#1816 Bolus 4 - The Movies
Going to the movies doesnt have to be a disaster. Jenny and Scott bolus 4 the snack bar.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Estimate by the Handful: If you don't have nutrition facts, a good rule of thumb is that one handful (or one cup) of popcorn contains about 5 grams of carbohydrates.
- Portion Control is Key: In a dark movie theater, it's easy to mindlessly eat handful after handful. Ask for a small empty cup to portion out your popcorn from a shared bucket so you can accurately count your carbs.
- Account for High Fat: Movie theater popcorn is popped in oil and often topped with "buttery flavored topping," adding massive amounts of fat and calories that can cause delayed, stubborn blood sugar spikes.
- Pre-bolus and Extend: Because of the high carb and fat load, pre-bolusing is important. However, you may want to give a portion of the insulin upfront and extend the rest (or correct later) to match the slower digestion caused by the fat.
- Beware the Candy Combo: Mixing high-sugar candy (like Junior Mints or Raisinets) with high-fat popcorn creates a complex digestion scenario: an immediate spike from the sugar combined with a prolonged rise from the fatty popcorn.
Resources Mentioned
- Juicebox Podcast Meal Bolt: juiceboxpodcast.com/meal-bolt
- Able Now (Sponsor): ablenow.com
Introduction & Meal Bolt Roadmap
Scott BennerWelcome back, friends, to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
In every episode of bolus four, Jenny Smith and I are gonna take a few minutes to talk through how to bolus for a single item of food.
Jenny and I are gonna follow a little bit of a road map called meal bolt.
Measure the meal, evaluate yourself, add the base units, layer a correction, build the bolus shape, offset the timing, look at the CGM, tweak for next time.
Having said that, these episodes are gonna be very conversational and not incredibly technical.
Scott BennerWe want you to hear how we think about it, but we also would like you to know that this is kind of the pathway we're considering while we're talking about it.
So while you might not hear us say every letter of Mielbolt in every episode, we will be thinking about it while we're talking.
If you wanna learn more, go to juiceboxpodcast.com/meal-bolt.
But for now, we'll find out how to bowl us for today's subject.
While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise.
Scott BennerAlways consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.
This episode is sponsored by Able Now, tax advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.
If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs, and many people in the diabetes community do.
With ABLE now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid.
Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com.
The Movie Theater Popcorn Dilemma
Scott BennerYou spell that ablenow.com.
Alright, Jenny.
Do you know the song Let's All Go to the Lobby?
Jenny SmithNo.
Scott BennerNo.
It's like this.
I used to play in front of, like, drive in movies.
It's like like dancing popcorn and candy would come out and be like, let's all go to the lobby.
Let's all go.
Jenny SmithI'm I've never I've never heard that song
Scott Bennerbefore.
Okay.
Well, you should go to I don't know.
Are there drive in movie theaters anymore?
Are there movie theaters?
Jenny SmithThere are.
There's actually one that's not too far from us.
I have not been to a drive in in a long time.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithThey are they're super fun.
I think the last what's the movie with Cameron Diaz and What About Mary?
Scott BennerSomething About Mary?
Something About Mary?
That's the last thing you saw at a drive in?
Jenny SmithLast thing I saw at a drive in.
Yeah.
Scott BennerReference a movie nobody listening even knows about.
When when Kelly and I were first married, we would go to the drive in on on during the summer almost every Friday night.
She'd come home, get off the train, we would drive right to the theater, sit in the back of our we have an SUV.
We sit in the back of it and watch movies.
But I bring that up because I've been asked to talk about how to bowl us for popcorn.
Scott BennerOh.
But I wanted to expand that a little bit.
So I do wanna talk about popcorn first, but then maybe we'll talk a little bit at the end about how to blend it together if you're at the movies and having with other stuff.
Jenny SmithOkay.
Scott BennerAlright?
There are a number of different kinds of popcorn because I said to people, like, what do you like, when they said popcorn to me, I just assumed they meant movie theater popcorn.
But then people were like, well, what about, like, the kind you make at home, and what about, like, the Jiffy Pop, and what about popcorn in a bag?
And I was like, alright.
Well, I'll Jenny and I will look into it and try to figure out if there's a big difference, but let's start with the most difficult one, which I have to believe is movie theater popcorn.
Scott BennerRight?
Jenny SmithI would expect so.
Honestly, I it's kinda funny because I was gonna say, but we're not gonna bowl this for Chinese popcorn.
We're clearly bolusing for something.
A charger.
Scott BennerWhat does your popcorn taste like?
Air?
Jenny SmithNo.
My popcorns, I usually use I have a burly cup.
It's like you put it on your stovetop, and you put in like a little bit of oil.
And then you put your your kernels in, and the top closes, and it's got a little crank on the side.
Mhmm.
Jenny SmithAnd so you crank it, the thing in the bottom spins the kernels, and then it pops.
And it's awesome.
Like, I've had it for a very I'm not gonna say how long, but for a very long time.
And it is the thing when when my boys have their friends over, they're always like, missus Smith, will you make popcorn?
Scott BennerLike, they
Jenny Smithwant my popcorn.
Scott BennerSo I used to have that thing, but I kept burning it on the bottom because I Oh.
So now I just make it in a pot.
Jenny SmithAnd and you just shake?
Scott BennerI've used coconut oil.
Uh-huh.
And then popcorn, give it a little shake, pops out every time.
It's perfect.
Jenny SmithYep.
I usually put, nutritional yeast, kind of has, a cheesy flavor.
So I'll use nutritional yeast, and I'll use a little bit of a little bit of sea salt.
And then flavorings, I usually let my boys pick out whatever flavorings.
Sometimes they like dill.
Jenny SmithSometimes they like it spicy.
Sometimes they just want salt.
So Martin's
Scott Bennera a fan of, like, some fake cheese powder that we put over top of it.
You know, it's so funny.
Jenny SmithThere you go.
Scott BennerWe talk all the time while we're making these bolus four episodes about, like, what do people understand about the impacts of their food.
And I'm trying to look up movie theater popcorn nutrition now, and I see a Reddit thread that says, will movie theater popcorn seriously hinder my weight loss journey?
Yeah.
It will.
Jenny SmithHow often is this person eating popcorn?
Scott BennerI mean, that's a first of all, a valuable question.
But I'm looking here at large tub size, 600 to 1,200 calories, 27 to 48 grams of fat, saturated fat 19 to 34 grams often from coconut oil, total carbs 41 to a 148, and the sodium 1,500.
Jenny SmithYeah.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, it's it's it's gonna hinder your weight loss journey for sure.
Jenny SmithRight.
And I'm assuming the difference in calorie there is very likely relative to whether you add the this isn't butter, but we call it butter sauce on the top.
Scott BennerYes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm gonna go to is Regal Cinemas throughout the country?
Jenny SmithThe AMC is usually
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithThroughout the country too.
Scott BennerRegal popcorn nutritional estimate, refillable large tub, is approximately 20 cups with butter, but we all know it's not actually butter.
It's called buttery flavored topping.
1,200 plus calories.
That's a day's worth of calories.
Jenny SmithThat's a lot of calories.
Scott BennerYeah.
60 to 66 grams total fat, 126 grams carbohydrate, between a 101 and a 126.
So so let's say we're just going to the movies, and we're just having a popcorn.
Jenny SmithOkay.
Scott BennerOkay.
How do you do you pre bolus for it?
Do you I tell Arden to pre bolus while we're in line getting the tickets usually.
Jenny SmithYes.
Pre bolus would be valuable.
And then, you know, you bring up, gosh, I'm looking up the nutrition facts.
Right?
Mhmm.
Estimating Carbs and Fat
Jenny SmithWell, let's say you're not going to look up nutrition facts.
What is one of the bigger hitters with popcorn?
It's carbohydrate.
Right?
Scott BennerRight.
Jenny SmithA good estimate is that a handful of popcorn is about five grams of carb per handful.
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithSo if you aren't going to look any nutrition facts up and really all you're gonna do is initially cover carbohydrates, you could say, okay.
That large bucket is 20.
Right?
So 20 handfuls is about 20 cups at about five grams per handful.
Scott BennerOkay.
20 cups at five grams per handful.
A hun a 100?
Mhmm.
Okay.
Jenny SmithIf that's a large tub, you said it was 20.
Yeah.
Scott BennerRight?
Mhmm.
And then that's not you squirting the grease on top of it.
Jenny SmithCorrect.
That's just the popcorn.
However, they made it in the kettle with the fat already there.
Scott BennerIt was in yeah.
Whatever that stuff is that I guarantee that's not butter either.
I bet you there's not butter in a movie theater is what I'm trying to I'm probably Yeah.
So with I've got my my estimator up.
So with an insulin to carb ratio of 10 and insulin sensitivity of 50, I'm targeting 90.
Scott BennerA 100 carbs, no consideration for fat is 10 units.
Oh my gosh.
You're gonna bowl this that much for for I don't oh my god.
I'm sorry.
I know that's not how these are supposed that shocked me.
Scott BennerNow I know how people feel when they're like, that seems like a lot of insulin.
That's crazy.
Is that Mhmm.
Okay?
If I put the fat into it and just, like don't know.
Scott BennerIf you just snip like, I don't know.
Say the fat's 50.
Mhmm.
Oh my gosh.
Then it's a
Jenny SmithThat's a lie.
I and you're using your calculator.
Right?
Scott BennerYou're using your calculator.
Telling me that would be 10 units up front.
You need a pre bolus.
It's saying at least of, like, nine minutes, and then a Warsaw wave that could last up to eight hours of another four and a half units of insulin.
As I told you earlier, Able Now is sponsoring this episode.
Scott BennerAble Now, of course, tax advantaged Able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.
If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an Able account because of ongoing medical needs.
Many people in the diabetes community do.
With Able Now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid.
And thanks to updates to federal law, ABLE accounts are now available to more people than ever before.
Scott BennerThat means more individuals and families can use ABLE Now to save and invest.
Funds in an AbleNow account can be used for a wide range of everyday needs, including education, transportation, health care, assistive technology, and more.
There's no enrollment fee, and you can open an AbleNow account with a small initial contribution and build from there.
Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com.
That's ablenow.com, ablenow.com.
Jenny SmithYes.
Now the other consideration here too is what do you know about how your body processes this load at a time that's also a large amount of fat?
My initial recommendation for a meal, I'm gonna call it a meal because quite honestly, the calorie content of this is like several meals.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithYeah.
But right.
So my consideration is there's a lot of fat.
Yes.
It's carby.
Jenny SmithTen units is a large amount of insulin to bolus at a time Mhmm.
For a food that has a fair amount of fat in it.
So you may even potentially use this as a tool to say, okay.
Ten units, but, gosh, I'm in a pre bolus.
Let's say you know your pre bolus is usually fifteen or twenty minutes.
Jenny SmithMhmm.
They're gonna apply that.
My consideration would be maybe bolus for only 70% of this upfront
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithWith the other 30%.
If you have a pump that allows extended boluses or you have a pump that allows a slower drip over a certain amount of time, etcetera, you might even do that over the initial hour possibly with a consideration then as the bolus four for protein and fat comes in that extra units when you finish the popcorn.
Scott BennerYeah.
I would
Jenny SmithThat's likely when you would push that in.
Scott BennerI'm glad you said that because I was about to say, like, I don't think I would do that.
No.
Yeah.
I don't think I would just throw in 10 units and be like popcorn time.
Like, it's because also I mean, that's a lot of popcorn.
Scott BennerLike, you could get halfway through it and be like, I ain't eating this anymore.
Jenny SmithCorrect.
Portion Control at the Theater
Scott BennerI know you're in the theater and you're trying to sit and have an immersive experience, but I think a movie theater visit is get ahead, stay ahead, keep bolusing if you keep eating.
Yep.
Like, that's sort of my my theory.
Plus, if you have a sugary candy that you're missing with mixing with this, then suddenly, I don't mind being even more ahead because then you can almost eat to the drop Yeah.
If you're gonna snack on sugary candy too.
Scott BennerBut it's a lot about go ahead.
Jenny SmithOh, no.
I was gonna say another trick is that, right, you're going to a movie theater probably with other people, and maybe you're there with a parent.
And the parent is like, sure.
I'll buy the large tub, but we're all gonna share it.
Mhmm.
Jenny SmithAnd there are three of you all dipping your hands into the one large bucket.
Well, great.
That's a 100 grams of carb, but you're not the only one eating it.
And so what makes it a little bit easier to count up and as you're saying, bolus as you consume, ask the theater for a small container that's empty.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithFill up your child or your container.
You know, that small container is how many handfuls did you put in?
Maybe it's three handfuls, three cups.
Right?
That's 15 grams of carb.
Jenny SmithYeah.
Ebola is for the 15.
Oh, I'm gonna go back for more.
Great.
Fill it.
Jenny SmithBecause then you really have a little bit more ability to navigate.
Okay.
I'm in a bolus for more now.
I'm in a bolus for more now.
Scott BennerSo maybe movie theaters aren't such an issue because I mean, the food's not it's not great food, but, like, it's not so much about the food.
It's more about the you don't really know how much you're eating because of the snacking and the passing and all that other stuff.
Jenny SmithRight.
Scott BennerIf you can just kinda hold them aside I'll tell you when Arden was little, she would go she'd get a Slurpee at a movie.
And I have to tell you, it was kinda great because you just throw in a bunch of insulin up front and then just modulate it backwards
Jenny SmithIt's just sugar.
Scott BennerWith the Slurpee.
Like, oh, you're getting low.
Take another sip of the Slurpee.
And then you'd leave the theater without, like, a high blood sugar because I'm telling you right now, you could leave a theater with a three fifty no problem if you throw in not enough food and that snacking.
So do you think that when people say they struggle with popcorn, do you think it's more about, like, that part?
Scott BennerBecause I'm looking at SmartFood as an example.
Mhmm.
I mean, SmartFood popcorn, I know you can get that anywhere.
Yep.
13 carbs for two and a half cups, 11 servings.
Scott BennerSo that means that if you grab the bag of SmartFood popcorn and just did it in, you'd be on 140 or or so, like, carbs.
And that is the idea.
Right?
It's about this.
I'm making a back and forth with my hand.
Jenny SmithAnd you're Yeah.
You're bringing up the point that I was gonna say is, what is popcorn?
It's a snackable.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithRight?
It's not usually something that you're going to sit down and really consciously pay attention unlike sitting down to a steak dinner with broccoli.
Right?
Yeah.
You're enjoying it.
Jenny SmithYou're chewing it.
You're probably having conversation, but still really paying attention in a slow manner.
Mhmm.
When we're talking about a movie theater and popcorn, one, we're in a dark environment.
Our brain is entirely focused on the movie or the previews that we're watching.
Jenny SmithYep.
There's no conscious accounting of how many handfuls you're stuffing in your face because you're not paying attention.
So that's why that at least start with a known amount, that small empty cup, dip it in, take your portion, bolus for it, and then acknowledge if you can pay enough attention.
Right?
Scott BennerKettle corn is actually less impactful than movie theater popcorn.
It's got much less fat in it if you
Jenny SmithOh, it's more sugar, but it's less.
Mhmm.
Scott BennerBut sodium's lower.
That's interesting because it's more that so they the the popcorn is a delivery system.
Jenny SmithOh, yeah.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And for whatever else is is is Chinese like Duh.
Jenny SmithYes.
Thanks.
Scott BennerWhat's that what's the one Cracker Jacks.
Right?
Jenny SmithOh, Cracker Jacks.
Scott BennerI don't like them.
Funny.
Because they put
Jenny Smithpeanuts in like that either.
Scott BennerWhy would you put peanuts in food?
It's ridiculous.
Jenny SmithAnd I was always I remember as a kid, like, always came with that silly little dumb prize in the box.
Scott BennerIt was never a good prize.
Jenny SmithIt was never good.
Yeah.
I was always disappointed.
Like I and never even ate the like, shook the whole box out just to get the dumb prize, and I was like, two pieces of Cracker Jacks, I got a dumb prize.
I'm done.
Scott BennerThey didn't learn from McDonald's.
McDonald's knew to put, a decent toy in there.
Right.
Yeah.
Cracker Jacks.
Scott BennerWell, I'll tell you, gotta give it to Amazon.
They do a good job with the nutrition labels.
Cracker Jack's total carbs, 23 per serving.
Serving's about a half a cup.
Sugar's 14 grams.
Scott BennerTwo grams of fat.
It's it's a lot of it's a lot of sugar on popcorn.
Jenny SmithRight.
Scott BennerSo I I've never looked up food labels on so many different popcorns before in my life.
Like, popcorn doesn't seem like it should be difficult to bowl us for.
Jenny SmithIt's pretty carb.
Scott BennerIt's It's the delivery system, isn't it?
It's how you're eating it, not what you're eating.
Right.
In the scenario.
Jenny SmithYou brought up what SmartPop.
There's also SkinnyPop.
Scott BennerMhmm.
Jenny SmithI'm trying to think of the lesser evil is one as well.
Scott BennerIs that actually called lesser evil?
Jenny SmithIt's lesser evil.
It's usually made with avocado or coconut oil instead of, like, all the processed refined types of oils.
Yeah.
Thus, lesser evil.
Scott BennerSkinny pop total carbs nine grams for
Jenny SmithA bag.
Scott BennerThis bag.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The small, like, be a grabbable bag.
No sugar.
More fat than you would think.
Scott BennerSix grams of fat.
Sodium is pretty low at 50.
Yeah.
Okay.
Lesser evil popcorn?
Jenny SmithYeah.
It's a name brand of of popcorn.
Scott BennerNice.
Okay.
Adding Candy to the Mix
Scott BennerBut let's go back to the movies for a
Jenny Smithsecond.
Scott BennerYes.
Now we've got our popcorn.
Let's hope we're we've measured it out.
I don't know.
We have some aside, but now we're gonna get candy too.
Scott BennerSo Oh.
You said you have one candy.
You were telling me before we started.
What is it?
Jenny SmithSo the funny thing is that when my husband and I first started dating, movies were definitely a thing that we did.
Right?
And his go to always, without knowledge too much about, like, my diabetes like, knew I had diabetes, but, like, not really what was good
Scott Benneror good there.
Jenny SmithNot as focused.
His had always been Raisinets
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithAnd Junior Mints.
Scott BennerOh, Junior Mints.
Nice.
Jenny SmithSo both of those are and, you know, again, I could really care less about them, but I did know in terms of my management that I absolutely had to use, you know, a fair amount of insulin.
This is really just sugar.
Scott BennerWas a young Jenny Smith on a date?
Did you feel like, oh, I should grab a couple mints out of here so I don't seem weird?
Jenny SmithOh, no.
No.
I was willing to share a couple.
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithBut I've never like a sweet eater, I've never been give me the whole big that's why, like, gummy bears don't do like, can't
Scott BennerYou hit a number.
You oh, I can't do anymore.
Jenny SmithPick one gummy bear, and I'm I'm good.
Even if it's for a low, I'll eat the whole thing if I absolutely needed to, but, like, just well, like, it's a sugar overload to me.
So something like, I'll have one or two knowing he was totally gonna eat that.
Scott BennerTake take care of the
Jenny Smithrest of them.
Of right here.
Scott BennerTo make you feel old, but the top return on Google is do junior mints still exist?
Jenny SmithI've seen them at the
Scott BennerThey do, by the way.
Jenny SmithBut that's just like I've seen them at the grocery.
Scott BennerThere's no reason to make old people feel like that.
Junior mints, 26 carbs for 12 pieces.
So over a
Jenny Smithlittle It's about two grams
Scott Bennerof cheese.
Two a piece.
Mhmm.
And so that's the next thing.
So now I have I should get a piece of paper for a second.
Jenny SmithSo now we're adding candy on top.
Thank you for using my candy, by the way.
Scott BennerOh, of course.
Please.
Jenny SmithYou know one of my favorite things about junior mince was this is kinda weird, but, like, I didn't need many, and I could enjoy them because I like the shape and how it felt when it melted in my mouth.
