a fifth grader in elementary school who says that teens are stuck…and teases kids, have a phone, they’re stuck on their phones, and they’re addicted. Phones come with huge temptations and challenges. And right now, with all the information that we have just in our pocket, we’re overwhelmed. One of the biggest things I can say to adults, please don’t give us a phone until at least 16 or at least high school because it’s affecting our mental health, it’s affecting our spiritual health, our emotional health, our physical health. It’s affecting us in more ways than we’re realizing right now.

And right now, teens, we’re addicted to these phones. We can’t get off of these. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen, but I know a lot of parents that can complain like, “If I take away my teen’s phone, they start getting mad at me, they start throwing a fit, they start going out of control.” And this shouldn’t be happening. Right now, statistics and studies have come out that 96% of gen Zers are taking their phones to the bathroom and they can’t go to the bathroom without a phone. And it’s just the worst, what’s happening right now. I know we talk about social media a lot, and I can’t stress how much social media is affecting the teens, especially adults, teens, and even kids. And I can go into how much social media is linked to poor mental health, poor physical health. Even college students, excessive social media was actually found to have higher levels of CRP, which is a blood marker of inflammation that predicts chronic disease, and it’s been linked to heart disease and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, and even stroke.

Look, social media is really affecting our mental health. And yes, I know a lot of teens, they’re like, “Oh yeah, but isn’t social media a way we can connect with our friends and everybody else?” Yes, social media is a tool, but it can also be used to hurt us. Right now, I can speak from experience and from my peers and classmates. We are living in an age that we’re more connected than ever before, but we feel the most disconnected from the world than ever before in all of history. So, yes, 100 quadrillion percent, phones and social media are playing a huge part in the stress and anxiety in the mental, physical, emotional problems and challenges that teens are dealing today. And this is something that more teens need to wake up to and more teens need to start doing something about.

Dr Sandi: Wow, such a good point. And it has really, I think, reached a crisis. So, I’m encouraged that I have a toddler, grandkids, they’re twins, and they’re not allowed to… They’re not introducing them, my daughter and son-in-law, are not getting them iPads. They’re waiting as long as possible to have them introduced to these technologies, going the old fashioned way. And speaking of old fashioned, there was an encouraging article that there’s a movement back to the ’80s, the ’90s. Families are even trying to install landlines. Good luck trying to get one. Not to say there’s somebody who install it. But they’re going back to a landline phone. And back in the day, when I was your age, if somebody called me, they had to go through my mom and, “Hello, may I speak with your daughter?” So, they learned manners, but also, it was a family. If you wanted to make a phone call, you had the family telephone, you didn’t have your own phone. You had to also remember phone numbers. But also, kids are getting really tired of the streaming thing and not having… So, they’re interested in actual physical records and cassettes. So, I’m hopeful that maybe there’ll be some movement back again.

Let’s turn to food because I know that’s something that you really see big problems. You and your brothers, I love when you go into the big stores and point out products that we should or shouldn’t be eating. So, what’s going on with ultra-processed foods, and what you see your friends and your school, your classmates doing? And what do you do, because isn’t there a lot of pressure for you to, “Hey, come on, eat this with us”?

Abdullah: So, right now, ultra-processed foods are controlling teens. We’re being manipulated and controlled through these food companies, industries to be hooked to their foods. And for anyone listening, thinking, “Why would ultra-processed foods be bad? Doesn’t it have food in the name? Isn’t food good for you?” And honestly, we like to call these fake food because ultra-processed foods has been controlling the media and has been dictating what people think of it for the last few decades. So, for those people who don’t know exactly what ultra-processed foods are, ultra-processed foods are food-like substances, I like to call them because that’s what they really are, that can cause blood sugar spikes that can lead to more chronic disease and inflammation in the body, which hurts our cells, it hurts our gut bacteria, it damages the immune system, and it leads to more sickness and disease: eczema, allergies, diabetes, pre-diabetes, anxiety, depression.

All of these are being worsened because of ultra-processed foods. And like I keep mentioning, we need to wake up to the reality because this is the reality of the world that we live in today. Teens, adults, kids are addicted. I know you’ve probably heard of the commercial, “You can’t have just one”?

Dr Sandi: Yeah.

Abdullah: These companies have specifically designed and chemically changed these foods so that we are addicted to them, so that we overeat these fake foods. Because to them, they don’t want us to stop at just one bag, they want us to eat more and more because it’s all about making profit. It’s all about making more money from us and using us to become richer and richer. And that’s why, when a lot of my friends and peers, they say, “Yeah, but wouldn’t did they tell us if it was bad for us?” If they tell us it’s bad for us, then we’re gonna stop buying from them, and they’re gonna start making less money. They don’t care about our health, and we need to recognize this and start making decisions and educating ourselves.

