51: Don't Fear the Fat

This content was originally created for audio. Some elements such as tone, sound effects, and music can be hard to translate to text. As such, the following is a summary of the episode and has been edited for clarity. For the full experience, we encourage you to subscribe and listen— it's more fun that way.

Thunder: Okay, so echoing is the problem. So I'm going to put myself kind of in the corner of this room with carpet and put some pillows around me. I have no idea if that's going to help, but we'll see what happens.

 

Troy: It got interesting.

Thunder: That's a visual.

Scot: "Who Cares About Men's Health," providing information, inspiration, and motivation to better understand and engage in your health so you feel better today and also it's an investment in your future health.

My name is Scot Singpiel. I am the manager of thescoperadio.com, and I care about men's health.

Troy: And I'm Dr. Troy Madsen. I'm an emergency physician at the University of Utah, and I care about men's health.

Thunder: Hi, I'm Dr. Thunder, Jalili. I'm a Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrated Physiology, and I care about men's health.

Scot: And Thunder's back. We love it when Thunder Jalili comes on the show. So good to have you.

Troy: Thunder is back, and, Scot, we're back too.

Scot: We are.

Troy: We're not doing reruns. I know everyone enjoyed our recycled episodes for the last two months, but we are back in person. And this is not something we recorded pre-COVID. This is happening now.

Scot: By the way, are you doing okay, Thunder? Is everything all right with the pandemic and whatnot? Your life okay?

Thunder: Yeah. Yes, it's fine. I mean, the short of it is my lifestyle has not really been affected that much, even though that may sound crazy, other than the fact that I'm working from home. But I like to do outdoor stuff I like to bike ride. I don't go to bars. I'm not a big theater or restaurant person. So I'm curious, have you guys gained weight in the last few months through this?

Troy: I haven't. No.

Scot: I've actually lost weight.

Troy: Have you? That's great.

Scot: Yeah. Although I don't know what my body composition is. I'm afraid that it's muscle because I don't weight-train anymore like I used to.

Troy: I heard the statistic somewhere that the average weight gain over this whole thing has been about 15 pounds. So I'd have to look that up, but I don't know if that's true.

Scot: You've heard of the Freshmen 15. This is the COVID 19.

Troy: Yeah, the COVID 19. There you go.

Scot: How about you, Thunder? What's your weight done since this thing?

Thunder: I've actually lost three pounds probably because I've been biking like a maniac. I'm trying to do some more strength training and to kind of moderate that, but I'm lucky I have a gym that I can do that here because I can go at odd times when there's literally nobody there and do a workout and then come home.

Troy: Well, have any of you actually been COVID tested, like had the test?

Thunder: Not the nasal test, but I've had the antibody test, yeah.

Troy: I had the nasal test last week because I was going to the dentist. They required it. It's horrible. It really is bad as people say it is. And I knew what to expect because I've ordered it on so many people and I've seen it done so many times and it was awful. So don't get it if you can avoid it.

Thunder: It serves you right.

Troy: It serves me right. I know. It really does. They say a doctor should have every procedure done to them that they order and I'm just like, "No." That's where I draw the line.

Thunder: Including regular prostate exams.

Troy: Including prostate exams and full-length catheters. No.

Thunder: Full-length catheters.

Troy: That's where I draw the line.

Scot: I sense a fun game. COVID test or catheter? Troy, go. What would you rather?

Troy: I'll take the COVID test over the catheter.

Scot: Troy, as an ER doc, you've never had . . . you don't insert the catheter. That's what a nurse does, right?

Troy: They do, fortunately. I have done it though, and I did it as a med student because that was just part of my training. And I have had to do it or attempt it on difficult patients. Yeah, it's a grueling thing to have to go through. I mean, sometimes it goes pretty smoothly. It depends on the circumstance, but not something I want done.

Scot: And by circumstance, you mean . . .