Scott Benner100%.
Jenny SmithIt's a little dome, and it's got a little divot in the bottom of it.
Scott BennerI know.
And I just feel the divot with your tongue.
Jenny SmithLike, you can feel it.
Yeah.
And, like, it just melted lovely in my mouth.
Scott BennerI prefer a slightly stale ginger mint.
I like it when it's a little stiff.
I also like gummy bears better when they're stale and peeps.
Jenny SmithOh.
Scott BennerWhen do you know what Peeps are?
Yeah.
Peeps come into the house.
I take a knife.
Jenny SmithIn the pack?
Scott BennerI slice it open, and I let them sit for a day or two, and then I eat them.
And they're almost hard and gummy, and I don't know why
Jenny Smiththat's like
Scott BennerI like them that way.
But hold on.
How many so let's say I don't know.
What's reasonable?
Handfuls of popcorn.
Scott Benner10?
Jenny SmithI'd say at least 10 handfuls.
I mean, think about how easy it is to mindlessly
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithGrab handful after hand.
I would say 10 is a reasonable number of handfuls to expect somebody would eat.
Scott BennerWeird question.
Do you put the popcorn in your mouth or throw it in your mouth?
Jenny SmithOh, I I I put it in my mouth.
I it drives me crazy.
People were like, like, they shove it and then it's falling.
Like, it drives me crazy.
Like, just put it nicely in your mouth and chew.
Scott BennerAt my funeral, I believe Kelly will stand up and go, that son of a bitch threw popcorn in his mouth at a movie theater.
I am like a like, I bounce it, get it into a kind of and I just toss it in.
That's funny.
I'm also not putting like a I'm not shoving it across my face while I'm doing it.
It's not I'm not on fear factor small child.
Scott BennerTrying to get a, scorpion pie down or something like that, which should tell you what I watched on TV last night.
It's just it's a little a little, like, toss.
Jenny SmithIt's like a little game.
Scott BennerOh, she hates it.
She's funny.
It's like, just put the vodka in your mouth.
I'm like, I don't know why I do it like this.
So 10 cups, five carbs a piece.
Final Calculations and Fat Content
Scott BennerThat's what you said.
Right?
Yep.
So we get 50 from that.
Jenny SmithYes.
Scott BennerAnd that's carbs.
I'm gonna take the 12 pieces.
It feels silly, like isn't it funny?
It feels silly saying junior mince 12 pieces, but okay.
Right.
Scott Benner26 carbs because no one eats that way.
And then I wanna go back to the fat for the movie theater popcorn.
Jenny SmithOkay.
Scott BennerSo 20 cups with butter is about 60 or six listen.
I also this is the Internet.
I'm not sure about this.
I don't know.
I don't even know where you'd figure this out because you're drizzling the butter on yourself afterwards.
Scott BennerSo I don't know how you're gonna
Jenny SmithWhich is why I'm expecting it's an estimate of what they've
Scott BennerYeah.
There's a big range estimate here.
Yeah.
Jenny SmithYeah.
So I would take the middle.
Scott BennerThe middle's 60.
Yeah.
That's right?
Okay.
Alright.
Scott BennerWe're gonna see fat.
And then it's gonna be something else.
You want Twizzler?
Jenny SmithI'm curious.
How much fat is there without drizzling the extra yellow syrup on?
Scott BennerIt's not that easy.
Hold on.
Popcorn Nutrition, Regal Theaters.
I god.
Is this the I mean, trust me.
Scott BennerThey can barely get people to come to the movies.
They're not putting great information online for this.
Jenny SmithI'd expect a large has to already have 25 or so grams.
Scott BennerI'm gonna try to find the nutrition facts just for the the butter.
Jenny SmithOh.
Scott BennerI don't know if I can do that.
Yeah.
Oh, wait.
Movie theater butter.
No.
Scott BennerThat's Orville Redenbacher.
Jenny SmithThat's the pop it in your microwave and
Scott BennerThere's a food data website.
Movie theater popcorn movie theater with added butter.
I mean, if we take this at its word, I guess, a kid size order, 84 grams, do one cup.
One cup, yeah, 4.4 carbs, it's saying it's saying 8.2 fat for a cup.
See, if you took that number, then we're at 80 for 10 cup or for for 10 cups.
Jenny SmithTrue.
Scott BennerYou know?
So, I mean, I think the answer here is good luck getting a good nutritional count on movie theater popcorn with your butter on it.
But, like, just think of it as either five grams of carbs per cup, and if there's butter on it and you're a person counting fat, count some fat.
Right.
And if not, don't act surprised ninety minutes later when your blood sugar's two fifty and it won't move no matter what you do.
Scott BennerThat's pretty much and by the way, if you're gonna add the junior mints, good luck just being two fifty.
Because then you're gonna basically, you're gonna take the popcorn carbs, you're gonna stretch the digestion out with the buttery flavored topping, and then you're gonna supercharge the whole thing with a rocket made out of junior mints.
Jenny SmithCorrect.
Scott BennerThat's where the high comes from at the at the movie theater.
Jenny SmithAnd if you're like a friend of mine, she put raisinets in the popcorn and then took handfuls of both of them at the same time to eat together.
There there's something else that's
Scott BennerI like a milk dud, I wanna say, the theater.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jenny SmithI never liked
Scott Bennerthat.
No.
I used to like the cookie dough bites before they ruined them.
Started making them, but they had all egg in them.
I guess people got sick.
Scott BennerBunch of lightweights.
I could handle it.
And then they changed it to make it safer for you, now they're not good anymore.
So that's what you get with your safety.
You nerf the world, now cookie dough bites suck.
Scott BennerGood for you.
So sorry.
I really didn't care.
I was just like, I just won't get this ever again.
I'm a more of a, like, mix my popcorn with pretzel bites kind of person
Jenny SmithOh.
Scott BennerNow that I'm an adult.
But at the same point, like, even they suck.
You know what I mean?
You don't know, Jenny.
But let me tell you something.
Scott BennerYou pay a thousand dollars for seven pretzel bites.
By the time you get to your seat, they're cold already, and they're hard.
Jenny SmithAnd they're they're probably really, like, stiff.
Right?
Scott BennerIt's like going to McDonald's.
If you don't eat it piping hot, like, ten minutes later, you're like, what is what am I putting in my mouth exactly?
You you know what I mean?
At least the popcorn.
The popcorn's the popcorn.
Scott BennerI do wanna try to find buttery flavored popcorn topping.
It's almost one time.
Oh, okay.
Jenny SmithDid you find it?
Scott BennerOh, it comes in jugs that would horrify you.
Hold on a second.
This one's made by Amish Country Popcorn Buttery Topping, I have to say.
Jenny SmithAre these, Costco sized tubs?
Scott BennerI mean, it's it's a 128 fluid ounce.
It's a gallon.
I'm gonna just say earlier when I said about the cheesy flavored popcorn, we use the Amish country cheesy flavored popcorn is the one we actually use.
Jenny SmithOh, the the flavoring that
Scott BennerI'm so embarrassed.
Jenny SmithThat.
That's so funny.
Yeah.
Scott BennerThere you company in Indiana.
I'm sure they're doing good work out there.
There is no nutrition label on this.
Yeah.
Oh, wait.
Scott BennerNo.
There is.
God bless the world.
Alright.
No carbs.
Scott BennerNo cholesterol.
14 grams of fat per serving.
Jenny SmithCholesterol, which means that this does not have butter in it.
Scott BennerYes.
Well, that's why they call it buttery flavored topping, but I'm gonna flip you out right now.
There is 14 grams of fat in a serving.
What's the serving size?
Because everybody just heard that and thought, oh, in a cup of it, there's 14 grams of fat.
Scott BennerBut no, Jenny.
There's 14 grams of fat
Jenny SmithA tablespoon?
Scott BennerIn a tablespoon of it.
Jenny SmithYeah.
Scott BennerIn a tablespoon of it.
So when you're standing over at that machine and you're going, and you're spinning your popcorn and jostle it up and down, it probably would be safer to run out in front of a car.
So so anyway, if you're wondering why movie theater popcorn is hitting you like this, this is the conversation right here.
Mhmm.
Let's tie this one up with just making popcorn with coconut oil.
Jenny SmithOkay.
Scott BennerLike, so I would tell you, just from a personal experience, I don't really Arden boluses for it pretty much just like a carb.
Like, she
Jenny Smithpretty That's all I do.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jenny SmithI I bolus for it as if it's a carbohydrate.
I give it a pre bolus, and I eat my popcorn.
Scott BennerYeah.
That's it.
Right?
You're not really doing more or less than that.
So No.
Scott BennerSo in a nutshell, in a raisin nutshell, if you when people ask about popcorn, popcorn, popcorn, popcorn is, in your opinion, it's more about what's on top of it.
Yes.
And that could be topping, like, buttery flavor topping at the theater.
It could be, you know, sugar in the form of kettle corn.
It could be anything like that.
Scott BennerBut it's the impact probably comes more from either not understanding the fat content if you're at the theater and probably the mix of something else in there and or the kind of chaotic way that you take it in over time.
Jenny SmithCorrect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I mean, I've had random people who've said, you know, I have popcorn like the skinny pop or the smart pop or whatever and have said, you know, I feel like I also get a little blip up in blood sugar later on from it.
Jenny SmithDigestively, we are all a little bit different.
I can say my n of one is that that doesn't happen to me.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithEbola is cover it.
I don't end up having anything else happen after that I have to cover sometimes in this yeah.
Scott BennerThe skinny crop did have more fat in it than something else, but it's probably trying to make up for the flavor of not having whatever it is they did to cut the carbs down on it.
Jenny SmithRight.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
God.
What did they do to to cut the carbs down on it?
Jenny SmithI don't
Scott BennerI I can't anyway, I love popcorn.
I don't like, I don't like getting the kernel stuck in my teeth afterwards, but don't forget to get those out.
If you like a sore, like, if your gum gets sore and you realize, like, two days later, there's a popcorn kernel in there, It's very upsetting.
Jenny SmithIt is upsetting or that it's, like, worked its way out, and you can finally feel it along the side of your tooth.
And you're like, I wasn't there before.
Scott BennerI know.
But there's, something you're like, what is that?
Jenny SmithI did this three days ago.
Scott BennerAnd then you do that thing where you go, like, oh, I had popcorn the other night while we're watching a movie.
Is that what this
Jenny SmithUh-huh.
Yes.
Scott BennerDo you feel like we covered this pretty well?
Jenny SmithNo.
That was it's a great one to bring up.
Scott BennerYeah.
Okay.
Cool.
Alright.
Well, I appreciate it.
Scott BennerI'll talk to you later.
Jenny SmithCool.
Outro
Scott BennerA huge thanks to today's sponsor, AbleNow.
AbleNow offers tax advantaged able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.
If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify because of ongoing medical needs.
With Able Now, you can save for a wide range of disability related expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid.
And thanks to recent federal law updates, more people are eligible than ever before.
Scott BennerLearn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com.
You spell that ablenow.com.
There's links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Hey.
Thanks for listening all the way to the end.
Scott BennerI really appreciate your loyalty and listenership.
Thank you so much for listening.
I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast.
#1815 Mr. Pibb
Julie, a pharmacist, diabetes educator, and mom, shares her son’s diagnosis story and a candid conversation about type 1, type 2, food, movement, and real-world diabetes care.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Trust Your Instincts: Even healthcare professionals can overlook the early signs of Type 1 diabetes in their own children. Pay close attention to subtle symptoms like excessive thirst, frequent urination, and unexplained weight loss.
- Take Small Steps for Big Changes: When addressing Type 2 diabetes or overall health, do not try to change everything overnight. Small, sustainable modifications—like short daily walks or minor dietary tweaks—yield the best long-term results.
- The Power of Pre-Bolusing: A little bit of effort upfront, such as correctly timing your pre-bolus, can prevent massive blood sugar spikes and save you from hours of frustrating diabetes management later in the day.
- GLP-1 Medications are Transformative but Complex: While GLP-1s can greatly aid in weight loss and managing insulin resistance for both Type 2 and Type 1 patients, they come with high costs, pharmacy reimbursement challenges, and potential side effects like muscle and bone density loss.
- Community and Connection Matter: Group education and shared experiences often lead to better health outcomes. Patients learn valuable real-world tips from one another and realize they aren't alone in their struggles.
Resources Mentioned
- Cozy Earth: cozyearth.com (Use code: juice box)
- Omnipod 5: omnipod.com/juicebox
- Dexcom G7: dexcom.com/juicebox
- Touched by Type 1: touchedbytype1.org
- Tandem Mobi: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Contour Next Gen Meter: contournext.com/juicebox
- Medtronic Diabetes (MiniMed 780G): medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Juice Cruise 2026: juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
Welcome & Sponsor Messages
Scott Benner Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. Welcome.
Julie Hi. My name is Julie. I am a pharmacist at Medical Arts Pharmacy in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and, I'm also a diabetes educator and the mom of a type one diabetic son.
Scott Benner If your loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're seeking a clear practical perspective, check out the Bold Beginnings series on the Juice Box podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over thirty five years of personal insight into type one. Our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions. You'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juice Box podcast.
Scott Benner The bold beginning series and all of the collections in the Juice Box podcast are available in your audio app and at juiceboxpodcast.com in the menu. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. You can use my offer code juice box at checkout to save 20% off of your entire order at cozyearth.com.
Scott Benner Everything from the joggers that I'm actually wearing right now to the sheets I sleep on, the towels I use to dry myself with, and whatever else is available at cozyearth.com. Just use the offer code juice box at checkout. Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. The podcast is also sponsored today by the Dexcom g seven, the same CGM that my daughter wears.
A Shocking Diagnosis for a Pharmacist Mom
Scott Benner Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox.
Julie Hi. My name is Julie. I am a pharmacist at Medical Arts Pharmacy in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And, I'm also a diabetes educator and the mom of a type one diabetic son.
Scott Benner Wow. Julie, that's a lot going on. Let's figure it out. How old is how old is that son, and how many other kids, if any, do you have?
Julie So he is 19, diagnosed when he was 15 just before his sixteenth birthday. And, then I also have an older son who is 22.
Scott Benner Okay. And, any other autoimmune issues in the family?
Julie Not really on my side of the family. My, my husband, has an aunt who had autoimmune issues. He has a half brother who, had, type one diabetes. So I think it comes from his side of the family. Yeah.
Scott Benner I mean, listen, Julie, it's fair. Go ahead and blame him for a second.
Julie Get let's get that
Scott Benner let's get that killed off you if we can. Okay?
Julie Well, he he he would agree. So
Scott Benner Oh, listen. Still, it's worth saying if it makes you feel better. So the, the aunt with issues, do you know what they are?
Julie Not in total. I mean, I think she had I wanna say she had type two diabetes. She's other than that, I'm not exactly sure.
Scott Benner Oh, so autoimmune wise, like, she doesn't like celiac or thyroid or anything like that?
Julie I I'm honestly not sure.
Scott Benner For sure.
Julie No. We we she lives, she lived in Michigan. She she's actually passed away, but she lived in Michigan. We we barely saw her, so I didn't know the extent of it. But it was his half brother that he had several autoimmune.
Scott Benner Oh, okay.
Julie Type type one being the the main one, but he also had some, I think, psoriasis and and things like that.
Scott Benner Gotcha. A half brother on his father or mother's side?
Julie Mother's.
Scott Benner Mother's side. Okay. And let's see. You were two kids, type one diabetes with the youngest, but nothing else?
Julie Yeah. I mean, my my husband has some autoimmune things, but not anything well
Scott Benner What's he have? Yeah.
Julie He does he does have autoimmune issues as well. Not diabetes, but yeah.
Scott Benner We would you share with me what they are?
Julie We just discovered actually that he has, thyroid hypothyroidism, and then, he also has sort of colitis.
Scott Benner And is that something he it's been throughout his life?
Julie Since he's been about 22, I believe.
Scott Benner Okay.
Julie 22, 23.
Scott Benner So a lot of bathroom visits throughout his life, but we just, like
Julie Unfortunately, a lot lots of colonoscopies, which, he's not
Scott Benner Thrilled about?
Julie Enjoyed very much. Yeah.
Scott Benner It's it's all about your frame of mind, Julie.
Julie So Yeah.
Scott Benner The thyroid, how did you figure it out? Was his did his mood change? Was he having trouble getting rested? What what
Julie No. Yeah. He did, feel like he, more than anything, just was low on energy, but, you know, it wasn't something that he sought out lab work for. He just you know, we went for annual wellness checkup, and it it he tested low. And so it was like, oh, well, that may be part of the explanation.
Julie So
Scott Benner Awesome. Did it help the Synthroid?
Julie Yeah. I I believe so. Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Did you notice anything, you know, like, personally personally about about him change or is it more about his his energy?
Julie I think it was mostly about his energy. Okay.
Scott Benner Yeah. Okay. Well, I appreciate you sharing that with me. So let's see. Your son was diagnosed about three years ago.
Julie Yes.
Scott Benner How did you notice that? What what were the, signs?
Julie Yeah. So that was it was kind of crazy because he's he was 15. I didn't know that he was going to the bathroom probably a lot more than he, was before and drinking a lot more water. I noticed that he was tired a lot. And my my husband, we took, you know, the first day of school picture, and he was like, he looks so skinny.
Julie And I was like, well, you know, he's he's had a growth spurt. So, you know, he'll fill out. It'll it'll be fine. And in the midst of this, I was literally becoming accredited to be a diabetes educator. So
Scott Benner Seriously?
Julie Seriously. Yes. So then I don't I can't tell you what prompted it. But one night, I came home from work, and I said of course, I'm I had a I had a glucometer at home because I'm a a pharmacist nerd and, you know, I just test everybody's blood sugar once in a while just for the heck of it. And so I I said, let's let's just check your blood sugar.
Julie And we checked it, and it was 578. So I said, okay. Let's check it again because I think maybe that's a mistake. And so we checked it again, and it just said high because it only goes to 600
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Julie I suppose. I said, well, let me check mine. And it was one nineteen. We just eaten. So we checked this again.
Scott Benner High.
Julie Julie Julie's like, then I checked this blood sugar 63 more times. Was truly in denial. I I mean, I knew the first time I was like, this explains a lot. And but I didn't wanna really admit it to myself. And so after after checking it three or four times, and we headed to the local children's hospital ER.
Scott Benner After you yelled through the house, hey, poop boy. See what your aunt did? Right.
Julie Right. No.
Scott Benner But but
Julie but Yeah. No. I was like, he was we were we were both we were all in shock. But, yeah, we went to the ER, and he wasn't in DKA, thankfully.
Scott Benner We He did catch him pretty quick.
Julie Yeah. He was I mean, he was close. And, I mean, looking back, you know, in retrospect, I think that he had had COVID, in June and, of that year, and this was October. And I think that was sort of the trigger. If it hadn't have been that, it probably would have been something else.
Julie Something else. Know that, but that's just my best guess.
Scott Benner Let me ask you the the things that you said. You said that explains it. Explains what what had you been seeing.
Julie So mainly the the tiredness and the just he looks very skinny.
Scott Benner Yeah. Nothing else for that.
Julie I had tried to, you know
Scott Benner Justify. Because you said nature's been stretching him. This is makes this makes a ton of sense.
Julie Yes. And then I started remembering I would take him to tennis, and he said, well, I've gotta stop and fill up my water bottle and go to the bathroom first before I even get on the tennis court.
Scott Benner And I
Julie was like, we just got here from home.
Scott Benner And
Julie it it didn't ring any bells at that time, but then later, you know, in looking back
Scott Benner You start putting the pieces together.
Julie I started putting the pieces together. Yes. Like, he had never come home with an empty water bottle from high school before.
Scott Benner I know. You're praying they'll drink water, and they never go the point.
Julie And and every day, it was completely empty.