It’s really interesting, when me and my brothers were researching for the book, I dunno if you’ve heard of this, but actually, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris back in 1980s actually bought out Craft and Nabisco, which is part of the food industry today, and they moved their scientists from the tobacco industry into the food industry. And from there on out, they employed the same tactics that were used in tobacco industry making cigarettes cool, saying that it’s healthy. And they started to put that into the cereal brands, the chips brands. They started that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and how that was pushed for so long. Actually, I know this is shocking because it’s what I learned in school, that was actually pushed and created by food industries so that we would start eating cereal brands every single day.

And they said, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Buy our breakfast, buy our oatmeal, buy our cereal, and whatnot.” And that’s how they made more money. And that’s how they’ve manipulated us into thinking that eating natural real food is hard and that they’re the only option. When in reality, there’s so much that we can do to help ourselves and find and eat real natural foods. And now I just wanna come…because the similarities, they’re just universal. I don’t know if you remember, but cigarette brands used to make it look cool, they used to have like cartoon animals and cartoons that promoted it. I don’t know if you remember that.

Dr Sandi: Oh yeah. Well, back in my day, everybody smoked. In fact, when I was getting married and we had a wedding, every table had to have ashtrays on the table. And we would look back at our wedding pictures, everybody had a cigarette in their hands. So, it was normal. My mom didn’t smoke, and I thought she wasn’t a cool mom because everyone else smoked. We didn’t know in those days. We’re talking about in the 1950s. Doctors thought smoking was healthy. In fact, there were campaigns to say, “Smoking is healthy for you.” That’s absolutely right about breakfast. That was Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan, which was the cereal capital. Suddenly, it was not good to have eggs for breakfast. Everyone was sold that cereal is healthy. And it’s even worse for kids because you have the colored Froot Loops and Lucky Charms.

There’s a lot of pressure, though, because you are very busy, you’re going to school. And often, parents say, “Well, I don’t have time. I work two jobs, I can’t prepare breakfast.” It’s fast. It’s convenient, especially in school what you’re served, like in college. But what do you do if you have to grab some food and go? What are your go-tos?

Abdullah: So, for us specifically, because me and my brothers, so our mom taught us, whenever you’re hungry… We used to love… I know it might seem unbelievable, but my favorite food back 10 years ago before I figured this out, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Fanta. Hands down, I loved it. Every single time I used to go to the school, that’s what I wanted. And now I’ve realized how much better I feel. And my brothers, Zain, who’s now 14, he had eczema and rashes all over, scratching. And Emaad, who had sinus issues, they are now free of that, and they feel so much better. I know teens, my friends, my peers because they know that’s a big issue, right? A lot of teens are like, “But my friends do it. I feel estranged.” But a lot of our friends, when we talk to them and they start eating like this as well, they are like, “Wow, we feel so much better.”

And now for us, we never wanna go back because we know how much better we feel and how much in control of our bodies that we are now that we eat this way. And I know you mentioned what we do specifically, what any parents that’s listening can do as well. What our mom did was, anytime we were hungry, because we were kids, we used to go like, “Oh, Ma.” We used to bother her, annoy her, “Give us food please. We’re hungry.” Her thing was, “Whenever you’re hungry, go down the list.” She used to tell us, “Have you had your vegetable yet?” We were like, “Okay fine. We’ll have vegetable, clean protein, and healthy fats, and then carbohydrates.” And so, she said, you’re not allowed to have carbohydrates until you have those three, then I’ll feed you carbohydrates. Then maybe I’ll make some pasta. And you can have that kinda stuff. But make sure you always have vegetables, clean protein, and healthy fats on that plate.” And from an early age, I always associated vegetables and clean protein, and healthy fats with a meal. And so, now even when I’m 17, I’ve learned those lessons. I’ve carried that through. And if we are able to teach kids and teens at a younger age, they’ll be able to take control and have a better life into adulthood, because that’s what this is all about.

Dr Sandi: Exactly. So well said. And your mom is a very smart lady who raised you right. And I know there are so many parents, maybe listening who really are sincerely wanting to make a difference. And we have the whole movement now, where we’re getting sea oils out of foods. We’re getting artificial dyes and colors. And it’s encouraging to see so many of the food companies naturally turning around. And so, it is the demand, when the demand is there. So, can you talk about what is revolution? What does that mean?

Abdullah: So, the revolution because you have the book, “The Teen Alpha Evolution” right here.

Dr Sandi: Yes.

Abdullah: It’s coming out December 11th. Go definitely check that out, because change needs to happen. Right now, teens are pre-diabetes is on rise like never before. Like I mentioned, three out of four adolescents are dealing with depression and anxiety, chronic disease, mental health, emotional problems. We teens are not in control anymore. We are being manipulated to thinking that we’re in control. I know as teens, we hate listening to adults. I can probably speak pretty well on that. We want to have freedom from parents and adults in our life. But while running away from our parents, we are now in the hands of the food industry and the tech industries. We’re addicted. We can’t get off of ultra-processed foods. And they’ve been designed so that we’re hooked on them. We are mindlessly scrolling and we can’t get off of cell phones.