Troy: I mean, do you have a large prostate? If you have a large prostate, that makes it difficult. And those people tend to experience a lot of pain with insertion, and sometimes we have to use special tools to get it in there and sometimes we have to call a urologist. So yeah, it really depends.

Scot: So it's not the initial part that's going to hurt. It's when it gets up in there a bit. That's when the real pain can start to come.

Troy: I think everything hurts. I think the entire process is uncomfortable. They can numb things up before with lidocaine. So it depends how quickly you need the catheter in. If it's in a trauma situation or an emergent thing, you're not going to get lidocaine, so that's going to hurt. So yeah, it depends on the circumstance.

Thunder: I think I would need general anesthesia.

Troy: Exactly. That's what I love. When you're going to do something light, people are like, "Can you just put me out?" Well, technically I can't really. Hard to justify, but yeah.

Scot: Every time Thunder's on, he just kind of blows our minds about nutrition a little bit. And we've had the macro series. So we've already talked about carbs, we've talked about protein, and we learned that you don't need to have bread guilt because carbs aren't bad. We learned that you don't need to shovel down 16 chicken breasts because you need all this protein, like the muscle guys on Reddit tell us.

Today, we're going to learn a little bit more about fat. The episode is called "Don't Fear the Fat." And really, it should be the easiest show of the season if you believe what the internet says because the internet says, "Fat is evil. Fat will make you fat. It increases your cholesterol. It causes heart disease. You shouldn't eat it. You should go get the low-fat and fat-free foods instead." But that might not necessarily be the truth.

So, first of all, Troy, what's your relationship with fat?

Troy: Scot, everything you just said there is everything I believed before we started talking to Thunder on the podcast. And Thunder has kind of alluded to this in the past and we've touched on this a bit, and my whole perspective on fat has changed.

So I used to think everything you thought, everything . . . I would look on the label. "How much fat is there is in this food? Wow, there's a lot of fat. I am not eating it." And it's kind of changed since then. So I honestly don't even look at fat now, but we're going to defer to Thunder for his thoughts on this.

Scot: Yeah. And we'll get the differences. Is there a good fat? Is there bad fat? Is there fat that you should eat or shouldn't eat? We're going to answer all of those questions.

But, Thunder, I'm hoping that you're thinking the same thing I am as far as when fat got a bad rap. Didn't that happen back in about the '70s, when low fat became the fad?

Thunder: Yeah, exactly. It actually happened even actually before that. In the 1950s, there was a famous physiologist named Ancel Keys who started a series of studies. He kind of actually invented epidemiology in a way, nutritional epidemiology. And he was interested in finding an association between fat that you eat and fat in the blood, like cholesterol, and also heart disease.

And so, between the '50s and the late '60s, he kind of accumulated enough data in his studies where he made a connection that said, "Yes, dietary fat is related to heart disease." And he was a pretty powerful voice. He was articulate, very persuasive.

And over the years, he pretty much persuaded the NIH and the American Heart Association to see it his way, even though there were a lot of detractors at the time. And then even going back and looking at Keys' initial research and finding some problems with the way he did his studies and some of the methodology he used.

Scot: But then this low-fat craze then created some other nutritional problems, if I understand correctly, and that comes along in the form of you take the fat out of something, it doesn't taste good anymore, so you've got to put something into it. And that something was sugar.

Thunder: Exactly right. It was a practical matter. Food companies, they had to kind of respond to the market demand coming from the public where the public wanted low-fat foods because they were told fat is the spawn of Satan and they have to avoid it at all costs. So they're responding to the market. Yeah, when they make low-fat products, they have to put in something else so the food you buy doesn't taste like cardboard, and so they would add sugar in there.

Troy: And I love seeing that in some of the marketing, you'll walk down the candy aisle and see like licorice that says, "It's a low-fat treat," and, "Zero fat." You're like, "Hey, it must be healthy." Obviously, they're still using that in marketing, but it's interesting that, like you said, it was really replaced by sugar and that then became a huge part of our diets.