The Dual Role: Pharmacist and Diabetes Educator
Scott Benner Tell me something. You, you know, been a pharmacist. Can you tell me how old you are now?
Julie I am 50.
Scott Benner Okay. So you've been a pharmacist since you I'm guessing you got out of college?
Julie Yeah. So pharmacy school. So I I graduated pharmacy school in 2001. So
Scott Benner Okay.
Julie Yeah. So it'll be my coming up on twenty five years as a pharmacist.
Scott Benner But that makes it your silver anniversary. Is that right?
Julie Yeah. I know.
Scott Benner I think you're I think you get a tea set.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner So so you're doing that for twenty five years. Right. What prompted you to wanna be a diabetes educator?
Julie You know, it's interesting because it wasn't obviously, that when I decided to do that, I had no idea that my son had diabetes. Yeah. But my my pharmacy, actually, we sort of stumbled into actually getting involved in in the Omnipod world because we are a pharmacy that does medical billing, and and Omnipod was running into some roadblocks with getting it covered through pharmacy benefit for some patients. And so they asked us, can you medical bill it? And we said, hey.
Julie We'll give it a shot. And, we did, and then we just started working with the Omnipod rep. And so we were we were very started getting very involved in the diabetes community, and then I it just was sort of a good fit, we felt like, for our pharmacy to kind of make that a focus. Right. So yeah.
Scott Benner Was it a business decision, or did you feel some sort of kindred spirit towards it as well?
Julie I think it was a little of both. Diabetes has always been a very interesting disease state to me. One that I felt I I thought one that I thought I knew a lot about, and I felt really comfortable in that space, of course, until he was diagnosed. And then I I didn't know what I didn't know. It was that was that was really interesting.
Scott Benner Pee people used to come up to you and be like, Julie, tell me about diabetes. You say, well, let me just sit back and explain it to you. And then your son was diagnosed, and you're like, I don't know. Don't ask me.
Julie Right. Yeah. It was very humbling. And, you know, when they they roll in the whiteboard with all the carb counting and correction factor calculations, I was like, I gotta I gotta go for a walk.
Scott Benner He's old enough. He'll be okay. I gotta I mean, I'm good.
Julie Yeah. No. Well yeah. And and honestly, like, he he was like he took one look at it, and he's like, I got this. So he was he really took it in stride way more than his dad and I did.
Julie Like, we we were, our our worlds were turned upside down, I feel like. I felt like I was bringing home a newborn newborn baby from the hospital, truly.
Scott Benner Even though you're a bit of a veteran parent at that point. Right? I mean, because if he if he's 16, that means your other son was is three years older already. Right?
Julie Yeah. Yeah. He's uh-huh.
Scott Benner Yeah. You're, like, two kids are, like, you're like, these kids are going to college and, like, we're gonna go live our lives. This is a whole thing that's happening. Right? And then you're, I don't know what I'm doing anymore and we're starting over.
Julie Yes.
Scott Benner Oh, jeez.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner Did it hit your husband and you differently?
Julie I think so. He's my husband is a a physician and not in the diabetes world, but, he's a physician. And so he you know, everything was from a medical perspective. He starts thinking about, okay, you know, complications. We gotta we gotta make sure you're on a routine.
Julie We gotta you know, he was worried about just all of the the medical side of things. Think and I was too, of course. I'm in the medical field, but I think it was possibly a little more emotional for me as a mom. Just, you know, the the the the worry, the worry dial gets cranked up quite a bit. It's already there, but it definitely, got cranked up quite a bit.
Scott Benner Would you, talk a little more about that for me? Tell me how you were feeling and what you did to get through it.
Julie Well, yeah. So I I mean, it was almost kind of a sense of grief, I would say. You know, grief for him because this is like, you know, he's not gonna and and my husband felt a sense of that too. Like, he can't just be a regular kid anymore or a regular teenager, that he has to, you know, now be thinking about this all the time. And and and so that was part of it.
Julie And then just for me, as soon as he was discharged being a pharmacist, I went straight to my pharmacy, and I was like, I'm putting him on a Dexcom. I'll worry about the prior authorization stuff later, but I wanna continue his glucose monitor. I they wanted us to do finger sticks for two weeks. I'm like, I'll do that, but I've gotta have a Dexcom and the follow app and all of the things. And yeah.
Julie No. I just mostly worry and and sadness for him and just not being able to be a regular kid and and and also just, it just felt overwhelming.
Scott Benner Yeah. Okay. So you said there he was. He's not gonna have a normal life anymore, but it's three years later. Did any of that prove out to be true?
Scott Benner Or where are you at today? Like, does it feel like he doesn't have a normal life, or does it feel like you figured something out?
Sponsor Break: Dexcom & Omnipod
Scott Benner The Dexcom g seven is sponsoring this episode of the Juice Box podcast, and it features a lightning fast thirty minute warm up time. That's right. From the time you put on the Dexcom g seven till the time you're getting readings, thirty minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a twelve hour grace period, so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you.
Scott Benner All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable, and light, these things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g seven a no brainer. The Dexcom g seven comes with way more than just this. (14:55) Up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances and, this might be the best part.
Scott Benner It might be the best part. Alerts and alarms that are customizable so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Dexcom and all the sponsors.
Scott Benner When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful. Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod. We talk a lot about ways to lower your a one c on this podcast. Did you know that the Omnipod five was shown to lower a one c? That's right.
Scott Benner Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system, and it was shown to significantly improve a one c end time and range for people with type one diabetes when they switched from daily injections. My daughter is about to turn 21 years old, and she has been wearing an Omnipod every day since she was four. It has been a friend to our family, and I think it could be a friend to yours. If you're ready to try Omnipod five for yourself or your family, use my link now to get started. Omnipod.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner Get that free Omnipod five starter kit today. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Navigating the Teenage T1D Years
Julie No. I mean, I I would say that, you know, just like when you have a baby and and you feel like you're never gonna sleep again, same thing here. Like, I felt like we're gonna be spending thirty minutes calculating insulin doses before every meal, and he's taken it in stride for the most part. You know, it's not easy. And and, you know, I would like to say as a diabetes educator and pharmacist that I I've got it all figured out and and and that he doesn't have highs and lows, and he just coast along with a 100% time and range every day.
Julie But, no, not so much. For the most part, yeah, he lives a normal life. He's he's a freshman in college now. He enjoys, you know, the the the things that normal teenagers enjoy, video games and all that. He enjoys playing tennis still.
Julie He all of those things. So I would say, yeah. He has a normal life, but but it's still always at the back of my mind, and I'm sure it's back of his to some degree, although sometimes not as much as it should be. I get frustrated with him sometimes.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. Listen. You would have gotten frustrated with him even if he didn't have diabetes, I bet you.
Julie Oh, yeah. Definitely. Very true.
Scott Benner How does this experience of seeing him live with it, watching the things that your husband went through, experiencing what you went through, is that helping you in your job? Like, you say you're a diabetes educator, but, like, day to day, what is it you do, and and has your experience been valuable in that?
Julie Absolutely. Yeah. So I I think that it goes both ways. I think it makes me, more empathetic as a as a pharmacist in general, but also working with diabetes patients. I'm like, I I get it.
Julie I did not get it before. I could talk about all the, you know, the medications and the technical things, but and the eating and and exercise and everything. But in terms of, you know, just the coping and emotional side of it, like, I I didn't get that part. So it definitely puts a different spin on that. But it it on the on the flip side of that, I learn a lot from the patients that I have worked with.
Julie The the the groups that I've gotten involved with, Breakthrough t one d is great, and other mom, other parents, just all of that. I think I've I've I've learned ways to help him. In fact, I was listening to a few of I went back and listened to to your Omnipod episodes because I was like, he has a lot of lows in the middle of the night still, and it it but it's because he's 19 and he stays up till 4AM and gets hungry and eats and then takes an insulin dose and goes to bed. Goes to sleep. Because I don't fix this high blood sugar.
Julie Do what?
Scott Benner He said, I'll fix this high blood sugar. Gives himself a bunch of insulin and goes to bed. Right?
Julie Yeah. Or or he'll eat something and, you know, I've, from less you know, it's like that time of night, you know, he's gonna be more sensitive to the insulin, and so he's he doesn't probably doesn't need as much. And so you wouldn't think you would need a insulin to carb ratio difference at, you know, between 10PM and 4AM. But you know what? I set one for one to fourteen.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Julie And during the day, his is, like, one to eight or one to nine.
Scott Benner When you say you wouldn't think you'd need a different one, why would you think you wouldn't need a different one?
Julie Well, because most people aren't sleeping or aren't eating in the middle of the night.
Scott Benner So maybe they all need it. They just don't know because they don't eat in the middle of the night.
Julie Maybe. Oh, but, yeah, I I just did that, like, three days ago. I I didn't do it. I told I told him, please do let's just try this and see what happens.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Julie So far so good. So I don't know. I think maybe that might be at least something that that helps all of us get some more sleep.
Scott Benner Right.
Julie I haven't been able to turn the the the follow-up off just yet. So I don't know.
Scott Benner Why would you want to?
Julie I don't know. I mean, I guess I I don't know. Part of me says he's an adult, and I I want I want him to be able to manage it. But part of me says, you know, nobody else is looking out for him other than him, and and he might sleep through. And so
Scott Benner So let me say this. I've talked to adults who Uh-huh. You know, vary in every decade of age, and, you know, they all mostly tell me, I wish somebody could watch my blood sugar for me. It's funny. The people who have somebody watching their blood sugar for them Uh-huh.
Scott Benner Will say, I don't need anyone's help. And Right. You know, and bought and, you know, it's a I don't want people watching me and blah blah blah. The people who don't have somebody helping them are like, oh, I wish somebody would help me.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner People are fickle. That's what They are.
Julie You always want what you can't have.
Scott Benner Well, you know what? I think that's the saying for a reason, probably.
Julie Yeah. I think you're right. I think you're right. Because we, you know, we bug them. We'll we'll we'll text them at 03:00.
Julie Hey. Are you up getting something to eat or drink? And he'll you know, I'm surprised he didn't send us just a bunch of eye roll emojis. Do
Scott Benner you seem to have a good relationship? Like, are you comfortable with the back and forth that's going on with it? Friends, I just placed my order at cozyearth.com. They're today's sponsor, and I'm here to tell you about them. Use my offer code juice box at checkout when you buy, and you'll save 20% off of your entire order.
Scott Benner That's everything in your cart at cozyearth.com. Save 20% with the offer code juice box. Now why am I excited? Well, I just ordered the cozy earth blanket. It's the viscose bamboo blanket.
Scott Benner I'm super excited about it. It looks comfy as can be, it's gonna go so well with the sheets that we already have from Cozy Earth. Now, yeah, I'm a bit of a a Cozy Earth convert, I guess. I'm sitting here in my joggers. I used my towels coming out of the shower this morning.
Scott Benner I slept on my sheets last night. Slept like a baby, by the way. Cozyearth.com. They pretty much have everything you want. Use the offer code juice box to save 20% at checkout on skin care, women's and men's clothing, bath and sleeping accessories.
Scott Benner And don't forget, Valentine's Day is coming up quickly. Get those pajamas. Cozyearth.com. Use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 20% off of your entire order.
Julie Yes. And and I think that he understands the why behind what we're doing. Obviously, you want you want your kids to listen to you whether they have diabetes or not. Right? But when they're teenagers, they they think they know everything.
Julie I took him to a a diabetes educator that's not me because I wanted someone else to echo what I was saying so he would not think that I'm an idiot, basically.
Scott Benner What were you telling him?
Julie Well, just the that he needed to to eat more real food, that he needed to have a routine, that he needed to have more balance in his in his meals in terms of carbs and vegetables and proteins and all of that. He he's he's always super picky. You know, it's it's hard to get him to to eat a lot of different things. But yeah. Just
Scott Benner Is his biggest issue the quality of the food that he eats?
Julie I think that's a lot of it. Yeah.
Scott Benner How long has that been the issue?
Julie With his diabetes or just in in his life?
Scott Benner However whatever amount of time that occurs to you to say that. Like, you so because Forever. So then can I ask a difficult question?
Julie Sure.
Scott Benner Who buys the food?
Julie Well, that's that's a fair point. Yeah. That being said, in college, I have no control over it. And and and at home, at least for dinners, I always made the point of and and even lunches. I packed his lunch, and it was I feel like I packed him a fairly healthy, balanced lunch.
Julie And and and I always, you know, for the most part was the at dinner was like, okay. This is what we're having. And if you don't like it, then you need to learn to cook something else for yourself because I'm not gonna cook, you know, multiple meals at dinner. But I have I mean, I have modified things to make it to more plain, I guess. Yeah.
Julie But but yeah. No. I I do at least try to get him to to eat healthy and and and put the food in front of him, and I've always said that.
Scott Benner Do you eat that way?
Julie Yeah. For the most part. I mean, I I can't say I'm I eat perfectly, but, yeah, I feel like I eat pretty healthily, and I've always it's it's been important to model that for our
Scott Benner That's why I was wondering. Like, are you you're modeling that behavior, it's just he's just not picking it up. Does your husband eat similarly, or does your husband not well?
Julie He probably he honestly probably eats healthier than me. Gotcha.
Scott Benner But the damn kid won't listen, you tell him.
Julie Right. Yeah. But no. Yeah. We've I'm I'm the primary cook, and so it's always been yeah.
Julie It was like, okay. You know, I'll make you some mac and cheese. I was that mom who would I would puree squash and spinach and
Scott Benner You're trying hard.
Julie To get in there, yeah, to get some vegetables in them. So
Scott Benner Well So let me ask you a different question then. Sure. If that's just how he eats Yeah. Then what is the outcome that you're like, you know, you're telling him, please don't eat that way. You're telling him, I'm assuming, a, for nutrition and just quality of food, but b, it's Right.
Scott Benner It's difficult with his diabetes. Right? Mhmm. Yeah. What makes it difficult?
Scott Benner Because, you know, my kid doesn't always eat very well, but, like, we kinda bolus around it and everything. Is he not doing something else that would lead to success even with that food?
Julie I think he's pretty good at, you know if if he's gonna sit down and eat, you know, half a bag of marshmallows or something, just get
Scott Benner Has that happened?
Julie Which I mean, probably. Yeah. I mean, where, you know, he he does he doesn't he goes all in when he eats something, you know, or or, you know, half a bag of chips, whatever it is. Like, he does a pretty good job of of, you know, pre bolusing and with time, you know, earlier if he's just gonna have carbs and and and counting the carbs pretty well. So so he he he does a pretty good job of managing for what he eats.
Julie It it's more just the quality of it, and, like, it would be easier and we feel like if if he would you know? And just better for him if he would just eat better food.
Scott Benner Well, I mean, listen. I agree with you. I'm not saying that. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner What what what I'm interested in is, you know I mean, listen. It's a so it's an interesting juxtaposition. Right? You're a diabetes educator.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner I'm jumping to the the conclusion that you know how to handle, like, carby or, you know, processed foods as as a, you know, as a person bolusing for them and that you guys so is it a situation where if he's bolusing for it, it doesn't go well, but if you were to bolus for it, it would go well? Or is it just physiological where, like, no matter what you do, you kinda can't make it work? By work, I mean, no big spike in a meal, no low later. That that's all I'm talking about.
Julie I think he probably, honestly, does better than I would in terms of pre bola thing instead. I think it's more about, you know, the physiologically and, you know, I as you know and, yeah, as I've learned that there's so many you know, he's a teenager with hormones and all that.
Scott Benner And It's a lot.
Julie There's just lots going on. Stress, school stress, and so it's hard to I'm trying to learn. I'm actually listening to that that that thing like a pancreas right now on audio audible. But just trying to factor all those different things in. I I don't I think we're both sort of fig trying to figure that out.
Scott Benner So Have you heard the pro tip series in the podcast?
Julie Some of it. Oh. But I I need to work my way through it more. Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Has he? Or did you show him
Julie Well, I have I have I have shared it. Believe believe me. I've I've I share episodes with him all the time. I I tell him, go listen to this podcast. Listen to this book on Audible.
Julie I don't know if he listens to any follow this person on Instagram because they really have a lot of good advice. I don't know if he listens to anything I say.
Scott Benner Have you have you tried saying, hey. Listen to this series podcast, and if you do, I'll pay your tuition? Or you could come home and
Julie ship a sale, baby. I we're already paying his tuition. So Oh, let's But, yo, I could probably make it. I could come up with another deal though.
Scott Benner I I swipes his card for food and there's no money there and you go, oh. Oh. Oh, did you want money? Right.
Julie Right. Did you want me to pay for your gas maybe for for the next six months?
Scott Benner Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How would you like to drive again?
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner No. But but seriously, like, what a tough time, like, diagnosed at 16.
Julie Yes.
Scott Benner Right in the middle of high school towards ending high school off to college. Did he go away to school or is he at least local?
Julie He is local. So that that gives me a little more peace of mind for sure.
Scott Benner Local sleeping away or local comes back to the house every day?
Julie Well, I know he's in the dorm. He comes home a lot of weekends, but but he does mostly he's in the dorm.
Scott Benner He come home with his laundry?
Julie You know, he doesn't come home with like
Scott Benner He might like you then. That's nice.
Julie He has yet to bring his sheets home with the so I'm like, please tell me that's not because you haven't washed them. And he assures me because he's texted me on how to how to manage it. But he assures me he's watched them at least a couple of times. So
Scott Benner At least a couple of times. That's right. He's a senior. Right? No.
Scott Benner I'm just kidding.
Julie Freshman. Yeah. Right.
The Pharmacy & The Truth About GLP-1s and Type 2 Diabetes
Scott Benner Well, it's I mean, it's all it's very, very interesting. So when you do your job, are you doing it in a health care facility? Are you doing it for a company? Like, how do how do you like, what does your job entail?
Julie My pharmacy has a, actually has a class room. And so we have a a a space to to to offer the education. And so we just we depend on referrals from physicians, and we've sort of made the rounds to let them know we do this. And it it kind of ebbs and flows in terms of having patients to to provide the education. But, yeah, we have we actually have the facility there there in the pharmacy.
Scott Benner How'd you get your 10,000 isn't it I don't know how many hours this How many hour how many hours you need to become a a diabetes educator? But how did you get those hours? Did you work where like, where'd you do the work?
Julie So there's a certified diabetes educator, which you have to get, like, I I believe a thousand hours and take a test, to be a certified diabetes educator.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Julie Recently, I don't know, in the last couple of years, they've decided pharmacists, like, have the knowledge base to educate on diabetes, but we still need to be accredited. So I didn't have to get all those a thousand hours to be a certified diabetes educator. So I'm like, I think it's just like a diabetes care and education specialist, but I'm not a certified diabetes educator. Okay.
Scott Benner So I see. So your Yeah. Your previous schooling made up for some of it, then you do what? Did you do classroom work, or how did you get the rest of it?
Julie Well no. So it was all, just there's an accreditation process where you just kind of work through, like, what are the different modules you need to teach when you're teaching someone about diabetes? And then and I and I have to and I get I have to get fifteen hours of continuing education every year that are diabetes focused for this to and just to keep up with with, you know, all the all the changes and everything. Right.
Scott Benner I would like someone to send me that accreditation in the mail right now.
Julie I can email you my certificate.
Scott Benner No. No. I want my own. I I want people to listen to the podcast and go, okay. And then just give it to me.
Julie Probably earned it. I I think you have enough hours that you definitely earned it. And and, like, you you really truly give, some great advice and have some great guests. So I
Scott Benner You're very nice.
Julie I
Scott Benner I would not do the fifteen hours of continuing education. I would lose it the first year. Well,
Julie what what stinks is, like, I have to get fifteen hours for pharmacy too. And and, anyway, it doesn't and and some of it doesn't have it has to be another thing. So I end up getting, like, twice as much as I have to, which is really
Scott Benner Oh, is it valuable though? Do you find it to be valuable, or is it part
Julie of the do find it to be valuable. I do. Definitely. And and so and I'm also I also am doing the insurance. I have an insurance licensed insurance agent as well, and that's I know that sounds crazy, but it actually help our patients understand insurance more, mostly Medicare.