We are not in control of our bodies anymore. And things need to change. And that’s why we need a revolution. Us teens, we need to start being educated. Parents, you need to start educating us. We need to know how to read labels, what we’re putting into our body, whether or not this is good for us or bad for us. Because every single bite should have a purpose. It can either help us or hurt us. If we don’t start now, the future generations are gonna suffer. We are the next lawyers, we’re the next doctors, we’re the next engineers and entrepreneurs. And if that next generation isn’t working well mentally or physically or emotionally, where is the world gonna go? And we need to wake up now and take action now, because otherwise, it’s not gonna end good for us. And we need to recognize that and make that decision.

And so, that’s the revolution, and that’s what we talk about in our book. And we give simple practical steps to start today. Because trust me, we know no teen is gonna pick up— I don’t wanna attack any of the other books out there that are really science-backed, but we’ll fall asleep after the first page or two pages maybe if you get lucky. We want something, a handheld book, simple, easy, practical, that any can go. And actually, backed by 200 experts, Harvard professors, New York Times bestsellers, renowned experts around the world that have given us feedback when we were researching for this book. And we talked to them, interviewed them on our podcast, to give us practical tips. And we put that all in this book because it helped us so much, and we want the entire world to be able to change and take back and feel good in their bodies once again.

So, that’s the main revolution. That’s our goal is for really teens, kids, and adults to recognize that and open their eyes and not follow the herd mentality herd mentality and stop living deaf, dumb, and blind to what’s happening in this world, and start opening their eyes. And that’s our mission, that’s our goal, and that’s what we’re reaching for.

Dr Sandi: Well, what a beautiful mission. It is so sorely needed in today’s world, and we are here to support you, because we have a lot of health coaches who listen to this podcast, those who wanna be health coaches, and sometimes kids don’t listen to their parents, but they’ll listen to a coach and a guide. And that’s why I think having health coaches to help teens and kids to adopt what you are talking about, and also training kids, training young people to be these coaches, to go into schools, to go into colleges, to really help people where it is most needed. Because you are absolutely correct, we have a crisis in mental health and physical health. It’s not getting any better. And you are leading the way. And I see you are such a leader, Abdullah, and you speak so eloquently, that having you have a platform to spread this message far and wide with your book, I can see this book being a huge bestseller.

And so, this is absolutely fabulous. And I know I’ve been a guest on your podcast. The podcast is very successful. And so, for everybody listening, check out “The Teen Health Revolution.” If you have kids, if you are around kids, as a teacher, as a coach, this is something, a message that everybody needs to hear. And well as companies too. So, going into stores and asking them to carry products that are helping people cook, that’s a lost art. And so, I know your mom’s a great cook, and helping people to learn to cook again. We used to have home economics classes in school, in high school. I took actually even in college where you learned about culinary arts and you learned how to cook and you learned all about food. And that disappeared along with shop, with mechanics. And those are things I think we need to bring back. So, this has been incredible talking to you. Where can people find you? Where will they be able to get the book?

Abdullah: So, right now it’s coming out December 11th, but you can pre-order it. We have bonuses and gifts that come out with it if you pre-order it. There’s a grocery shopping list, a stress-busting because it’s a really stressful world. It’s overwhelming with tests and everything is very stressful. I know, I just got into college.

Dr Sandi: Congratulations.

Abdullah: So, stress is crucial if we wanna have success in the future. And so, we have a stress-busting guide. I know a lot of parents struggle making lunches because it’s really sad. When we go to school, my brothers who are in high school and middle school, they see most kids, they don’t bring lunches from home because their parents just don’t know what to pack. And even if they do, those lunches aren’t nutrient-dense, they’re not packed with nutrients, they’re not good for their body, and they’re not going to benefit the kid.

And so, we have lunch guides over there. What we do, if you purchase the book, actually, there’s so many extra tips in there. At the end of each chapter, we have what “The Holistic Kids” do. You can check out practical stuff because we’re not expecting teens to read the entire book and go through everything. But we want teens to be able to take away something and that they can live and change the rest of their life with. And that’s why we have practical tips, 20-plus conditions that teens are going through. Yes, we have acne in the book and how to do that without putting face cream every single day and taking prescription medicine, because for everyone listening, teens are not gonna listen to adults, and teens are going to listen to teens.

And so, we’ve been there. I just graduated from high school, I know how it is, and I know the revolution that for all the parents out there that want to help their kids, we are trying our best to spread this message because teens are not kids anymore. We have the power to take back our lives, to take back control of our future, and to change our path and cause the ripple effect in schools, in families, in our community, with our friends. It is possible. So, check out the book. It’s on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. We might come out with an audiobook later on, but right now, that’s still in the works. So, definitely check that out because we’ve worked for the past two years on this and we’d love to get that message out there.

Dr Sandi: It has been such a joy to speak to you. Bye now.

Abdullah: Bye-bye.