Scot: But that sugar . . . am I correct, Thunder? So low-fat comes along, lots of sugar gets added to food, and now we've actually got a different health problem that starts emerging as a result of all of that.

Thunder: Yeah. Well, we kind of have the same health problem in a way because, yeah, maybe sugar promotes obesity, so we have that side of it. But really, a high sugar intake still will raise cholesterol levels and will raise triglyceride levels. And so what you think you're avoiding by not eating fat and then not caring about sugar and eating sugar is still going to drive up your blood lipid levels.

Scot: Let's circle back here. In this macro series, we've kind of focused on some of the basics. We got the backstory of fat, how it became vilified if you will. Let's get to "What is fat?" What does it do for my body? I mean, I know protein helps build those structures, carbs provide energy. What does fat do?

Thunder: Okay. So fat really centers around the fact that it's a fuel. So our cells in our bodies can use fat directly as fuel. In times of fasting, we can take stored fat, we can use it as fuel. We can take that fat, we can process it, and eventually make ketones out of it for other tissues in our body to use as fuel during times of fasting or starvation.

There is a certain amount of fat that we need in the form of essential fatty acids for normal physiological function. We use some kinds of fats to maintain our hormone balance. So we have these hormones that live a very short amount of time, maybe just a few seconds, before they're degraded. They're called eicosanoid. They're made from fat, so we need fat for that. These hormones control blood pressure and inflammation and blood clotting and important stuff. So that's one purpose of it.

There are certain kinds of fats that benefit our eye anatomy, our retinas, and are used in the retina. Fats that make it helpful for our immune system to function properly. So we do have some kind of baseline need of fat.

Now having said that, you don't need to have like 20% of your calories coming from fat for the things I just mentioned. Maybe just a few percent of your calories coming from fat, as long as they're from essential fatty acids, can cover your physiological needs.

Scot: Let's go over the different types of fats, because sometimes you hear people talk about good fat or bad fat. You already talked about trans fats, saturated fats. How many different fats are there?

Thunder: Well, there's classically kind of two camps of fats -- fats that are saturated and fats that are unsaturated. And then if we take it back to food, we tend to find more unsaturated fats in plant products and more saturated fats in animal products, but that is not exclusive. There are some plant products that have saturated fats and there are some animal products that have unsaturated fats.

But just the majority, in general, of fats in animal products tends to be more often saturated fats, and then in plants it tends to be more often unsaturated fats.

Scot: All right. I want you to pretend you're looking out, because I know you teach as well, and you see your student Scot in the middle of one of the rows.

Thunder: Is he on his phone again?

Scot: No, he's not, but he's like, "Saturated? Polysaturated?" Make it simple for me.

Troy: What's good and what's bad? Keep it simple. There you go.

Thunder: It's so hard to say what's good and what's bad because a lot of the effects of fat are going to depend on the context of what you're eating in general.

Take saturated fat, for example. So, if you look at ground beef, which is a source of saturated fat, most people say, "Hamburgers have saturated fat." True. There are different kinds of saturated fat in there. There's one kind that has been shown experimentally that it could raise your LDL. It could also raise your HDL, which is good. But there's another kind of saturated fat in that same ground beef that doesn't raise your LDL at all. So it's kind of hard to say, "This is all good. This is all evil," because of those subtle differences.

Now having said that, to make the simple version, the fats you get from plants tend to be more healthy. The fats we get from animals tend to be more unhealthy, especially when it's in the context of fast food.

So the same saturated fat that's in fast food, if I have a little bit of it and it's maybe as part of meat or chicken and there are a lot of vegetables that I'm eating with it, it may not be a bad thing. But then when I take that fat and I put it like in a super-size meal, now it's with all this other stuff that as a package can make it bad.

So I guess two rules. Let me try to summarize this simply. Fat that's in its natural state with unprocessed foods is not that bad. And when we take saturated fat and we put it in the context of processed foods, so think bacon, think fast food, stuff like that, that is bad. So that's the simple version of it.