Julie But we do a lot of helping people jump through the hoops of getting things covered, which is a huge problem in diabetes as I'm sure you're aware. That's one of the reasons why, like, we're we try to be kind of a go to place because we chains tells you they can't fill something, we'll just come to us, and we'll we'll problem solve it to death to make it work.
Scott Benner So else is going on in the back of that farm? Is you guys got cock fighting and card games back there too? Or what what else? Jeez.
Julie Yeah. We've got all kinds of stuff. Yeah. We do a little bit of everything. Yeah.
Scott Benner My god. There's a dice I think there's a dice game back there for sure. Yeah. But is that a byproduct of, like, small town, like, living, like, trying to put a lot of services in one place for people?
Julie I would say so. And and just part of it is, independent pharmacy or local pharmacy is a is becoming a dying breed for a lot of reasons that would take me hours to explain, and you and you'd probably fall asleep listening to it. But we have to be creative and innovative in what we do to to stay alive and and get the privilege of of doing that in something that I enjoy. So so, yeah, it's it's not just about dispensing medications. It's it's more to us about taking care of our patients.
Julie And so that means, you know, educating them on diabetes. That means helping them pick an insurance plan. That means helping them problem solve insurance issues, getting their Omnipods or CGMs covered and teaching them how to use it, whatever, you know, whatever they need. So yeah.
Scott Benner So it's almost like a community center, but for for health issues. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Because I guess once they're done, what is the real finding here?
Scott Benner Like, let's be honest for a second, Joy. They go to the hospital, they get a basic overview that's probably not very valuable, then they go to a doctor who's what not as not very valuable too, who then passes them off to you and says, hey, try to help these people. Is that the is that the process?
Julie Yeah. I mean, generally, of course, in the setting that I'm in, I'm mainly seeing type two people with type two diabetes.
Scott Benner Okay.
Julie You're automatically gonna be seeing an endocrinologist. Not everybody gets fabulous care when you're they're type one, but you get more attention for sure. In type two, it's like, stop eating the white stuff, get some exercise, and, you know, here's a prescription for metformin. Have a nice day.
Scott Benner Wow. It's no cookies, crackers, or cake. Here's your metformin. Good luck.
Julie Yeah. No no cookies, cake, pasta, or bread. Stop eating that stuff and and have yeah. I mean, they they it's it's very, very limited. Partly because they just don't have time.
Julie Yeah. I mean, there's just only so much they can fit in, and so that's where I try to come in and and and be more thorough and and really give them some more tools.
Scott Benner Are you seeing doctors talking to type twos about GLPs, or is that not even commonplace at this point?
Julie Oh, yeah. A type twos or type
Scott Benner Type twos?
Julie Oh, yeah. Yeah. We yes. We very commonplace. Okay.
Julie We yep. I see I see GLPs a lot.
Scott Benner Are people using them? Are they staying on them? Are they having success with them?
Julie For the most part, yeah. I mean, unless you have the you you we have some people who you you can't tolerate them because of the nausea and whatnot. But, I would say with especially people that want to lose weight, they love them, and they never want to get off of them. The the biggest the biggest hurdle is the expense. And then with pharmacies, believe it or not, we actually struggle because we insurance companies often pay us literally $100 less than what it costs us to buy it.
Julie So
Scott Benner How does that work?
Julie Don't get me started. They that's a good question, but
Scott Benner that's that's that's that's
Julie that's that's the way that our health system works. It's it's not good. So so yeah. So we end up, a lot of times, having to we we can't do this, or or we'll we'll go out of business if we lose money on every prescription we fill. Right?
Julie So we have to get it somewhere else, I basically. But, yeah, they they are very widely prescribed, and and and and we're seeing a lot of people that literally have type one and type two. You have type one for so long and and then develop that insulin resistance. And so we have type one people with type one diabetes that are on insulin, and they have been for thirty years. And then they're starting to put them on GLPs and and on Yeah.
Julie Other medications. Yeah.
Scott Benner Well, I'll I'll say that I don't think you you don't have to have had type one diabetes for a very long time to have insulin resistance as well. Sure. Yeah. I think you're gonna see more and more people diagnosed with, like, you know, they'll call it type one and type two or something like that, you know, insulin resistance with type one diabetes. However, they're gonna end up talking about it, but I think that could happen for you.
Scott Benner I don't think that has I mean, not that it couldn't become worse over time for some people, but I think that's a common way that people thought of it in the past, but now you're seeing, you know, my I mean, my daughter has insulin resistance. Without a GLP, she uses 30% more insulin. Wow. You know, I've seen it with other young kids. I've seen it with adults.
Scott Benner You know, it I I think it's I don't know. Brought to light more and more as the days go by. But it's it's just interesting to hear you talking about it from, like, an on the ground perspective.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner Is the whole thing just sounds a little bit can I be candid? It sounds like a mess.
Julie It is. As a honestly, it has a best description.
Scott Benner Yeah. Yeah. And then and then there's people like you who are like, look, I have got some background in this. You know, I I'm a I'm gonna try to help people. Like, hopefully, we can get them in here and get them going in the right direction and give them the stuff that they need and help them understand what's going on.
Scott Benner But still in all, it just really feels like a twister going on. And you're just reaching up into the dirty air trying to grab someone up and go, hey. You know what you could do? Try this. And then, like, let them go back into the funnel again.
Scott Benner You know?
Julie Right. Yeah.
Scott Benner Is there a clear path to how that doesn't need to happen? Like, forget the excuses. Like, they don't have time or they don't like like, where would where should we be intersecting these people so that they don't get to the point where they're like, well, maybe the nice lady at the pharmacy can help?
Julie I don't know. And and I've been asking myself that question and and trying to figure that out because that is a an issue. Like, you know, even even if I got 20 referrals tomorrow, you know, how many of those people are they'll show up for the first visit, and then slowly, they they stop coming to classes. And like you said, they don't they the excuses come in. And and so, you know, I wish I had the answer.
Julie I don't know if it's some kind of incentive. I don't like using scare tactics. I don't think that's the way to go. So
Scott Benner Can I ask a question?
Julie Yeah. It
Scott Benner might be hard to answer. Is that okay?
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner Did they not come back because they don't find the classes valuable?
Julie Well, I hope that's not the reason because I what I I will say what I have found is that the classes that have stayed together because I I I'd meet with everybody one on one for for an hour, hour and a half, hear their story. And then I get a group of at least four people, sometimes more together, and we have, you know, group classes. And so the groups that stay together and make it to the end are groups that mesh together from the first class. So I I think that that may have something to do with it. And so part of what we're trying to do is maybe offer, like, some support groups or something like that.
Julie There's there's a lot out there for type one diabetes, but not a whole lot for type two diabetes with type support with groups and stuff. And so I don't know. You know? I we we've tried a lot of different things. I I think that they find the information viable, but sometimes it's it may be somebody that's been diagnosed for twenty years, and they they want the cliff notes, I think.
Julie You know? They want the the, which a lot of people if young people don't even know what that is, I guess.
Scott Benner But No. They know.
Julie They want the fast version. Yeah. It's got something
Scott Benner to do with cheating. They understand what it is.
Julie Right. Yeah. They they want the chat GBT version. How's that?
Scott Benner Yeah.
Julie No. But they they want the the the quick and easy just just sum it up for me in in a couple hours and let me go on my way.
Scott Benner Why don't you do that?
Julie Well, I I for a what it's considered a follow-up, I guess, but I've started to consider that being kind of one of the the methods I I go by because Medicare's model is ten hours of first time education. That's a lot of time.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Julie There's a lot to cover, and you really get into the weeds and and a lot of and it is valuable information, but but even that can be overwhelming.
Scott Benner Is it necessary or valuable? Because let let me ask you a question. Yeah. Do you care if they understand it as long as they're having good health outcomes? You know what I mean?
Scott Benner Like, like,
Julie it's No. I mean yeah. That's fair. Like Yeah. I don't I don't I I guess the answer is no, but in a sense, I feel like if if they're if they are given the the tools to to truly be able to manage it themselves, then I mean, I've had classes where they've had good outcomes from the start to the finish great outcomes from the start to the finish.
Julie Now what happens after that, you know, I don't necessarily know, but I feel like, you know, arming them with that information is very valuable. Now whether is ten hours necessary? I don't know the answer to that. But but, yeah, I think that there's there's something to be said for, like, maybe trying, you know, a a shorter
Scott Benner Brief focus. Shorter
Julie yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Trigger points. Yeah. Exactly.
Scott Benner Do you think it's over people's heads sometimes? Do you think that it's overwhelming sometimes? Or like, because it seems to me that the funnel is is that the, you know, whatever the governing body is is telling you that this is the education you have to give to people. And then you're saying, well, if they come back, they get it. And if they stick together, they do better.
Scott Benner Mhmm. But, you know, I guess I'm asking you, like, if you were the governing body, would you tell them they need these ten hours? Or or do you think that's not the path?
Julie To me, it's not about the time. To me, it's more about the value they're getting from the information. And so I do I think that it requires ten hours to get the important points across? Not necessarily. Right.
Julie For some people, maybe, but not for everybody. But I think that, you know, that that people learn the important points better when they are in a setting with other people that they can, you know, you know Jive with. Questions. Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Feel comfortable. Like, they Right.
Julie They share each other stories with each other, and they get ideas from each other, and share recipes, and all of those things. And so that
Scott Benner Helps.
Julie Is really valuable.
Scott Benner Do people, generally speaking, do you find not understand food? Meaning, like, the difference between good and bad and the impacts of fat, protein, carbs? Like, do is are they really lost about the science behind food?
Julie I would say so. Yes. I mean, I I think that just like the whole the quick don't eat don't eat sweets and don't eat pasta and bread and potatoes, is is kind of what is in their mind, really, about about that. And so, yeah, understanding that it is a huge part of it, I think.
Combating the Processed Food Trap
Scott Benner You think you feel like the fun police to them when you start talking?
Julie No. Because I don't I I always I I make it a big point if I don't talk about diet. I don't use the word diet. I don't use the word exercise because I think that they get in their head that they have to go on this boring food that doesn't taste good diet. And I'm like, no.
Julie You eat balanced. Eat find food that's good for you that you love. Experiment with different things. Maybe cook things a little bit differently. And if you want to have a little bit of mashed potatoes or a piece of cake, have a piece of cake.
Julie But, you know, maybe leave off the mashed potatoes that night.
Scott Benner Yeah. Don't don't have the mashed potatoes, the cake, and then another piece of
Julie cake later. Yeah. And and a and a bowl of ice cream later. Right. Yeah.
Julie But you don't you know, my to me, like, my message, you don't have to stop eating foods that you enjoy. Like, you you find maybe find foods that are healthy that you enjoy, but also, you know, let your let yourself have have what you want sometimes. Like, that's fine.
Scott Benner So everything in moderation? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. So yeah.
Scott Benner So why don't the t shirt slogans work? Do you like, seriously, like, you're really in the trenches. You're talking to people. Like Yeah. Like, if I put you in charge of the whole thing and I was like, listen.
Scott Benner Jake, just tell me now, Julie. Like, what are we what forget everything else and everything everyone's gotta tell you. I'm I'm giving you two visits with these people because we're not sure if they're gonna come back. Like, what would you tell them in that time?
Julie Oh, wow. I would tell them, wow. Gosh. That's you're putting me on the spot. Let's see.
Scott Benner That's the whole point of this. Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Good. Well, the first thing I would say is move your body every day in some way. It doesn't have to be a marathon. It doesn't have to be a run or even a walk. Just move.
Julie Move your body. Even if you're at a desk job all day, every hour, like, just stand up and
Scott Benner Is that happening? Are people living a life of, like, Wally? Are they sitting in a chair?
Julie I think so.
Scott Benner Yes. Did they tell you that?
Julie Yes. Like, I had I have a I've had several people that like, yeah, I have an office job, and I sit at my desk all day long and except for when I get up to go to lunch or when I leave for the day, and it it's just you know? And I'm like, set it alarm on your phone and just, like, for a minute, just just a minute every hour. Just move around.
Scott Benner Okay.
Julie Something simple like that. If if you have somebody that's older that that has mobility issues, there's chair yoga or there's even you can sit there and and I I mean, I don't care if you sit there and flail your arms and legs around. You're still moving. You know, just move in some way. You're meant to move.
Julie So that would be one of my biggest messages, I think, because I think that's just as important as what you or almost as important anyways what you eat. And then just not only not just everything in moderation, but I was like, like, find food that's good for you that you enjoy. Like, do you enjoy out of people a lot of times things that they didn't realize that they really liked, or maybe if they just roasted it in the oven instead of, you know, covered it in butter and fried it or whatever, that that it actually kinda tastes pretty good that way.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Julie A few different just a few small modifications to the foods that you enjoy and the in the way that you cook them can make a big difference.
Scott Benner Mhmm. Wow. Super interesting. Are they not taught from a young age about the quality of the food that they're eating? Is it all they have access to?
Scott Benner Is it a financial issue? Is it a mix? Is it like, is it ignorance? Is it inability? Like, what what is it exactly?
Julie Yeah. That that's that's the hard part. It's it's it's a little bit of all of that. And so I'll have people tell me, I can't afford to buy fruits and vegetables because that's what's expensive at the grocery store. I mean, everything's expensive at the grocery store.
Scott Benner Can we talk like like like friends for a second, Julie?
Julie Yeah. You bet.
Scott Benner Do you think they're full of shit and they just wanna eat like a ho ho, or do you think they really can't afford a clementine? Which do you think it is? Because I can get a bag of clementines for $4, eat them for a month. Right? Like, so what's the I mean, that sounds pretty cheap to me.
Scott Benner No?
Julie Yeah. Or a bag of apples. Apples are cheap. Bananas are cheap. Although bananas bananas are have a lot of sugar in them.
Julie That's that's probably the the worst fruit, but that's still better than, like, about half a bag of marshmallow.
Scott Benner I just wish you would have said a $5 apple bag, but nevertheless
Julie Oh, gosh.
Scott Benner But but because then I definitely would have called your episode $5 apple bag.
Julie Oh, shoot. No. No.
Scott Benner No. I hear I hear what you're saying though. Like, you know Yeah. Melons, and not even like high sugar stuff either. Like, just Right.
Scott Benner You know, get an avocado. Avocados are expensive, actually.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner They are. And so I take the I mean, I take the point that the money is an issue, but it's funny though, isn't it? Like, you know, like, look at all the money that's going out for the health. It, like Right. Just maybe put that money into the food, but you're saying that it's about I feel like I've heard you say more than once that they want something that tastes good.
Scott Benner So do you think that their
Julie Yes.
Scott Benner Their their palate's been zhuzhed up to a 100 to the point where nothing tastes good anymore? Unless it's, like, got sugar and, you know, high fructose corn syrup on it and nine other, like, sugary things, and then they can taste it?
Julie Yeah. I think that's a big part of it. I mean, I think that you know, it depends on the age and and how and and all and all of that. And so I think there's been a shift. I mean, I don't I know when I was a kid, like or I would go to high school not having had breakfast and eat a bag of M and M's and and and mister Pibb, and that was my breakfast.
Julie That's I I'm embarrassed to say that, but it's true.
Scott Benner Please.
Julie So and it's not that my parents, I mean, didn't provide us with healthy food. I mean, they did, but, the big thing then was, was, low fat and who cares about all the sugar. So
Scott Benner Yeah. You're right age where you got caught up in that you got caught up in that messaging that as long as you eat low fat, you'll be okay. Because it was they thought it was about your heart. Right? Like, now it it seems to be shifting.
Scott Benner I mean, it's been shifting for
Julie a long time. That that's a lot of the problem is that people don't know what to do because it's like, is it the food pyramid? Is it keto diet? Is it the Mediterranean diet? Or, you know, like, what what is the right way to eat?
Julie I don't know because I've been told one thing for ten years, and then all of a sudden it changes. And I don't know I don't know anymore. Doritos taste awesome. So Well, that too.
Scott Benner Well, yeah. Yeah. Right. Because I don't know what to do, but I do know what tastes good, and I also don't have a ton of time. It's not like we're not all sitting around like a Kardashian wondering what to do with our morning.
Scott Benner Right.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner Like, people are getting up. They're hustling to work or school. They're hustling home. They're doing other things. They don't you you they don't have time to sit around and philosophize about about what they're eating.
Julie They Right.
Scott Benner Yeah. You know. It it it's a quick, again, a cyclone. You get you get scooped, dumped into it very quickly. You don't have any time to think about it.
Scott Benner You have bad direction. Probably can't afford it to begin with. And now you're just, you know, whoo. Like, I gotta go. I gotta go until all of a sudden somebody says you're sick, and that's what stops you.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner And they say, hey, you're sick. You know what? What'll fix this? Stop eating all the food you can afford that you've been eating for twenty years that you like. Right.
Scott Benner And I really hope people hear that because I am sometimes stunned by the frequency in which someone will say to me, we went out to dinner. And then they finish that thought by talking about going to a place that I don't think I would not eat at. Yeah. They think of it as a local restaurant Right. Or, you know, like, good food or something.
Scott Benner I'm like, oh my god. That's your it's McDonald's. You're you that's not you shouldn't go there. Yeah. I went over it recently in an episode we did.
Scott Benner We actually did we have a series called bolus four.
Julie Uh-huh.
Scott Benner It just kinda breaks down a food item. Like, here's how you bolus for a potato. Here's how you
Julie Yes.
Scott Benner But we did here's how you bolus for McDonald's. Did it because a lot of people go to McDonald's and they still have to know how to bolus their insulin for it. Right? And I'm going through that website picking through fat, protein, carbs, everything, and some of this stuff, and it's astonishing.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner And then you, like, start talking about, like, you know, like, the reality of it. And the example I used was my wife left recently in the middle of a stressful moment during the day, and she came back with a bag of McDonald's. And I was like, what's going on here? You know? And she's like, things are out of control.
Scott Benner And I was like, okay. She couldn't eat very much of it.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner And she says to me, do you want a chicken nugget? And I was like, when's the last time I had I'll take a chicken nugget. Right? I said, let me let me pair that chicken nugget up with three french fries and a short dip in this, sweet and sour sauce. Yeah.
Scott Benner I take a little bite of that. She and I chat for a while, middle of the day. We're just talking.
Julie Uh-huh.
Scott Benner And then I go to leave. I'm gonna come back upstairs and keep working. It's just, do you want another nugget? And I went, no. And I reached into the box and took one because Yeah.
Scott Benner Both were true, Julie. I did not want one. I was like, let me see about this.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner I bit into that nugget, and it had gotten chilly. And you couldn't distinguish what it was anymore.
Julie Oh, gosh.
Scott Benner And I was like, when it when it was hot and the grease was still a little popping, and you get the salt, I was like, this is chicken because someone told me it was chicken. And five minutes later, I was like, I could not attest to this being chicken right now.
Julie Right. It's like that's you're thinking back to the pink slime
Scott Benner I don't know what I just I went like I went like it. I don't know if you know this noise. Had that right into a napkin and I got rid of it. Right? Yes.
Scott Benner But five minutes before, was like, chicken nugget. And it and Yeah. And I think, like, wow. And at the very least, the argument used to be, like, look. It's not good for you, but it's affordable.
Scott Benner It isn't even affordable now.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner So when the whole world's full of this food Mhmm. You know, I just think telling people, just stop eating stuff that tastes good and go for a walk. And, boy, I'll tell you what, I think twenty years from now, this is all gonna straighten right up for you. You just keep on this path. That's why you're seeing people have so much success with the GLP because they can't eat it or they lose their flavor for it or they can't stomach it, like, literally.
Scott Benner And then I think the one people the people you see go, I can't tolerate this. I am super interested to know what they mean by I can't tolerate this is I kept eating a bunch of crappy food and my belly hurts, so I'm gonna stop because my belly don't hurt when I'm not taking the GLP. Like, if it didn't stop them from eating it, so they're having that slow digestion problem of putting that all that fat in there to begin with. Right. Anyway, that that's sort of my I don't know how you're supposed to fix that from the back of a of a dice game, but good luck.
Julie And I will say that, like, a couple of things. I do talk about like, you were talking about reaching for the chicken nugget when you didn't want it. I say I I tell people, pay attention to mindless eating. Like, we do so much mindless eating, and it's like, enjoy your food. Like, people will sit down like, it's like going to the movies with a bucket of popcorn.
Scott Benner Sure. You're find the bottom.
Julie Are you really even you you can get to the bottom of that bucket of popcorn and and not even really really tasted it or or enjoyed it or realized that you ate it, and you've just consumed, I don't know, how many you know, 3,000 calories and a 100 grams a car or whatever.
Scott Benner And whatever buttery flavored topping it is.
Julie My god. Yeah. It or or just sitting down to to watch a movie at home, and you've got a bag of chips, and and you before you know it or a or a sleeve of Oreos. And before you know it, you've eaten the whole sleeve of Oreos and half a bag of chips. Like, making people aware of of that, of what they're eating and and not mindlessly eating, like, just really taking the time to enjoy their food is one thing.
Julie And then, two, like, I myself shared about my high school breakfast. The more that I have cut out artificial sweetener, which I used to be, like, drink three diet Doctor Peppers a day, I don't have crave sugar as much. That's a real thing. And and so I think that make it a slow process. Don't do anything don't do anything extreme.
Julie I think that's the other message is, you know, don't try to go from zero to 60 in a week. Like, you know, start slowly introducing better foods or slowly you know, if you don't exercise, if you have a desk job that you sit at, you know, eight hours a day, then start by walking down the driveway to your mailbox and back, like, every day for a week.
Scott Benner You're freaking me out with the idea that people don't move at least that much.
Julie I am dead serious. Like like, I you working in in the in where I work, like, we see everything. And, yeah, there are plenty of people that that don't move. But and and I say that. I I should also say that a lot of it is people that are older that that have lost some mobility.
Julie So there is there is that side of it. And and but even they can get some movement. And some of, you know, some of that may be a product of just having bad habits for a long time, but you can always start good habits even if you start them really slowly. Just just make it a slow slow process. And before you know it, you may be walking a mile or two every day.
Julie Who knows? You know? Or you may be you may be eating salads and, grilled chicken, and it tastes good. So yeah. No.
Julie You can I think you can make good food that's good for you tastes good, and and I think everybody can move in some way every day? So
Scott Benner Can I agree and disagree with you at the same time? Watch this. Absolutely. Okay. I think you're right.
Scott Benner And I think that if if that's the thing that we could get people to do, then that would be awesome. And I also think that for some people, and I don't know the percentage of those people, it could be half of them, some of them, most of them, few of them, I don't care. It's not gonna work for them.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner I mean, you and I have discussed a myriad of issues that impact people. Right?
Julie Right.
Scott Benner My thought here is is that people's lives are only so long. Mhmm. If you think about life, like, genuinely, right, what is It's 20 to get going, 20 to live, and the 20 where you die. Right? Yeah.
Scott Benner Honestly, joy. Yeah. The first 20, you're learning stuff, you're growing, you're having fun playing baseball, you're learning how to go to college, whatever. If you're lucky, you get a job in the first few years after high school or college, maybe not even. Even that's being stretched now.
Scott Benner People in their mid twenties are still looking for work. Maybe you're gonna, like, bump into a girl who can tolerate you. You'll bump into her a couple more times and a baby will come out. You'll raise that baby. Now you're 45 or 50 by the time that kid goes off to college or, you know, gets the hell out of your house.
Scott Benner That's about the time your arm starts hurting for reasons you don't understand.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner And then, like it or not, you get older for the the next, like, ten or fifteen years. You're like, I'm gonna I'm gonna live forever. I'm if the 50 is the new 30. And then you get in your mid sixties, you go, holy hell. My and then it's over.
Scott Benner And then you slowly die. Okay. Like so, like, when that's I mean, listen. And that's if you get lucky and don't get cancer.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner So when that's the thing and you start off with a mom who's like, hey, off to school. Here's your mister Pibb and your and your m and m's and you broke free of it. You're eating pretty well. A lot of people won't. And, you know, they don't have the education behind the food.
Scott Benner The food system's set up the way it is. You, a, don't know what you're supposed to be eating and most of the stuff that's being shoved towards you is no good for you anyway. You're putting somebody in a completely unwinnable situation and then you're telling them, why don't you try walking to the mailbox? Mhmm. You know what?
Scott Benner You walked to that goddamn mailbox. You better put that mailbox on the moon because, like, if if because because if that's not what's going on, you're not gonna overcome the landslide of social, psychological, financial bull that's holding you back. And that's why I say, and I'll say it right here and now, save up your money, jam that GLP thing into your and shut off your hunger long enough for you to hopefully be able to reset yourself as I think that might be your only chance.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner All that other stuff needs to get fixed. I don't know how that's all supposed to happen in my short lifetime is my point. Yeah. That's all.
Julie Yeah. Yeah. I and gosh. That's depressing to think about it.
Scott Benner Hey. The truth often is.
Julie That is true. That is true. But no. I and and that's one thing that that, you know, I I worry about with the GLPs is is there a world in which you are able to get off of it because you've gotten in yourself into a a good weight level and and a good
Scott Benner Julie, may I? Better Who cares?
Julie Well, I guess that's a that's a fair that's a fair point.
Scott Benner Right.
Julie But, like, in my pharmacist brain, how long have they been out? I don't know. Not that long. We don't know.
Scott Benner Well, no. No. They've been out they've been out over a decade.
Julie Yeah. Which in the in the pharmacy world is is not I mean, I I guess everything moves pretty fast now.
Scott Benner So I I
Julie forget that. You know, it's it's not that we're not living in the days of penicillin discovery. So but, no, I mean, they're they're finding some some negative things. And so I I guess, you know, that's
Scott Benner a What negative things?
Julie You know, women, who are losing a lot of weight are also losing muscle mass and they're and and then losing bone density. And so that's a big problem because that increases risk of fractures. That brings with it a whole host
Scott Benner of problems. Don't know how to choose between a fracture and a heart attack. Do you?
Julie Yeah. I mean, yeah. I guess yeah. That that's what what can I say?
Scott Benner I know that you can't say anything. I'm not asking you to say anything. Yeah. 2005, by the way, Byetta came out. It's approved.
Scott Benner It's the first GOP.
Julie I knew that the daily one Byetta was the the very first one. I remember that one. It had been out the longest. And then Bydureon, and then I think Victoza may have
Scott Benner been Look at you.
Julie Okay. Still
Scott Benner a day on
Julie you in.
Scott Benner I'll give it to people. Two thousand five. Byetta, two thousand ten. Victoza, twenty twelve. Bydureon, that's the injectable the first time.
Scott Benner Trulicity comes out in 2014. Saxenda yeah. Saxenda comes out in 2014, 2017. Ozempic for all the people who are like, Ozempic, it just came out. Ozempic 2017, that's nine years ago.
Julie That's crazy. It's it's only just recently exploded though.
Scott Benner Yeah. Well, it's because they zhuzhed it up enough that you've, like, people were saying it. And a couple of famous people got thinning. You're like, hey. That chick from the office looks like a twig.
Scott Benner What's going on? Yeah. 2019, Rybelsus. 2021, Wegovy. 2022, Mounjaro.
Scott Benner Yeah. And so, like, it's been around since 2005.
Julie Right. Right.
Scott Benner But my bigger point is the bigger point, which is it's nice to say what we should be doing, but that's not happening. And in that time, people are getting, you know, type two diabetes. Right. They're having a heart attacks, strokes, you know, experiencing all kinds of of different issues, weight related issues that can touch a thousand different things, including, like, inflammation and, like, you know, some people have autoimmune issues that are holding them back. My point is that while I think while the system is telling people, you just be perfect, and then we'll see where that gets you.
Scott Benner Mhmm. I'm saying everything's a tornado. Jump in the tornado and start swinging your hands and see what you can get for yourself because you're not gonna live forever. Like, you told me I was gonna live for a thousand years, then I'll walk to the mailbox for a hundred years and see what happens. Right?
Scott Benner Like but, like, I don't have that kind of time. If I've gotta educate them and then I've gotta give them enough money to pay for the food, then I've gotta teach them which food is the right food to eat. And then I've gotta show them how to exercise after a life of not exercising, which by the way, now they're overweight, their joints hurt, and they probably got brain fog, and now I want them to go for a walk to fix the whole thing. Like, I'm not saying that isn't the right way, and I'm also not saying that there aren't people who get to it that way. I'm saying when you're thinking about the big picture of everybody, I would drop it out of airplanes.
Scott Benner Okay? And then raise a generation of people who are not hooked on Oreos and then see if maybe their kids don't learn differently. See if maybe that doesn't impact the the industrial complex that makes our food. And maybe if they can't sell Oreos by the metric ton, maybe they'll stop making them. And then maybe you'll get a avocado that costs 49¢ the way it probably should.
Scott Benner But do you see what I'm saying? Like, it just
Julie I do. Yeah. I do. I just think I I do think that the the the unfortunate side of that is also in a perfect world, GLPs would be affordable. And that's the other thing, you know, people complain about food not being affordable.
Julie Yeah. GLPs cost they're a thousand dollars a month.
Scott Benner Nah. They're $300 now.
Julie Not yet. Hey. I work in a pharmacy, and I see the cost to us, and I see what insurance is paying. So there may be backdoor ways to get them that way, but right now, we're not seeing it. So I'm just saying.
Scott Benner It might be that it's not maybe that's not the way to do it at this point too because it's Yeah. As of late twenty twenty five, GLP medications are $299 a month. You can get them through Lily Direct that way. There's ways to to to accomplish that. And my point would be at $300 a month, I mean, that I'm not calling that a little bit of money.
Scott Benner But if a pack of Oreos is $8, I bet you could walk through your kitchen and find $300 worth of food you shouldn't be eating. And so come up with the first 300, get ahead of that sugar craving, and then stop you know, at some point, you're gonna have to put your foot down and make a decision about what you're gonna do. Right?
Julie Right. It's the same argument with getting like, I help people quit smoking, you know, like 100 they spend tons of money on that. But are they gonna but then, like, you tell them a consultation or to to quit is $75 or or a
Scott Benner Where am I getting that from? I gotta buy cigarettes.
Julie Or or a box of patches is $50 for a month.
Scott Benner I have someone in my family. I'm I hope they never hear this because you'll be on the phone you'll be on the phone with them and they're talking about all the stuff they can't afford. And in the background, you're like, don't know what I'm doing. I can't afford anything. And I'm like, yeah.
Scott Benner Is that that $20 cigarette you're smoking back there?
Julie Right.
Scott Benner Telling me you can't you can't put gas in your car? Is that what just happened? Because it feels like that's what just happened. Yeah. But also, I'm not saying they're not addicted to it.
Scott Benner Like, it's not as it would be like saying to an alcoholic, like, Just stop drinking.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner You know what I mean? Like, it's not that easy. And so I all my point is around this is if there's a way to help you, whether it's pharmacy I would I don't even care what it is. If it's pharmaceutical or another way to help you, try to get off this roller coaster of what the world is offering and what you have access and availability to, then why not, like, try to put a foot in the ground stop and start over again? But I also think that that's not how it's put to people.
Scott Benner Like, I don't think they understand that they're on a death spiral twister ride.
Julie No. Because it's too slow.
Scott Benner Yes. Oh, that's such a good point. Right? Like Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner Because it comes on you too slowly, and you don't realize it's happening until someone says to you, hey. We have to unclog that artery or you're gonna shut off. Yeah. Right. Right.
Julie Right. No.
Scott Benner I hear
Julie you. That's the that's the that's the worst part of diabetes, type one, type two, any of it. It's is that every everything happens at such a slow pace that you tell somebody twenty years down the road that x is gonna happen. They'll be like, well, years down the road Yeah. You know, like, I'm not worried about that.
Scott Benner We cross that bridge when we come to it.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner Except when you
Scott Benner come to the bridge, there's a big hole in the middle of it, you're too heavy for it, and you fall through. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No.
Scott Benner No. It's it really is terrible. Like.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. Can we call this episode mister Pibb? I think we could. Right? No.
Scott Benner No? Why not?
Julie Well, no. We can. But but I I do want to just make a point of that it is 100 not my mother's fault. Like, she she fed me well. I I would I would go to school bare wake up at a time barely to to get to school, and then I would buy it at the snack bar at school.
Julie So which they they had in the mornings before school started. That's all it was candy and sodas.
Scott Benner No. I know. No. But that is part of my point is that it's been Yeah. It's been marketed to you a thousand different ways.
Scott Benner After I graduated from high school, had to come back a couple years later for something. And I was like, there's a soda machine in here. What an odd thing to put in a high school. I I even thought it's like a young person. And then I walked down the hall, to drop something.
Scott Benner I was like, I think my brother was still there. He was dropping something off. And there was a candy machine. I was like, there's a candy machine and a soda machine here. That's nuts.
Scott Benner It really is that's an insane thing to do, but that's very common now.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner So yeah. I mean, listen. Again, you're caught in a loop. I don't normally talk about political stuff, but you're caught in a loop here. You're being fed with one hand and then the other hand's telling you to, you know, go for a walk.
Scott Benner Like, alright. And that's not gonna help me. There that walk is to keep you busy so you don't notice that they're draining your pocket with Oreos. Listen. Yeah.
Scott Benner Get out there and fight for yourself. I don't know what to say. Yeah. Julie, this turned out really fun. Thank you.
Julie Yeah. Well, good. I've I've I've had fun.
Scott Benner You too. Good. Good. Good.
Julie I I felt like we ended up talking about type two diabetes more than anything, but I think it's information that's good for for both or just for people not even with diabetes.
Scott Benner You know? Every conversation is not gonna be the same. That's what makes them special.
Julie Well, good.
Scott Benner Yeah. You know what makes me special? Don't know. I I don't know. My mom my mom told me.
Scott Benner My mom never told me I was special. I was I waited for it for a long time and Oh, stop. She was like, you seem average at best. So
Julie Well, maybe you need to to give me some bullet points on if you were to teach my class, what would those bullet
Scott Benner points be? You wanna finish there? I can do that with you.
Julie Yeah.
Scott's Diabetes Core Philosophy
Scott Benner If I was teaching a class for somebody with type one diabetes or type two.
Julie Either one.
Scott Benner Okay. Well, there Yeah. I mean, if it was type two
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner I think I would come from this perspective. When my little brother was 12, I caught him smoking cigarettes. And I said, somewhere right now, there are 10 really rich people sitting at a conference table laughing at you for buying those cigarettes. And they're taking that money and they're buying an island with it and having sex with models. I just want you to know that that's what they're doing with your money.
Scott Benner I was like, they're they're off leaving a lavish life, while you kill yourself and send them your money. And I said, and I bet you none of them smoke cigarettes. And then years later, I heard this the people who, you know, invented doom scrolling and, you know, and social media say, I don't let my kids have a cell phone. Yeah. I think I'm gonna bet that if we find, you know, the company that owns the company that makes the cookies that you love, First of all, that company is probably owned by a different company.
Scott Benner It's probably a cigarette company that owns a food company. I'm making quotes around a food company.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner And they have found a way to get you to send them money for a cookie. And I bet if you go to their house, you won't find one of those cookies there.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner So I understand that this is the situation you've been put in, but I wouldn't wanna be made a fool of. And and that is really how it it occurs to me. There are people out there picking your pocket by getting you addicted to salt, sugar, and fat, and you're sending that money to them. You know what I mean? Like like, don't don't give them that don't give them your money.
Scott Benner You go buy an island with your money, you know, or whatever it is you want. Don't get caught up in this game and the the payment for this game is your life. And you're telling me I, you know, I can't I can't afford ten hours to come to this class. You come to this class. I'll teach you about food.
Scott Benner I will teach you about nutrition. I'll teach you about what it's doing to you. We'll talk about ways to mitigate the problems you have right now. If you're type two, let's hope we can get you through it and maybe get you to a point where you don't need medication. But at this point right now, you're in too deep.
Scott Benner You're in a hole and telling me you wanna climb out by walking to the mailbox. I'm telling you, I think we need to throw a flashlight and a ladder down there and help you get out. So I can help you use this medication. There are some things you're gonna have to do when that medication comes to you. Right?
Scott Benner We can't inject the GLP and then go eat a pizza. We can't do that. Okay? So your first couple of weeks, gonna put you on, you know, what's gonna seem restrictive to you, but I'll tell you six months from now, you're gonna think of it as fantastic. Because that's my been my experience, Julie.
Scott Benner And I would I would share my experience with them that once you get like you talked about, once you kinda get that sugar out of your system and you're not eating all that stuff all the time and the medication's helping you not feel hungry and to feel full a little bit. If you just trust that medication and say, I'm full and realize that when you go to reach for food, that is a that's a habit. That's a psychological issue. It has nothing to do with hunger and it has nothing to do with nutrition. If you can ignore that for a few weeks or a few months, you're gonna pop up on the other side in a flower filled sun drenched field of happiness.
Scott Benner I promise you. And then I'd show them a picture of myself three years ago and a picture of myself now. Mhmm. And I'd say, just hang on. That could be you.
Scott Benner If your stomach starts hurting, you're probably eating stuff that you're testing that medication a little too much. Let's not do high fat. Let's not do real thick heavy foods. You gotta go to the bathroom every day. You ain't pooping every day, we got a problem.
Scott Benner Here's a bottle of magnesium oxide. Start with one a day. If that don't make you go, go to two a day. But I want you pooping every day so your belly doesn't hurt because I want your belly not to hurt so that you can stay on this medication long enough to get into that field full of flowers and sunshine. That's where your work's gonna be.
Scott Benner Your work's gonna be ignoring the thing your brain is telling you and the thing that your memory is telling you that, like, oh, you know, it's not Easter without jelly beans. It's not yes. It is. It's still fucking Easter. Okay?
Scott Benner Like, don't eat a bag of jelly beans, please.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner I just you know, I think of Christmas and I think of this. Think of something else.
Julie Right.
Scott Benner Back when my grandmother put out a little candy at Christmas in a dish, it was a butterscotch or like a mint, and you had three of them in December. Because when she bought them, the bag had a, you know, had six ounces of candy, and it's the only bag she could afford, and that's all you got. Now when I go out and buy a bag of candy, it's five pounds. It costs $3, and if it if it runs out, I'll just go get another one. Like and now I'm eating 17 pieces of butterscotch a day.
Scott Benner You're not in the same game anymore that your brain's telling you you're in. So, I mean, for type twos and then, yeah, once you start lift losing weight and you can move a little bit, get going. Like right? Like, get moving. Stand up.
Scott Benner Don't sit down. Walk around your house. Like, you know, oh, you got stairs? Up and down. Up and down.
Scott Benner Up and down. Like, keep going. You have no idea how good you're gonna feel in a couple of years. And if you don't wanna do that, god bless you. That's the path to this whole thing.
Julie Yeah. Okay. And what well, last thing, what
Scott Benner Type one.
Julie What do tell a 19 year old boy?
Scott Benner Oh, your son should be listening to
Julie Type this one.
Scott Benner Yep. Just
Julie It won't listen to his mom.
Scott Benner Just tell him to listen to this small sip series that I made. That's
Julie all. Okay.
Scott Benner Like, that's it. It's juiceboxpodcast.com. Go up to the menu. Click on small sips. It's like 20 episodes or a few minutes long.
Scott Benner Right. That's foundationally pretty much everything he needs to understand to take care of his insulin and his diabetes. Okay. He wants to expand from there. He should go to the pro tip series to listen to longer conversations about it.