Troy: So I guess the big question I have for you then, Thunder, is when you're eating or if you're looking at options to eat, do you even look at the fat? Do you even care, or are you just thinking more in those terms like you just mentioned, like, "Unprocessed, vegetable-based, and that's great. I don't care what the fat is"?

Thunder: Exactly. That's basically my guiding principle. If it's an unprocessed food or a food that I prepare at home, I don't really care that much about the fat. But if I'm out and I'm getting food at a restaurant or at a fast food place, then I'm thinking about it. Then I'll be more careful.

Troy: Yeah. And like I mentioned, I've kind of cheated in the sense that I've been able to hear you say a lot of these things before on previous episodes. So hearing this now, I used to look at stuff . . . You talk about nuts, like peanuts, things like that. Like, "Wow, there's a lot of fat in there." Or peanut butter, like, "Wow, that sure has a lot of fat in it." I would avoid those things because of that fat content.

But I think my diet has changed just in the sense that I'm not even looking at fat now. Hopefully trying to follow your rule of thumb of eating more plant-based and simple things and just not worry about the fat.

Thunder: Yeah, I think that's a good approach. And if I could just throw out a few examples since we're talking about high-fat foods. Yogurt, full-fat yogurt is pretty healthy and it has a lot of fat. If you've ever picked up the full-fat yogurt and looked at the nutrition label, it may have 8 grams, 10 grams, 15 grams of fat in there in one serving, but that's fine because the fat in that yogurt, in that food matrix, has not been found to be associated with heart disease or any mortality.

An avocado is another example. An avocado has a lot of fat, but no problems with the fat in avocado. It's a plant-based fat. Even though some of it is saturated, it doesn't really have any negative effect on cholesterol levels or heart disease.

So we can look around and we can find items like that. You mentioned nuts and you mentioned peanut butter. Those are all okay.

Scot: Let me throw out eggs. I used to just eat exclusively egg whites because I wanted to avoid the fat in the yolk.

Thunder: Yeah. So eggs really . . . most people, if they did what you did, Scot, they're avoiding eggs or specifically the egg yolks. The rationale for that is probably based on the fact that you're thinking the fat in the egg yolk is going to increase my risk for higher cholesterol and hence heart disease, right?

Scot: Yes.

Thunder: Has that relationship been shown to be true? The answer is no. Eggs consumed in some moderation really have no bearing on cholesterol levels or heart disease.

Now, if you have six eggs a day, I don't know. Maybe that's something that should be looked at. But if you're the kind of person that has six eggs a week, eight eggs a week, I don't think that really makes any difference. And the studies that have looked at that really haven't found any changes. So we can eat eggs.

And there's also protein in that yolk, by the way. It's not just fat. So when you eat the egg whites, you're missing out on a little bit of a protein from that yolk as well.

Troy: So what about milk? Since we're talking about any kind of animal products here, I grew up and everything I ever learned was drink skim milk. That's what you want to drink. Is that still something you'd recommend?

Thunder: Not really. If you choose to drink milk, there's really no rationale for drinking skim milk. If you like milk, you kind of owe it to yourself to have 2% or whole milk and enjoy it.

Troy: I love it. So forget it. Quit drinking that white watery stuff. Drink the whole milk. Drink the whole cream.

Scot: It looks like dishwater.

Troy: That's what I grew up . . . yeah, on my sugary cereal. I would pour in skim milk. This is my youth in the '80s.

Scot: So one of the things we learned in the carb episode is you don't have to fear bread, right? Bread is fine, like a loaf of sourdough bread. What about if I put some butter on it? Is that okay? I mean, that butter is fatty, right, but it's a natural fat, so I'm going to go with "Thunder says it's cool."

Thunder: Oh, god forbid, butter. I think it's better for you to have butter than margarine. But butter in moderation I don't think really makes a big difference.