Scott Benner But in the end, it's about timing and amount. It's about understanding the impact of your food and how that food impacts your insulin, how that insulin impacts your food. You get those three ideas down, he's gonna have an a one c in the low sixes.
Julie Yeah.
Scott Benner That's it. It's it's it's about it's about and and if I if I may, this is the thing I can't get through to anybody yet. I'm still trying. A little bit of effort now takes away the need for a lot of effort later and that's day to day and throughout your lifetime. So around type one diabetes, get up in the morning, your blood sugar's one fifty.
Scott Benner You don't eat, you get your blood sugar down. Then you pre bolus that meal, then you eat. You pre bolus your meals, you stay ahead of high blood sugars. If you stay a high ahead of high blood sugars, you're not gonna fight with highs. You're not gonna always be either giving yourself more insulin or worried sitting there going like, I don't feel like doing this and not giving yourself more insulin, which is, you know, eventually gonna lead to a low later, which you're gonna have to put more effort into.
Scott Benner So a tiny bit of effort upfront saves a ton of effort throughout the day. It lightens your load, makes this whole thing much easier. Timing, amount, understand the impact of food, you know, get ahead, stay ahead. That's that's pretty much the whole thing for type one. Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Julie And he does mostly a pretty good job of that with he just needs a little tweaking, but, yeah, I I appreciate that. And I think that he just needs to to listen.
Scott Benner Yeah. No. But super seriously, it's just Yeah. I understand being a kid and I understand not wanting to do things and all that stuff. But, you know, in the end, Joy, you just it's about it's like everything else.
Scott Benner Like, at some point, you're just gonna have to do it. And if you don't, no matter what it is, forget diabetes. There's things you gotta do and if you don't do them, there's gonna be, you there's know, gonna be consequences on the other side.
Julie Sure.
Scott Benner So Yeah. I don't know. All this stuff is exactly the same. Get ahead. Stay ahead.
Scott Benner You know, do your part. Go for a walk. Pretty much a handle. That's all. I'm good.
Scott Benner Thanks. Excellent, Joy. You were awesome.
Julie Sounds good.
Scott Benner Hold on one second for me. Okay?
Julie Okay. Yeah. You bet.
Closing and Final Sponsor Messages
Scott Benner A huge thank you to Cozy Earth, a longtime sponsor. Cozyearth.com. Use the offer code juice box at checkout. You will save 20% off of your entire order when you use that code. Don't let me down kids.
Scott Benner Head over there now. Get yourself some joggers, some towels, some sheets. Save yourself some money, support the podcast, make your life beautiful and comfortable all at the same time. Cozyearth.com. Use the offer code juice box at checkout.
Scott Benner Today's episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g seven, and the Dexcom g seven warms up in just thirty minutes. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. Thank you so much for listening.
Scott Benner I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card.
Scott Benner Hey, kids. Listen up. You've made it to the end of the podcast. You must have enjoyed it. You know what else you might enjoy?
Scott Benner The private Facebook group for the Juice Box podcast. I know you're thinking, Facebook, Scott, please. But no. Beautiful group, wonderful people, a fantastic community. Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
Scott Benner Of course, if you have type two, are you touched by diabetes in any way? You're absolutely welcome. It's a private group, so you'll have to answer a couple of questions before you come in. We'll make sure you're not a bot or an evil doer, then you're on your way. You'll be part of the family.
Scott Benner The Juice Box podcast is edited by Wrong Way Recording. Wrongwayrecording.com. If you'd like your podcast to sound as good as mine, check out Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.
#1814 Par for the Course
Dr. Hannah Parr, a physician with Type 1 diabetes , joins Scott to discuss overcoming diagnosis shame , the power of mindset , and holistic, direct primary care.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Mindset Over Management: Shifting the narrative from shame to confidence is crucial for living a fulfilling life with Type 1 Diabetes; community support (like diabetes camps) plays a massive role in this psychological transition.
- Holistic Healthcare: Treating the whole person—including sleep, nutrition, stress levels, and lifestyle—often yields better long-term health outcomes than merely adjusting medication in quick, twelve-minute clinic visits.
- The Power of Fundamentals: The foundational strategy of understanding insulin timing, grasping the impacts of different foods, and pre-bolusing meals remains one of the most effective tools for maintaining in-range blood sugars.
- Direct Primary Care Benefits: Alternative clinic models like Direct Primary Care (membership-based) can allow for longer, more personalized doctor visits, effectively breaking down the barriers and burnout commonly found in traditional insurance billing systems.
- Education Drives Action: Patients are significantly more likely to follow through with lifestyle changes or supplement routines (like Vitamin D) when they truly understand the "why" and the underlying science behind the medical recommendations.
Resources Mentioned
- Eversense 365: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Tandem Diabetes Care (Tandem Mobi): tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Dr. Hannah Parr (Instagram & YouTube): @drhannahparr
- Texas Lions Camp (Diabetes Camp mentioned by Hannah)
Introduction and Diagnosis
Hannah ParrHi. I'm doctor Hannah Parr. And, more importantly, I am a patient with type one diabetes. I was diagnosed at 13. And now twenty years later, just had my my diversity, I am working as a clinician and a diabetes educator. And I like to focus on lifestyle medicine. So not just what our blood sugars are and how we're counting carbs, but how we can feel great in our body, what other things we can do to improve our health overall. And most importantly, I I think the the mindset piece is the part I'm most passionate about. So how we let die diabetes define who we are and how we feel about ourselves. And that's my favorite part to talk to people about with diabetes is is really the the mindset of of how we let it define us Cool. And what we can do about shifting it. Yeah. We're
Scott Bennergonna dig into all of that. But first, I wanna find out about you being 13 and getting diabetes. So do you have other family members with type one? Do you have family members or extended family members with other autoimmune issues? Do you have any other autoimmune issues?
Hannah ParrYeah. So I am the first one in my family with type one diabetes. I do have quite a few autoimmune diseases on my mother's side. And so Crohn's disease, sarcoidosis, hypothyroidism. So we're not not new to autoimmune.
Scott BennerWell, you actually get so, you know, I know I probably say this every time, but sarcoidosis was the throwaway diagnosis on House MD, the television show.
Hannah ParrLike Oh, we love that show.
Scott BennerWhen they didn't know what to say, someone would go, it's probably sarcoidosis. And then I and then and then it never was, but then I had somebody on the podcast. I said that to them. They were like, I actually have it. I was like, wow. We finally found one. So there's a a history of autoimmune in your family.
Hannah ParrYes.
Scott BennerDo you have anything beyond type one?
Hannah ParrNo. No. There was a point in my life where I had subclinical hypothyroidism, and I needed thyroid medication for about a year, but that resolved, and I no longer need that. So it wasn't autoimmune in nature. Yeah.
Scott BennerResolved meaning your levels went back to where you wanted to be or your symptoms went away?
Hannah ParrMy levels went back up, and I no longer needed it.
Scott BennerOh, and you don't have symptoms? No. Awesome.
Hannah ParrNo. And I I kinda get my thyroid screened yearly with my annual diabetes labs, and things are doing good.
Scott BennerHow often do you think that happens for people?
Hannah ParrSubclinical hypothyroidism we see in people now this isn't kind of full blown Hashimoto's where we've got high antibodies against our thyroid and we're at very, very low levels of thyroid. I was borderline low with symptoms. And so they decided to put me on medication. This was right before I started medical school, and I was just kind of they were worried about me going into med school and and kind of being borderline with the fatigue I was having. And I took the medication for about a year and then noticed I started having symptoms of too much thyroid. So we tested, and and I didn't need it anymore. And it's kind of been been the same since.
Scott BennerSo it fought off your fatigue pretty well, but then you started getting hyper?
Hannah ParrRight. Because I was supplementing it. So I just didn't need it anymore. Wow. So I just kinda went back to baseline. And that's not unusual for for subclinical hypothyroidism. Okay. We see that not commonly in kind of full blown Hashimoto's where we've got the antibodies that are positive.
Scott BennerGot you. What do you recall about being diagnosed with type one?
Hannah ParrYou know, I I think that I was pretty deer in the headlights. I was not diagnosed in a hospital setting. I was 13, and we had just moved. I I grew up overseas in Europe, and we had just moved to The US about six months before my diagnosis. And everything was new and everything felt scary. We were kind of in a smaller town in Scotland for most of my life, and then I started a very large junior high Texas. And so I'd never even seen that many kids my age. I was so worried about being the new kid. There was a lot going on. And then my mom noticed I was urinating frequently, and she took me to primary care to to see if I had a UTI. And they did a urinalysis, found the glucose and ketones, and kinda said, we need to get you to endocrinology emergently. So they made a kind of a last minute appointment before the endocrinology clinic in in town closed. Mhmm. And we drove over there in Houston traffic, and I remember my mom crying on the way. I just had no idea what was going on. You know, I I had no concept of understanding what diabetes was. Yeah. And that day, they made me do my injection, my very first injection on my own in the office before they let me leave. And they sent us home with, right, a little pamphlet and a CD back twenty years ago, and they accidentally had given us the Spanish one. So I I have this memory of my mom sitting in front of the TV trying to read the, you know, diabetes education with a, like, a Spanish English dictionary.
Scott BennerReally?
Hannah ParrAnd yeah. And it was just an accident, but that's all we had. And then I I went to school the next day, and we just kinda figured it out as we went. You know? It was really no downtime with my diagnosis.
Scott BennerYou're a Scottish mom in Texas trying to figure out Spanish?
Hannah ParrWell, my mom was American. Yeah. We we were there for ten years before. So, you know, US Okay. Stuff felt new, but it was. It was just it just kinda felt wild, you know, and and surreal when I think back to it.
Scott BennerNo kidding. Wow. And then do do you have brothers and sisters?
Hannah ParrI have one little sister.
Scott BennerOkay. Your parents married at that point?
Hannah ParrMhmm.
Scott BennerOkay.
Hannah ParrYeah.
Scott BennerDo they jump in and help? Is it them taking care of it completely? Is it do they try to give it to you? Do you split the duties? How does that all work? And twenty years ago so my daughter was diagnosed, I think, in I think '20 I do know this. 2006. So what were you? 2005, maybe?
Hannah ParrThat was 2006.
Scott BennerYou were 2006.
Hannah ParrThousand six.
Scott BennerOkay. So she was August. So back then, we got, they gave us syringes and insulin and a meter. Did you get anything different than that?
Hannah ParrWe we I got insulin pens.
Scott BennerLook at you.
Hannah ParrSo I was started on pens Mhmm. And a meter, and then some carb counting flashcards, which I remember.
Scott BennerCarb counting five.
Hannah ParrYeah. Trying to go through all the cards to figure out, you know, where the apple was.
Scott BennerYeah. I realize now more contextually that Arden was two, and she weighed, like, eighteen. Well, she weighed seventeen pounds when she was diagnosed.
Hannah ParrAnd Oh, yeah.
Scott BennerSo we got syringes so so that we could use little bits of insulin without the pens. And then no one do you know no one ever switched her to pens? It it never came up until she went right from just, syringes to insulin pump.
Hannah ParrAnd Interesting.
Scott BennerI didn't even know to ask for pens. But anyway, so you get pens and a meter, you're on your way. But your car and you're carb counting because it's it's right there. Like, obviously, in the in the time frame of diabetes, they're gonna teach you to carb count. Were you having success, or what did your life look like in the first couple years?
The Shame of Diabetes and Finding Community
Hannah ParrFirst couple years, I think I believe I had success maybe compared to the average child in my endocrinology practice. My a one c was low sevens, high sixes, kind of for most of my teenage years in high school after that. But I I had a lot of lows. I was the frequent kinda having lows. I I was active on the dance team. And my parents really did, over time, give most of my care over to me. I mean, when I was at school, right, there was no Dexcom follow, so it was all on me and and the school nurse. And I felt like that gave me confidence. So we didn't have trouble, you know, with sleepovers or going to, you know, different camps or friends or things like that. You know, I think that that piece worked out well. But where I really struggled, Scott, was the the the mindset. I was so ashamed of my diabetes in the beginning. I didn't understand what it meant for me. I think I had a big knowledge gap on what life with diabetes could actually look like. And as this kinda scared 13 year old that already felt like the new kid after diagnosis, I was just terrified to tell people in my life. I didn't want my friends to know because I was afraid that they would think less of me and and think I was even more different. You know? And and friends are so important at that age. And so I really I really struggled with the mindset piece. You know? I I had my diabetes for a long time until my parents pushed me to go to a camp for kids with diabetes, and then everything changed after that.
Scott BennerHow old were you when you went to camp?
Hannah ParrI was right at 14. So it was about, six months to a year after diagnosis. And and the camp, Texas Lions camp, it really changed my life. It was kind of a week long, not a day camp, but an overnight camp. And I remember everybody cried at drop off, and then I didn't wanna leave. I was so happy, you know, crying at pickup. It was kind of that that full one eighty.
Scott BennerWhen you said you were I I think the word you used, right, you were ashamed of it?
Hannah ParrYeah. Yeah.
Scott BennerThat you were different, that you had a medical issue. Like, do you remember where the shame, like, showed itself?
Hannah ParrI think the shame was understanding. I I didn't understand if diabetes was my fault. I didn't understand if there was anything I did wrong to get it. I didn't understand if it would mean that I had to live a different life or I wouldn't live as long or as I couldn't do the things that my friends could do.
Scott BennerMhmm.
Hannah ParrI I just felt so ashamed for being different.
Scott BennerOkay. And do you remember anybody treating you differently?
Hannah ParrNo. I mean, I have the most supportive family. They were incredible, jumping in and learning and, you know, helping me with nights and figuring it out. And and I had great friends. You know? I I still don't feel that I get treated differently. I don't know if I can think of many instances in my whole twenty years that I have. I think it was just that, you know, fear of kinda self induced fear of of being different.
Scott BennerOkay. Alright. I appreciate that. It's interesting to look into the idea that at your age, you got all these worries. They were kind of unsubstantiated, and then meeting new people, branching out a little bit helped you get rid of them. So once you get back from diabetes camp, is it like a whole new you where you're like, hey, everybody. Look at this. Watch me watch me jam this pen into my leg. Or or, I mean, how far do you swing the other way?
Hannah ParrI remember so right before camp, having to give, the way that they kind of introduced the the diabetes to school was we met with the school nurse, and then I had to hand deliver a letter my mom wrote to each of my teachers in each of my kind of periods through school. And I just I did not wanna give these teachers this letter. I was terrified. I remember shaking, handing it over, just being so scared, you know, that that they would know this about me, and it would, you know, make them think less of me. I I wouldn't talk about it with anyone. And then after camp, my parents picked me up, and I have this vivid memory of, you know, saying goodbye to my friends, learning through camp how other kids were confident with their diabetes, how they didn't mind talking about it, how they could live. They seemed like they were having fun and living normal kid lives with it. My parents picked me up, and we were wearing the camp shirt that said diabetes on it. I mean, it was very obvious. And we went to a Cracker Barrel on the way home, and I walked into that Cracker Barrel wearing this diabetes shirt. And my mom just started crying. And I I was confused. Right? That'd be so in the moment when you're a kid but she said, you know, this is the first time you've ever been okay showing something about your diabetes in public. You know? And and it was that. And it was after that camp I was okay talking to my friends about it because I saw how the other kids at camp could explain it to their friends and talk about, you know, their insulin pump in a way that didn't seem so diminishing.
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrAnd and it really just helped. And I I really think after that, it was a one eighty, and I still had so much to learn years later about confidence and what I was capable of, but it was it it took the shame out of it.
Scott BennerRight. When did you decide to try to go into medicine?
Sponsor: Eversense & Tandem
Scott BennerWhen you think of a CGM and all the good that it brings in your life, is the first thing you think about, I love that I have to change it all the time? I love the warm up period every time I have to change it. I love that when I bump into a door frame, sometimes it gets ripped off. I love that the adhesive kinda gets mushy sometimes when I sweat and falls off. No. These are not the things that you love about a CGM. Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five, the only CGM that you only have to put on once a year and the only CGM that won't give you any of those problems. The Eversense three sixty five is the only one year CGM designed to minimize device frustration. It has exceptional accuracy for one year with almost no false alarms from compression lows while you're sleeping. You can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the Eversense three sixty five. Learn more and get started today at eversensecgm.com/juicebox. One year, one CGM. This episode is sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care. And today, I'm gonna tell you about Tandem's newest pumping algorithm. The Tandem Mobi system with Control IQ Plus technology features auto bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. This is going to help you to get started with Tandem's smallest pump yet that's powered by its best algorithm ever. Control IQ Plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels thirty minutes ahead, and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the Tandem Mobi in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately, clip it discreetly to your clothing, or slip it into your pocket. Head now to my link, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox, to check out your benefits and get started today.
The Path to Integrative Medicine
Hannah ParrOh, this is a great question. So I really didn't know what I wanted to do at the end of high school. Kinda like my family was set on going to college, and so I was trying to pick, you know, what I wanted to study. And that year, I had been going to my endocrinology just office and asking, how can I feel better with my diabetes? Like, my blood sugars are pretty good, you know, for where I am with with shots and and finger prick, but but how can I feel better? What types of foods are gonna help me be healthier? What type of exercise can I do where I'm not so low? You know, just kind of more health questions.
Scott BennerMhmm.
Hannah ParrAnd I just couldn't get answers. It was kind of like the, you know, just exercise less if you're low, and you can eat whatever you want. You know, don't worry about other chronic diseases in the future. And and that was good. I mean, I get that they were trying to protect, you know, my childhood. But I I wanted to know. I was so curious. And so I decided to study nutritional sciences, and I went to Texas a and m for undergrad. Finally, I took a class where we learned about how to understand scientific literature that was published, like, on PubMed and through different journals. And it was like it opened this world for me of answers to the questions that I had that I couldn't find other places. Mhmm. And it was so empowering. I learned a lot about health and started implementing what I was learning, and I felt so much better. And then that's when I kinda got this this kick of, oh, I wanna help other people find answers to these questions. And I thought about becoming a registered dietitian. That's what most of the people in my major did. But I realized that there was some limitations there on kind of the what the MyPlay guidelines were at the time, what you could say, what you couldn't. And I really wanted to be able to help people kind of with a bigger picture of their health. And that's when I decided to go to DO school. I'm an osteopathic physician. And I like the DO philosophy at the time kind of reading about the difference between DO and MD. DOs are a little bit more holistic in looking at kind of the whole person.
Scott BennerUh-huh.
Hannah ParrAnd so that was the that was the path I went on. So I decided my junior year of college and, took six months off and then got into a school in Mississippi, which is close to where my grandparents were in New Orleans. And that's that's kinda how it started.
Scott BennerAwesome. So you end up with I mean, you get your undergrad. Right? And then you move on to med school. Is that how it works after that? Mhmm. Yeah. And then when you're done there, do you do anything else? Or, like, do you specialize, or how does it work when you get out of medical school?
Hannah ParrYeah. So, typically, the traditional path is you would do four years of medical school, and then you will go to residency in a different there are many different residencies for different types of medicine. So there is residency for pediatrics where you just learn about children or residencies for family medicine where you do more primary care, residencies for surgery, internal medicine where you're doing more hospital work. And I really was torn choosing my residency because there are you can choose pediatrics and then go into endocrinology, or you can choose adult medicine and then go into endocrinology. Mhmm. But there was no choice to do or for at least what I could see at that time, there was no choice to do kids and adults with diabetes, you know, and then move forward onto endocrinology. So I was really torn, and and I felt that if I kind of pigeonholed myself into endocrinology, I would miss that whole person approach that I'm so passionate about. So I chose to go to family medicine because that is the the type of residency program where you get to learn how to treat kids, women in pregnancy, and adults. And I did one year of my internship in family medicine and decided that primary care was not gonna be the right choice for me. There there's so much beauty in family medicine and primary care and how people are helped in that setting, but it is typically very quick appointments, you know, where you're kinda back to back all day with appointments, and there's not a lot of room for the lifestyle education piece. And so I left after my intern year of family medicine, and then I got my Texas medical license, finished my boards out, and I went on to do training in integrative functional medicine and which is more lifestyle oriented, prevention oriented. And then I did, my diabetes educator and board certified in advanced diabetes management, which is not a traditional American board certification for physicians, but it's the kind of diabetes educator curriculum for prescribers. And so that's where I am now.
Scott BennerWhat is it about you that you think let you see, well, this is how the process usually works. I don't wanna be involved in this. Like, is there something in your, like, personal ethos, or was it something that you functionally saw with how the machine worked? Like, what turned you off and and made you choose this other path?
Sponsor: US Med
Scott BennerI have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years though because we began using US Med. You can too. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514 to get your free benefits check. US Med has served over one million people living with diabetes since 1996. They carry everything you need from CGMs to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites. Libre three, Dexcom g seven, and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod dash, Tandem, and most recently, the Islet pump from Beta Bionics. The stuff you're looking for, they have it at US Med. (888) 721-1514, or go to usmed.com/juicebox to get started now. Use my link to support the podcast. That's usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514.
Fixing the Medical System & Direct Primary Care
Hannah ParrOh, I love this question. I would say both to answer directly, but it was that going my journey in medicine started from wanting to be a change, wanting to fill the gap of the questions that I had that I couldn't get answered as a kid
Scott BennerMhmm.
Hannah ParrAnd and growing up and still, you know, had struggled to get answered when I'm in these appointments. And it and it was wanting to really focus on the health education piece for people. And I realized that and you know this, Scott. I mean, we go to our endocrinology appointment, and we see our diabetes educator after diagnosis. And then we go on to live the rest of our life with short follow-up appointments, right, to check-in on things.
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrAnd there's so much more to learn. Right? There's so much more to learn that can impact the way that we feel about ourselves, the way that we take care of our body, how we can reduce our risk of chronic disease and complications in the future. There's so much, and that's what I absolutely love about your platform. And I was so I so needed to be the change in medicine to fill the gap. That was where my heart was going through this journey. And as I saw myself going into full primary care and seeing, you know, 30 patients a day for twelve minute appointments and doing all this billing, I could see that there wasn't gonna be room for the education that I wanted. And it really was I I was in my intern year of family residency, and and I had had a patient that had type two diabetes. And she came to me, and she had been seeing a different resident prior, and she we had an appointment and kinda filled her diabetes medications and scheduled a follow-up. She came back with a follow-up. Her a one c had gone up. And I asked her, you know, kinda what was going on, if she'd made any changes. And she was so motivated to try and help her type two diabetes that she she watched YouTube and found somebody talking about a grapefruit diet where you just eat grapefruits and grapefruit juice for two weeks. And that's what she had done trying to help herself. She was so motivated to try and do something to make her life better that I mean, that sounds incredibly hard to do, and it was just heartbreaking. I mean, kinda hurt herself in the process, and it was just the lack of, you know, being able to find information that was evidence based that could work for her, and I didn't provide that. You know? And I felt I really wanna put myself in a space where I can share information that is more likely to work for people that is safe, you know, that that we can have more education out there that's evidence based that that people are looking for. And so that's long long answer to your question, but that's kinda how it happened, and and and that's how I'm a little bit different than other physicians.
Scott BennerAs a person who tried the baked potato diet once for two weeks, I appreciate that.
Hannah ParrYeah. Well, thanks.
Scott BennerBy the way, it did work. Although, I only ate baked potatoes without salt, pepper, or butter for two weeks. I think I lost, like, 15 pounds.
Hannah ParrWow. Interesting. Yeah. Okay.
Scott BennerBut to your point, the GLP worked a lot better.
Hannah ParrYeah.
Scott BennerI understand what you're saying, and I wanna just take one more second to ask kind of a backward looking question for you. Whatever the hell the system is, you can call it whatever you want. Right? But why can't it do that? I think I ask every physician this question. Like, everyone seems to know what the problem is, and they either acquiesce to it or they go off into private practice and charge people cash and hope that their insurance covers it afterwards. No one stays and says, you know what? I could probably help these people while they're being covered by their insurance and do a better job of it. Like, what's stopping you? Is it just that the rules are written down somewhere? Like, if the test says this, then you do that. You see what I'm saying? It doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal.
Hannah ParrThis is such an important question. Yeah. So there are many, I think, variables that that play into why this is so challenging. And and it's from my impression and the physicians that I I know, it's not because doctors don't wanna help in this way. It it's definitely because there's a lack of education for physicians. I mean, we get very little health training. We kind of learn about how the body works, what the diseases are, and then what the medicines and surgery are to treat them, and we don't learn about what's optimal for exercise or what's an optimal nutrition plan or, you know, those types of things as much as we could. So there's a lack of education on the physician side. But if a physician goes on to learn that and wants to implement it, there can be big barriers in the hospital based clinic setting. So if we think most clinics are not owned by physicians anymore. Most clinics are owned by hospital systems, and hospital systems are more numbers based. And even though it's very intuitive, I think, to you and I that if we have someone with diabetes type one or type two and we give them more diabetes education, that they will have less ER visits, which will ultimately cost the system less. Right? I I think that's kinda pretty clear. But the it it has a lot to do, I think, with insurance reimbursement. We don't get the same reimbursement for the time that we spend doing education as we do seeing more patients faster.
Scott BennerMhmm.
Hannah ParrAnd as the CEO or CFO of a hospital system, the numbers game is important for covering the overhead and profiting hospital system. And so I think what I saw is that as a physician working for a hospital system, it would have been very challenging for me to carve out time to do things like a support group or extra education. And we have the referrals to the diabetes educators. But outside of that, the you're working so much and the hours are so intense and the documentation is wild and I think growing with all the requirements. And and I think it's just hard to fill your own cup up as a physician and do extra on top of a full time clinic job. And so if a physician does go private practice, then they can they're the owner of the practice. They manage the overhead versus what they're allowed to spend their time doing, and and it it makes it a lot more tangible to be able to do that. But if you take insurance, then it's harder to cover your overhead with the insurance kickbacks that you get.
Scott BennerOkay. So where does that leave a person who finds themselves in an office with an uncommon problem being delivered a common answer, getting any real clarity, not getting better, whatever? Are they just left to think, well, I guess this is how it all works. I'll have to go figure this out on my own if I expect to figure it out at all?
Hannah ParrI think that's how a lot of people feel.
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrI think that's how a lot of people feel. I know I felt that way, and I think that's why we see so many people turning to things like the juice box podcast, right, and YouTube and and different things because they want to learn. You know? It's just that that they're having trouble finding answers.
Scott BennerI think the podcast achieves a number of different things. Right? And I don't wanna sit around and philosophize about it, but if we just sat down and talked about just managing of diabetes. I honestly think the only thing I do is tell people to pre bolus, understand their food, understand how insulin works, and that's pop I don't think I say much, to be perfectly honest with you. Like, I don't know how it's possible to have built something this large. It's so well regarded, generally speaking, off of such a small amount of information that's that's available anywhere. Like, that should like and no one wants this isn't what they want. Like, Hannah, no one says, you know what I really want? I wanna get diabetes, then I wanna go to a doctor, then I wanna be left completely unhelped, and then have to go, you know, fart around in the world till I can figure out is even talking about this, then decide which one of them I can maybe trust, hopefully, then listen to them, then try to understand it, then put it into practice. Like, no one wants that. Like, the thing I'm giving people, it's not a thing they want. It's a thing they find themselves in need of. And then when you get there and actually crack open the walnut and see what's inside of it, all that's inside of it is timing and amount, pre bullish your meals, understand the impacts of your foods. And you know what? Your settings are gonna change due to variables. You should keep up with changing them. There there you go. Like, there's the big secret. Like, you know, you guys don't have to listen anymore. You you want an a one c in the sixes? Just do those things.
Hannah ParrRight. Right. I agree.
Scott BennerYeah. But that's insane. That's fundamentally insane. Like, it's not like they got to me and they're like, alright. This guy heard all about this. You know what I mean? And they sit down and they listen. They got a pen and then they go, oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a very difficult thing. No wonder my doctor can't tell me about it. So, I mean, how would they tell me about this? I had to jump over three golden diamonds, go to the Amazon Forest, get a snake, milk it, drink the venom. When you get to the end of it and you go, wait, it's timing and amount and I just pre bolus your meals and don't watch a high blood sugar. Like, that's nuts, Anna. Okay. So, like, if there are days when I get up and I look at this thing and I think this shouldn't be like like, if anyone was doing their job, I wouldn't have a podcast. That I believe for sure.
Hannah ParrI see it.
Scott BennerOkay. That's about the management stuff. Go say something nice about the community park.
Hannah ParrGo I get what you're saying. Yeah. You feel like you're repeating the same things. And that message is strong, and it's important for everybody to hear. I mean, what you just said, I think, is so crucial. But I see your work as something that helps people in a in a bigger way. I mean, the voices that you bring onto this podcast and the amount of episodes that you publish to me are a constant reminder that you we're not alone in this, that there are other people figuring it out too. Sometimes I need to be remind myself to pre bolus twenty years in. I mean, you know, it's not like we don't need reminders or you get off track on something and, you know, you come back and your constant presence of different voices who, I think, remind people that they're not alone in this. And and I I think that there's a lot more to it than just the advice that you give. I think it's this sense of feeling not alone and feeling like it's possible, you know, to live this life because of the thousands of examples they've brought on.
Scott BennerYou're very kind, and I and I completely agree with you. I was really trying to cleave it down to this one idea. Right? Like, I mean, at the very least, if my endocrinologist can't tell me that the timing of how the insulin works is really important to the outcomes I have with my blood sugar. That's nuts. Wow. What a low bar. So how do you handle like, I I'm assuming I don't know anything about you. I don't check into people. So by the way, everybody, Hannah could be out of her mind. You'll have to figure it out on your own. But you went into private practice too? Are you one of those nice ladies who takes my insurance? No. And you can turn in your bill later, and hopefully, your insurance will cover it for you, or how do you manage?
Hannah ParrSo I am in a practice that is it is not an insurance based practice. It's called direct primary care. Mhmm. And it's a newer model of practice. It's membership based. And the majority of our patients are families of business owners that have very high deductible plans. And so they pay a certain amount a month to have access to the practice. They can see any of the clinicians unlimited, amount of times that month, and then they're not, you know, paying co pays. And and our monthly fee is less than a a co pay would be without a deductible that's been met. So I think it's a good a good fit for
Scott Bennersome You're like a, a large language model. I buy tokens, and I use them. Is that about right? I I I right. I have, like I have credits, basically?
Hannah ParrNo. It's just like a gym membership.
Scott BennerIt's like a gym membership.
Hannah ParrYeah. That's the that's how I describe it. It's like a gym membership.
Scott BennerSo do some people overuse? Like, are some people sweating on the on the machines constantly, and some people don't show up, and that's how you're able to keep the thing going? I imagine, like, what if you get a, a hypochondriac? You're losing money on them. Right?
Hannah ParrYeah. But you're also helping them. Yeah. I would say, yeah, it it evens out. I I get this question a lot when I tell people about the model, and they say, how could that work? I mean, would people abuse the system? And we really don't have that. I mean, I think I get to spend a lot more time with my patients. Our appointments could be up to an hour if we need it, and that's wonderful. And I think because of that, I get to answer all their questions during the appointments. You know? It's they don't leave with a list half answered, and so we get less questions, you know, between appointments, which I like. But but I also think that it does. It just evens out. So there are certainly people who who come in for more follow ups because they're worried about things and others who, you know, don't check-in as often, but they like the peace of mind that if they get the flu tomorrow, they can meet with us, you know, and not have to wait four days to be seen at a a different practice and pay more.
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrYeah. It just kinda evens out. The model works really well, and it's it's they're popping up all over the country. It's kind of a new wave of medicine.
Scott BennerNo. For certain. So the business works for the business, and the business works for the people?
Hannah ParrYes.
Scott BennerAnd you can pay your bills? Yes. Awesome. You're And
Hannah ParrI am incentivized to keep my patients healthier because the healthier they are, right, the less they come back to the practice, the more people I can help. No. That's better for me and it's better for them, and and that's the best.
Scott BennerIs this only gonna benefit people who have that kind of money, or do do some people see you have pay out of pocket and then turn that into their insurance and get some sort of coverage on the back end?
Hannah ParrSo we do yes. So we can do a SuperBell where people can pay out of pocket. We also can they can use FSA and HSA. We have some people choose to do that. Most people don't, but our monthly fee is $90 a month. So it's prohibitive definitely for some, but but it's not, I think, at a place where it's out of reach.
Scott BennerWait. So, like, a thousand dollars a year, that's my membership, but then is there billing on top of that?
Hannah ParrSo billing for labs, we have cash based labs for our patients with high deductible plans, and those are discounted at the practice, and they're honestly incredibly cheap. It's amazing how sometimes the cash based labs are actually cheaper than what you'd pay with your insurance.
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrBut we do have patients that wanna use labs use their insurance for for our labs, so we'll code. And they can use their labs through their insurance so they get those covered. And then prescriptions are obviously through their insurance as well.
Managing Burnout & Creating Boundaries
Scott BennerFor a number of years now, I've been taking my family to just a a cash doctor. You know? So it's very simple. You visit her, and you it's $250. You see her a couple of times a year to check-in, make sure everything's going well. But other than that, access through text messages, emails, portal system. She's very responsive. When you go into, like, check-in with her, it's an you sit there for an hour. You know, you're in a a soft chair with a a lamp and a desk next to you. There's a pad of paper if you wanna take notes. It's a completely different experience. My health has never been better. Yeah. I've never felt better supported when there is an actual emergent issue. It is not crazy for me to tell you that there was a time when we had a problem. We couldn't get a medication, and I sent her a text. And she said, oh, I have samples. You can come to my house and grab them. And, like, I know that's that's not what you not I'm sure that's not the the norm, but, you know, I said, oh, okay. She gave me an address and I went to her house. She handed it to me. She said, we'll get it all worked out. Use the sample for now. And I was like, okay. Thank you. And I left. And maybe two years later, something similar came up where I texted her and I was like, you know, there's a problem. And she was like, can come to my house. And I texted back and I said, I don't know where you live. And she said, you've been here before. And I said, oh, yes. But out of an abundance of respect, I deleted that because I didn't think I didn't think I should have your address. And she was like, oh, that's so nice. We've been doing this now for three, four years and it might sound expensive to people, but honestly, my you know, we maybe see her twice a year. And so, you know, for three, four people, it's, you know, it's $2,000 a year to see the doctor. It's and then we take those bills and give them to our insurance company who I think they cover us at, like, 80%. So That's great. Yeah. So I think we're paying, like, nothing, really, like, you know, and getting way better care. She retired.
Hannah ParrOh, no.
Scott BennerWe're all really sad right now. Her husband got some great job in France, and she's moving. I tried I tried my hardest, Anna, when she contacted us to say she was retiring. I said, you know, you've been married for such a long time. You must be sick of him. Why don't you just let him go? Stay here and be our doctor. She said, I think I'm just gonna go to France and bop her around. And I was like, okay. Fine. Whatever.
Hannah ParrLittle life. That's scary.
Scott BennerHere's an older woman. She's, you know, getting towards her time, you know, to retire anyway. But the experience, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to to remake somewhere else. She was a unique person in that I don't believe that most of the money in her family came from her. I think it came from her husband. I don't think she needed to be, you know, grabbing at every dollar, and therefore, she was incredibly valuable. But I also don't know that it didn't burn her out. And I tell you that whole story to ask you, like, is there a system set up in here to keep you separated from having to give so much of yourself that you run out of stuff to give. Because I actually experienced that with what I do, and I had to set up boundaries for myself. And I was wondering if you have similar.
Hannah ParrYes. Well, I love that story about about your doctor, and I think that's just amazing that that that's the kind of thing that I think that does change lives, and and there's so many physicians that want to be able to practice that way. But, yes, to the boundaries question. I and I've worked really hard on this. And there was a time when I was in each step of my medical training. I I would wonder, can I do this with diabetes and not sacrifice my health? You know? Like, going into the night shifts, I remember my kinda the end of my training, it was fourteen days in a row of sixteen hour night shifts, and I was alone. There there was no team. So it's just me and all the pagers. And it was just like, oh, can I do this with my diabetes? Like, this is it seems so hard. Just not knowing how my ratios would change with all that. And so I had to learn that. You know, I really had to say, how can I set up my life so that I can fill up my cup first and then pour to my patients in my career? And that's hard to do, in medicine because a lot of people think of these crazy hours that doctors work. And I don't. I'm not full time right now, and it's for that reason because I I like to take care of my health. And so I I like to have a a more balanced life, and I I'm it's giving me more time to do the online education, that I'm working on, which has been wonderful. But it is I I really had to learn, you know, how how many days can I see patients, and how many hours in a row can I see patients where at the end, I'm I'm losing a little bit of empathy or my focus on details are isn't as as guide? And for me, it really is is figuring out what are those things I need to do to keep my cup full and making sure I schedule those and then working on scheduling my clinic days and my other work around it. And and it took me a really long time to get there, and it's certainly not always possible. But that that's where I feel like I'm finally able to have a routine where I'm no longer worried that I'll burn out because I feel like my job fills my cup, doesn't empty it.
Scott BennerYou know what I found is that it's a never ending line of questions and people. And the and they don't understand, like, when like, what I would notice for myself is when they would see that I was online, it would start and it if I kept going, it would never stop. It almost felt like a science fiction movie where you were you had kidnapped somebody and you were like a a demon. And you were gonna suck out some of their essence to keep you alive, but you got crazy and sucked it all out and they dried up and blew away. Like, I felt like if I if I keep if I keep facing the Internet, they'll absorb everything I have to give until I I can't anymore. Like, the because they don't see they don't see my side of it. They see that they just oh, they're just having a quick ten minute interaction with you. Mhmm. And I'm like, yeah, that's that ten minutes, then the next ten minutes, then the next one's twenty minutes, the next one's ten. And it never it kind of ends I almost couldn't equate it to in the Facebook group, which I I really adore my Facebook group, and and I think it's incredibly valuable. I'll never stop supporting it, but I had to figure out better ways to support it. Mhmm. Because if you get involved in a conversation, like, you as the reader might jump in and be like, I have a thought about this. And then, you know, and direct it at me, and then I'm like, well, then I'm responding to that. Well, you go away. You go live the rest of your life and come back six, eight hours later, maybe a day later to see if there's a response. People don't stop asking me and I get stuck there forever. And I'm just wondering, like, I guess what I was getting to, you already kind of alluded to, which is you build this this model that really helps people, but then it it's also opening you up to being pingable. And I don't know how long that can go. So then you what do you do? Do you move to a different model where you you're doing, like, on what was that next part you were talking about? Like, are you basically coaching people on specific ideas?
Creating Content and Building Community
Hannah ParrWell, I've been doing I have a YouTube channel where I do type one diabetes education mindset.
Scott BennerMhmm.
Hannah ParrThat's kind of what I've just been focusing on, you know, with with the reduced clinic hours.
Scott BennerI don't wanna speak for you. Maybe there's somebody, like, paying your way somewhere. But, like, you're trying to make a living too. Does that make a living?
Hannah ParrNo. Not at all. No. Yeah. No. It's a passion project.
Scott BennerI was gonna say what's what's the yeah. And it's like, no. No. I don't have money. I guess I have to ask, are you married?
Hannah ParrYes. I just got married on October.
Scott BennerOh, look at you. Congratulations. Very nice.
Hannah ParrYou. Yeah.
Scott BennerVery nice. This is a good boy where everyone's happy. Mom and dad are okay with us?
Hannah ParrYeah. Yeah. We got lucky. Both sides were on board.
Scott BennerSo Both sides were on board. Yeah. Trust me.
Hannah ParrYou don't always get that. I've seen
Scott Bennerit go the other way. Yeah. Yeah. So I've lived through it, by the way, in case you're wondering. Oh. So you're just you're cutting back a little bit. Are you thinking of having kids?