Now, remember, this is again in the context of processed versus unprocessed. If you have a high sugar diet, a higher simple carb diet, and you're adding butter to that, that could be a bad combination. But if you have a fairly healthy, unprocessed food diet, and sometimes you're having some butter, whether it's putting it on broccoli, like I like to do, or some other context like that, I don't think it really makes that much of a difference.

So there have been a lot of studies that have looked at saturated fat in that context and haven't really found that it's a major player.

Troy: Well, olive oil. Dip bread in olive oil. That has a lot of fat. I mean, it sounds like though you're saying olive oil is probably okay.

Scot: I'll take this one.

Troy: You're going to take this one, Scot?

Scot: I got this one.

Troy: I'll just give you a softball to hit out of the park here, Scot.

Scot: Olive oil is great for you. Next.

Troy: Okay. There we go. That seems like that's the perfect example of a high-fat food that's been shown again and again to have significant health benefits.

Thunder: Right. It's the centerpiece of the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet can be a very high-fat diet because people that adhere to that use a lot of olive oil. And Mediterranean diet has been shown to pretty much be great for everything.

Scot: And also I understand fat satiates. It's a satiating appetite suppressant. So when you eat those types of foods, then you're less likely to want to reach for the chip bag a little bit later or some of those other choices.

Thunder: Exactly. One of the bonuses of fat, and fiber also falls into that category, protein falls in that category. So things that help keep us full.

Scot: We are going to wrap up here with one last thought. So we've already talked about the health notions that kind of gave fat a bad rap, but what about "When I eat a lot of fat, it's going to make me fat?" Is that true?

Thunder: That is not necessarily true. It kind of depends on how long you're eating and how much you're eating, but generally not true.

So I think the biggest driver of what makes you fat is the number of calories and, probably even bigger than that, the time that you spend eating, regardless of whether it's fat or other stuff.

What I mean by time, and maybe it's a topic of another podcast, is if you eat in a shorter amount of time and have a longer period of fasting, you're more resistant to weight gain. But if you eat for a longer period of time in a 24-hour cycle, and it doesn't matter if you're having fat in there, protein, carbs, sugar, or whatever, a longer period of time eating in a 24-hour cycle, it makes it easier to gain weight. So that, I think, is a more important determinant than the macronutrient itself.

Scot: Thunder, every time you're on here, you change our paradigms and you make me feel a little less guilty about the foods that I'm eating, and I so much appreciate that. And you make it simple. You make it super simple. Just eat natural foods. Stay away from processed foods as much as possible. Once in a while is fine. And that is the cornerstone to a healthy diet.

Troy: And incorporate regular fasting. I'm glad you brought that up again, too, because that's the other piece of the simplicity. If you can do that intermittent fasting and then throw in just eat healthy, non-processed foods, it's very simple.

Thunder: Yeah. Great summary. I enjoy being on and talking with you guys about nutrition and health. I think they're important topics, and it's great to have interested people to bounce ideas off of.

Troy: Well, Thunder, you'd be happy to know we all went through our favorite episodes of the past year. We did this back in June, and you made all of our lists.

Thunder: Holy crap. That's awesome. Who would have thought?

Troy: You were on there.

Thunder: Thank you.

Scot: Don't expect a certificate or a ribbon or anything.

Troy: Clearly, there were no monetary awards associated with that.

Thunder: Wait, when is my bronze plaque coming in the mail?

Troy: Yeah. We'll get you a trophy,

Scot: But you were definitely a favorite, and it's always great having you on the show. Thank you for caring about men's health.

Time for "Odds and Ends" on "Who Cares About Men's Health." We've got three things to talk about. First of all, a brand-new listener line. Second of all, a brand-new podcast on thescoperadio.com. And third, an upcoming episode that we could use your help with.

So the first thing I'm going to talk about is . . . this is going to actually be out of order, but I want to talk about a brand new podcast. It's part of thescoperadio.com, The Scope Presents Network, that producer Mitch, the producer on this show, is also helping to produce, called "Clinical."

And I've got to tell you, you and Stephen Dark are doing some amazing storytelling with "Clinical," and I just can't say enough good things about it. Tell the listeners a little bit what it's about.

Mitch: Well, thanks. So the show itself is focused on looking at the people that make a hospital a hospital. It's not just the doctors. It's the nurses. It's the EVs workers. It's the translators. It's everyone else that makes the whole thing run.

And right now, we are focusing, like hyper-focusing on a story about the MICU and the nurses and the all the people that are on the frontlines in the medical intensive care unit who are treating COVID-19 and how the virus is affecting them. And it's some of the most rewarding work I've done in a really long time.

Scot: It's awesome. I'll find myself . . . I'll listen and I'll look at the time and I'll think, "I've only been listening for two or three minutes," and I'm 17, 18 minutes into your stories. That right there, I think, is just absolutely amazing, to make them so compelling that I've lost track of time.

So you can check out "Clinical" if you go to thescoperadio.com. That was item number one.

Item number two, we have a brand-new listener line. This is exciting because now it's a new way to interact with us at thescoperadio.com. And the listener line phone number is 601-55SCOPE.

And this is what it'll sound like if you call the listener line.

Voicemail: Hello, you've reached The Scope Radio listener line. We love when our listeners call in and can't wait to hear what you've got to share with us. In your message, be sure to tell us your name as well as which podcast you're calling in for. If you would you like to remain anonymous, feel free to provide an alias. Without further ado, here comes the beep.

Scot: There it is. You will not find any more sincere message leaver than Mitch.

Troy: That was Mitch.

Scot: He was so sincere. "We love it when our listeners call."

Mitch: I believe I recorded that message at like 2:00 in the morning three weeks ago.

Scot: "We just love it."

Troy: "Thanks for calling."

Voicemail: We love when our listeners call in and can't wait . . .

Scot: "We love when our listeners call in and leave their messages."

Mitch: All right.

Troy: All right, Mitch. It's better than anything I could have done.

Scot: I don't know what line I just called. I'm checking the number at this point.

Troy: Am I getting charged for this call?

Scot: So please call the listener line. Thank you very much, producer Mitch, for setting it up. We do appreciate it.

Mitch: You're welcome.

Troy: It really does sound great and welcoming. It sounds very welcoming.

Scot: Exactly. I mean, if I was recorded there, I don't have an ounce of empathy or . . .

Troy: I'd just be like, "Say what you want to say. Beep."

Scot: I'm probably a little jealous that Mitch has those traits, so that's probably why I'm making fun of him.

All right. Number three, upcoming episode. Next episode, we're going to have a urologist on the podcast, which is awesome because a lot of times guys have questions for urologists because they might not be able to access one, get an appointment, maybe feel a little shy or embarrassed, don't want to actually go in and talk.

So we are collecting your questions, whether you call the listener line, whether you go to our Facebook page, whether you just send an email to hello@thescoperadio.com. You can use a fake name if you want. You can say your name is John Doe, or you can say your name is John Smith. You can say you're asking for a friend, but just get those questions in and we'll have them answered in next week's episode.

Anybody else have anything they want to throw into "Odds and Ends"?

Troy: Use the listener line. Obviously, it's a great way to interact with us and, as Mitch said, we love when you call in.

Mitch: Oh my god.

Scot: Do you love when listeners call in, Troy? I just love when listeners call in.

Mitch: I am still trying to find my NPR voice. Give me a break.

Troy: I love when listeners call in.

Scot: The worst part about that is that Mitch really was the one pushing for the listener line. He brought this up so many times, and he did all the work to make it happen. And what do I do?

Troy: You just make fun of it. Just tear it apart. The poor listener line.

Mitch: It's working, though. People are calling.

Scot: Just make fun of it. Well, it's because we have such a sincere message.

Troy: That's why. It's probably just wrong numbers and people hear that and they just say something, like, "Well, I should probably ask a question."

Scot: "Yeah. I mean, I don't want to disappoint this guy. It sounds like this might be the only thing going on in his world."

Troy: "This might be the only call he's ever gotten."

Scot: Oh, boy. Oh, that's good podcasting right there, folks.

Troy: Yeah, it is. This is the quality. This is why we get paid the big bucks, Scot.

Scot: Sure.

Troy: This is it.

Scot: Time for "Just Going to Leave This Here." That's our random thoughts or it could be health-related. It's just whatever happens to be on our mind.

I'm going to go ahead and kick things off with just a brief, kind of an observation. I want to get into kettlebells for a workout. I've looked at some videos. I think a kettlebell workout would be a nice full-body workout. It works the posterior chain nicely. But you know how hard it is to find kettlebells nowadays?

Troy: Probably incredibly difficult.

Scot: Nobody has them. You can't order them online because they're all sold out. I've gone to some fitness stores here in town. They either have really, really light ones or really, really heavy ones. I'm going to have to either get a lot stronger or just work out a lot lighter. But anyway, I hope to have a future episode maybe where we talk about . . . Have you guys done kettlebells ever? Either one of you two?

Troy: I have never done kettlebells.

Mitch: I have. They're fun.

Scot: Yeah?

Mitch: Yeah.

Scot: What weight kettlebell did you use when you did? Do you remember?

Mitch: Is that what we're doing right now? We're measuring things? That's cool. Whatever. I was doing a weight that felt comfortable and safe to me.

Scot: That's the right answer. Very good.

Mitch: I know how to do this podcast.

Scot: Actually, that was a great answer, Mitch. We're going to move to Troy's "Just Going to Leave This Here."

Troy: Well, I'm just going to leave this here, Scot. I know you're very focused on your diet. You measure out everything you eat and you know exactly what your carb/protein intake is. What's your water intake?

Scot: Enough. I drink the amount of water . . .

Troy: That makes you feel safe? I'm just curious.

Scot: I don't know. I probably drink a half or three-quarters of a gallon a day.

Troy: How many glasses is that?

Scot: I don't know because I have one of these big 32-ounce deals and I fill it up two or three times throughout the day.

Troy: Okay. So that's a decent amount. I now know how much water I drink a day. And the reason I know this is because I got these water . . . I mean, I'm filling up water stuff too, and I've never really looked at it. I knew I drank a lot of water. It's recommended you drink eight glasses of water a day. I'm drinking at least 20 to 30 glasses a day easily, probably closer to 30. That's a lot of water.

I don't know why I drink that much. I've wondered, "Maybe I have . . ." I don't know. I hope I don't have any underlying health issues. I just saw my doctor and he did a bunch of labs and everything looked okay.

Scot: Did your doctor have any concerns about the amount other than just health? I mean, I've heard if you drink too much, it can start leaching vitamins and stuff out of your body. This is a question we should ask somebody.

Troy: It is. I'm really curious now.

Scot: As I'm saying it out loud, it's sounding like it's a bunch of crap really.

Troy: I don't know. I've wondered that same thing too. I've wondered because I know I've seen patients in the ER who drink copious amounts of water and it can drop your sodium level. But I had all my labs checked a month ago, everything was okay, but I had that thought as well. I knew I drank a lot of water. I just like drinking water for whatever reason, but things are okay.

Scot: All right, Troy. Cheers. I'm taking a drink of water in honor to you.

Troy: Thank you. I appreciate it. I heard it. Nice.

Scot: All right. Time to say the things that you say at the end of podcasts because we're at the end of ours. Go ahead, Troy. Why don't you start this off?

Troy: Well, thanks for listening. If you want to get in touch with us, you can interact with us on Facebook, facebook.com/whocaresmenhealth. You can also contact us by email at hello@thescoperadio.com.

Scot: And we have a brand-new listener line. That number is 601-55SCOPE. And as always, if you like the podcast, be sure to subscribe. If you can leave a review, that definitely helps other people that might like this podcast find it as well. Thank you for listening and thank you for caring about men's health.