Hannah ParrMhmm.
Scott BennerOh, okay. Very nice. Does he have any autoimmune on his side? Let's hope no.
Hannah ParrNo. Okay. Yeah.
Scott BennerIs that part of your thought process during dating by any chance?
Hannah ParrIf the person I'm dating has autoimmune?
Scott BennerYeah. Did you ever think, like, if I get somebody else to throw into this stew, we might end up with a kid with a carrot that has diabetes? Like, you know what I mean? Like, is it Yeah. Do you think about that?
Hannah ParrI've never you know, I think in my decision to want to have children, I this kind of the science brain had to look at this idea of, okay. What is the risk if I have a baby and they have autoimmune disease or they have type one diabetes? Will that crush me? I'm so grateful for my life with diabetes. I mean, I I'm so glad I'm alive, and diabetes isn't stopping that. You know, I feel like if I were to pass it on, that would be okay. It would still be a life worth living. You know? And and so I I guess I didn't think about that.
Scott BennerSuper interesting. But that's a that's an interesting question to ask yourself. Like, if this were to happen, would this derail who I am or my life? And you thought no, so it's okay. We'll try.
Hannah ParrYeah.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. Listen. I've heard all kinds of different answers. My favorite one has always been, well, I have diabetes and I'm okay.
Hannah ParrRight.
Scott BennerThat was the I'd mow maybe the most simplistic and my my kind of favorite answer from somebody who had type one.
Hannah ParrOkay. I love that.
Scott BennerYeah. So let's pivot a little bit here. Like, I think YouTube seems impossible to get involved in and have success with. Is it working or what is your level of desire for it?
Hannah ParrYeah. I don't know. I don't even know how you define working. I feel like I'm helping people, and that that's the point. Right? It is to put evidence based information out there, information that comes from my personal experience combined with, you know, working in practice. And and I get comments from people who say that it's done something that's helped them or they've learned something or had a different perspective on something. Yeah. And that's what makes me wanna keep doing it. I mean, slow slow growth. I'm posting about one video a week and and about maybe 2,000 subscribers right now, and it's monetized. So I get paid for the ads that come up, in the middle of the the videos now, but it it's not making much.
Scott BennerI was gonna say, tell the people you're making untold tens of dollars. Is that right?
Hannah ParrYeah. Got a 100 a month, I think. That's where I am.
Scott BennerAlmost 10 tens, Scott. Let me just tell you.
Hannah ParrSo worth the time? Probably not. But I it makes me feel good. And I think if I can grow if I can grow it, it it could be a good
Scott Bennerthing for more people. I have to tell you Yeah. When I talked to Jenny, do you from like, you've heard probably heard on the podcast.
Hannah ParrIntegrative diabetes, Jenny? Yeah. Yeah. Of course.
Scott BennerWhen I talked to Jenny privately, because I always wonder, like, I don't like, she's not an employee. I don't pay her to be on the podcast. Like, I mean, you guys listen. Like, there's no ads for her on it, like, back to where she works or anything like that. She's just Jenny there. And I one day was like, why do you keep saying yes when I ask you to do this? You know? And she just told me one day, she's like, I just don't feel like I help enough people. Mhmm. That was it. Like, she's like, I work with people all day long. I mean, there's an argument to be made that Jenny's helping more people with diabetes than most people are. And yet, she said very similarly to, I guess, how I feel about it, like, it's such simple information. Really, what you just need is time to give it to people. And I just like that she's like, I like that your podcast reaches a lot of people at once, and I feel like I'm helping a lot of people. And I'm like Mhmm. Awesome. So we've been doing it together for such a long time now. But I guess that's kinda what you're looking for too because, I mean, if you're working part time, then you are making a living. You're keeping your hand in, you know, you're keeping your license going and all that stuff. You can decide what you're gonna do about building your family, but you're trying to reach more people too. So you're telling me you are not, like you don't have, like, visions of grandeur. You don't imagine that one day, there'll be, you know, a 100,000 people following your YouTube channel, and it'll be cranking down $50 a month and but that's not your goal. Your goal is find people, help them.
Hannah ParrYeah. I think my goal is just to create a space where people can find the answers that they're looking for. Yeah. And I think my thing is really the mindset piece. You know, that that was hardest part for me with diabetes is that how do you not let it define you? How do you imagine your life with it and not hold yourself back? How do you know that you can do the things that you wanna do and bring diabetes with you? And and I think I spent a lot of time feeling broken. You know? Even after I kinda dropped to shame, I still felt broken for a long time. And that was something my doctor's office could never help me with. And so I'm starting a support group next month that's on Zoom that'll it'll just be a place to have those types of conversations with people. So, yeah, I I would love to help more people. And I think I I feel Jenny in in that is waking up every day thinking, am I helping as many people as I could help? You know, with the the knowledge and the education I've taken the time to get, is there more that I could be doing that would be helping more people? That I I don't know how to answer what enough is. And and I think that's probably something I need to work on is is feeling content with that. But I think it is. It's just it's touching lives for for people who are looking for the answers that they can't find other places. And and then the more I can grow that, the better. But but yeah.
Scott BennerDo you think of it more as, like, therapy, like, group therapy or, you know, getting a bunch of people together to have a similar I mean, the way I I kind of big picture think about it is is that if you understand in general terms and maybe a little more specifically how to manage insulin, that alleviates a lot of the other stuff. It doesn't get rid of all of it, but at least it lifts it lifts a lot of the weight. And that, in my mind, if I could lift that weight for people, then they'd maybe have more, you know, brain power, time, space to think about the other stuff and, you know, maybe more about the, you know, the mental impact of of having type one. But it sounds to me like I mean, you had such an impact of this in your own personal life that this is your am I right about this? Like, this is where you trip the most, so you're trying to you feel like you're trying to help people with it. Is it because you feel like you have an answer or because you feel like the answer is getting a bunch of people together and just, you know, saying this is a problem. We should all be paying attention to it.
Hannah ParrThis is a great question. Yeah. I I think a little bit of both. I I think I remember when I was starting college, and I didn't know I still had no idea what my life could look like with diabetes. I didn't know if anybody would wanna marry me. I didn't know if I could have kids or if that was possible. I just had so so many knowledge gaps. And I remember just wishing that if I could see somebody, you know, five years ahead of me living their life with type one diabetes in a way that it worked, that would really help. You know, if I if I could just see how this could work in people's lives Mhmm. You know, what's available in in the camps that I went to and then now volunteer at really helped me with those examples of people, you know, a couple steps ahead of me that that had figured out that next chapter. But I went to a conference. It was called students with diabetes. It's not around anymore, but it was Nicole Johnson who was miss America in 1999. She has type one diabetes, and she ran the conference, but she would talk a lot about her life, and and she brought her daughter. And that was the first time that I realized that people with type one diabetes could have kids in my twenties. You know? I just didn't know. And I just felt like, wow. If I if I could just learning about how she lived her life really helped me figure out that I could live mine in more options than I thought before. And so it's that. You know? It's a little bit of wanting to pass on what I've learned, my trials and errors, and also knowing that when we bring people together and we feel like we're not the only one having the stress about diabetes, that it sent brings a sense of community that helps us grow. So I think it's both.
Scott BennerCan I dig into the I didn't know, like, that phrasing?
Hannah ParrYeah. Yeah.
Scott BennerYou didn't know people could have babies, but you knew, but you just never thought about it. Right? Like, it just seemed like an impossibility or a thing you hadn't dreamt of yet, and then you saw some because you didn't, maybe I'm wrong, but you didn't fundamentally not understand that a person with type one couldn't have a baby. You just thought, like, how would that possibly work? Am I following that correctly?
Hannah ParrNo. I really didn't know if it was, like, if it would be something that would be healthy to do.
Scott BennerOh, I see. Okay.
Hannah ParrYeah. I didn't know I didn't know if it wasn't advised or if it wasn't possible. I really didn't know. Yeah. No one ever told me.
Scott BennerI think we're both saying the same thing just slightly differently. So okay. You didn't think that if I met a boy and we had sex, a baby wouldn't come out. That's not what you were saying.
Hannah ParrRight. Yeah. Right. Okay. Right. Yeah. I didn't think I couldn't get pregnant. I just didn't think it could work. Right?
Scott BennerRight.
Hannah ParrSo there's yeah.
Scott BennerI understand. I'm I just wanna make sure I understood it. I was like, is she the doctor? I was like, I don't I don't.
Hannah ParrWell, this was early twenties. Right? This is like right after high school when you're trying to figure out what you wanna do for your life. And I just I just didn't have a lot of women in my life with type one diabetes, and I didn't know it was possible to have a family.
Scott BennerI know exactly what you're saying. I I don't mean to joke my way through it.
Hannah ParrJust yeah. Yeah. Right.
The Value of Supplementation and Education
Scott BennerAwesome. And what are you seeing? Like, with your effort, like, twofold. With your effort with, you know, working in, you know, private practice the way you are, are you seeing better outcomes for people? Let's start there at work. Like, do you are you seeing better outcomes for people? Are they happier? Are there real measurables that, you know, you can point to and say, look, this is really working for them, or are they still struggling and you're like, oh, this isn't helping either?
Hannah ParrYeah. That's a good question. So there are always, I think, patients that you feel like you're doing your best to help and they're not getting the improvement that you would want. But I think in the model I'm in, the direct primary care model, I have a lot of patients with prediabetes that we reverse. A lot of people with type two diabetes that we can help lose weight and get off medications. Have a lot of patients who I teach about nutrition, and they find a food plan that works for them. And we have a monoglucose monitor. We do a nutrition log, and we can make tweaks. We find a lot more nutrient deficiencies because I look for them. You know, I feel like the amount of care that we can provide is a little bit more holistic because we have more time to talk to them about their lives. And with the type of training that I I got, I I really do. I ask all my patients about their nutrition, their sleep, their movement, their stress level, their relationships, their family history, what their current symptoms are. Yeah. We have a lot more time to talk about those things, and and so I think we find more answers in in patients who at least seek this type of care are often the ones that are motivated to change. And so I think it works for that way. It's not that I'm necessarily better, but I do think that that it is not uncommon for me to help patients move the health trajectory in a right direction, not just put them on more medications.
Scott BennerIf there's a person who's interested in asking, then you find that if you're able to deliver the answer to them, these are the same people who are more willing to follow through and try to make it work.
Hannah ParrMhmm.
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrYeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Scott BennerIf in a regular practice, somebody came in and you were just like, hey. You don't have enough vitamin d. And they might be like, I don't care what you think, doctor person, and then not take their vitamin d. But if somebody came to you and said, hey. I am having a problem. I wanna understand in any way that you can maybe make sense to me. I'm motivated to be here. I wanna do something. Say, well, your vitamin d is low. Take some more vitamin d. That person might be like, god. Awesome. Give it to me. I'm glad I found out about this. How does that feel when it goes the other way? Like, how does it feel to have somebody come into your office only because they have to? Because they know if they don't come to see you, they don't get their insulin prescription, for example. And then you get there and highlight a bunch of things for them to do, and then three months later come back and recognize that none of those things happen. Is it difficult for you not to just feel like, oh, they don't care? Are you able to see all the other life things that might be possibly in the way?
Hannah ParrThis is such a struggle, I think, in medicine for people. On this side, you know, is that there are two ways. I think it's it's hard when you you wanna help someone, and you go give them the tools that you think are going to help them and they come back and they didn't apply them. That's hard. And and it's easy, I think, especially if a physician or clinician is is going through burnout to just say, well, it's know, they weren't gonna do it anyway. It wasn't on me.
Scott BennerNoncompliant. Not my fault. Let's keep moving. Right.
Hannah ParrBut but I can't do that because I feel like, I don't know. Maybe that's my personality.
Scott BennerWell, maybe it's because you have diabetes, and you know that there's more to it than it.
Hannah ParrThere's so much more. Yeah. And so I think, okay. Well, it I think, what did I miss? You know? What am I not am I explaining it in a way where they're not understanding the importance of it? Am I missing that there's a big social emotional barrier in the way of doing this? You know, is it that I'm not you know, I I really I I think I'm hard on myself in that setting because I want to help people who come to me regardless of their motivation to change. You know? I mean, they're coming to the doctor's office in order to get what they need. And as much as I can say things in the right way, describe the importance, highlight, you know, how it's gonna be aligned with the things that are connected to their goals. You know, whatever it is, I I I think I'm constantly changing the way I present things or the way I ask questions to people because because that's the goal. You know? It's it's it's really hard to see people you can't. You feel like you didn't help. Right? It it doesn't feel good, Scott. It's it's hard and it's constantly helping me grow and become better at listening and better at explaining and learning, you know, what types of things are better to explain than others. And and it's been interesting. I've I've got some patients that are engineers, and I know they're data driven. These are the people that want the before and after lab. They want the study with the percentage risk. Right? Like, they're data driven. And there'll be other people who they they don't care about the numbers. They don't wanna know the prevalence of the thing or the risk. They just wanna know how they can feel better. Right? And they wanna talk about their emotions about it. And it's it's so interesting trying to learn personality types as you you are in medicine because
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrThe way you describe something matters so much.
Scott BennerYeah. For sure. I'm gonna share something with you. Try very hard not to, imagine it in your mind, but I was in the shower this morning. Uh-oh. Okay. And I was using my water pick because my dentist told me so. Mhmm. And it occurred to me that if I had my old job working in a sheet metal shop that I had when I was 20, if I was still raising two little kids, if I was doing any other number of things in any other portions of my life, I would not have the time to stand in my shower water picking my gums. The only reason I'm able to do it is because I actually have the time to do it because of how my life is set up because I make a, I almost cursed, I make a podcast. And, like, so if I take five more minutes in the shower, the whole world's not gonna burn down or I'm not gonna miss a bus or be late to something and somebody's gonna fire me over, you know, like that kind of stuff. And then I started to think, how many people has this dentist told, use a water pick who went, wait, I can't afford a water pick. Or they bought the damn thing and now it sits on the counter because they don't have any time to do the thing. You know? And then they get back to him and he goes, oh, these people, they just don't care about their teeth. And I'm like, that's not the case at all. And I'm coupling that with this feeling, this idea, something I've been doing with my daughter recently is I've been waiting for when we have quiet moments and I hug her, but don't look her in the face and tell her quietly that I know she has to do more than most people. That's all. I don't follow it up with if you need something from me, let me know or I don't I just say, I just want you to know, I know you have to do more than most people. That's it. I've just I see you and that's all I give her when I do that. Because any mourn she gets uncomfortable, if you give her too much yeah. I think if she looks at me, I think she I think she feels like she's letting herself or me down. Do you know what I mean? Like, so it's just kind of a quiet voice that says, I see your life and there's a lot of decisions you're making and a lot of things that are happening to you that don't happen to other people and you're still you're still doing it. Like, it it's really quite something. And I just don't think that in a regular day to day, she has time to think that like, to give herself that positive feedback. And that if I give it in the wrong way, even though it feels right to me because I've tried it so many different ways, but this is the way I found. Like, just a hug from behind. I see you. I know what's happening. I'm on your side if you need something. That's it. Done. I'm seeing a real shift in our attitude over it too.
Hannah ParrSo That's beautiful.
Scott BennerI don't know how many people you have to talk to you before you realize. Like, I'll I'll tell you right now. I'll say this over and over again. I don't think people are noncompliant. I think people are in just different situations where they don't have the time, the money, the expertise, the idea, whatever. All these different things that could help them to do this thing. Maybe they don't even realize how important it is. I've never met a person who doesn't wanna feel well.
Hannah ParrRight.
Scott BennerThat's my point, I guess.
Hannah ParrYeah.
Scott BennerYeah. And then I used to be very angry at doctors for not just pushing through it till I interviewed 50 or a 100 of them. And I realized they're just people too. And they have Mhmm. Sometimes very limited education. The education, you know, look at all the stuff you're trying to jam into someone's head before you put them out into the world. It's still not enough. They might not have a health issue, so they don't even understand. They're just giving you a, b, and c. You come there. It's I can see how easy it would be to be a physician sit in a room and go, my god. You made all this effort to come here, and then you didn't do the thing. You're an idiot. And then why am I gonna put my time in you because I barely have any time and I have kids at home and a wife at home too, and I've gotta go home and live my own life. I don't have enough bandwidth for you not to not to pull your own weight in this situation. And I can see how I would feel that way as a doctor and maybe lose sight of the fact that they also have those issues at home as well. The whole thing's just very delicate. So Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's a fix. I just think that if we put enough options out there that maybe enough options will cover enough needs, like, in the way people need. You said something earlier about how everyone's different. You have to talk to them differently. Like, maybe if there are enough options and they're lucky enough to find the one that, fits them better, they'll have a better outcome.
Hannah ParrYeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I love that. And I think you're right. It's priorities. I mean, that person that didn't take their vitamin d, you know, I don't know. Maybe they have a family member in the ICU, and that just wasn't the most urgent thing that month. Right?
Scott BennerYeah.
Hannah ParrYou just don't know. And and I think that's part of medicine is when we have more time with people and we can learn where they are and meet them where they are, that's you know, that that helps. You know? It's it's it's like your dentist. Maybe if back when you had your kids and they were young, you said, you know, just try water picking twice a week Yeah. You know, for thirty seconds. Awesome. Not even two minutes. Right?
Scott BennerLike I'm Maybe that's what you needed. I'm ex my kid has diabetes. I can't water pick my teeth, but thank you.
Hannah ParrGreat.
Scott BennerNo. I you know, you just said something. You used the vitamin d as an example. So let's, like, kinda focus on this at the end because I'm I am very focused on this in my in my own life and on the podcast too. Supplementation in many different ways. Like, I think if you say that out loud, people think you're talking about vitamins, you know, zinc, d, stuff like that. Yes. That. But other stuff too, like, I now see my GLP medication as supplementation. My body doesn't have enough of something to do something optimally, and so I put it in artificially and it makes up the gap. Right? So the GLP to me feels like a supplement. Mhmm. I look at, you know, simple things, vitamin d, not getting sick as often, like that kind of stuff. I supplement myself with vitamin d every day. I think the problem with supplementation is that it doesn't flip a switch. So when you say to a 25 year old, hey. Your vitamin d is low. Just take this, and a few months from now, you're gonna feel better. By the time they feel better, they don't even remember it was from the vitamin d, and then they probably stop taking it. That's a huge problem in medicine. It's a huge problem with humans is that, you know, this has been proven over and over again. I think that it was it really got a light shown on it twenty years ago around, like, depression medications. People would come in depressed. They'd give them a medication. They'd stop feeling depressed. The very first thing they would do when they stop feeling depressed, stop taking the depression medication. Because they were like, well, I'm not depressed anymore. I don't need depression medication. That's a very human thing. I just don't know how supplementing how you're gonna get it through to most people when the masses hear, oh, you took a GLP to lose weight, you're cheating. Like, when that's somebody's like, you know what mean? I don't know. Like, I I feel like maybe there's always just gonna be a segment of the population who's just not gonna buy in. But how do you get people to, I don't know, take their vitamins on a on a basic level, especially with autoimmune?
Hannah ParrYeah. I think you I think people are motivated to do something when they truly understand the impact that it can make on their lives. And and like you said, that instant feedback is more helpful. Right? Like, if you take insulin, we see it work immediately. Like, okay. I know that works. You know? I don't have to wait three months for the vitamin d to make a change. Mhmm. But but I think that it I think there's a knowledge gap. And when people understand the why, they're often more likely to. I I I have a lot of people who don't understand why things. You know? And it's it's that's harder. I think it's human nature to not do something if you don't really believe that it's gonna do something positive. Yeah. But but if you're bought into the science behind it, you understand it enough to know that it could be something good in the future, We do things that don't have instant gratification even though it is, you know, not as likely. In society, it's still possible. And as humans, we do that. Right? We, like, go to school forever so we can finally get the job we want, or we push gratification off, and it's often just a knowledge gap. So so I think education is is the answer for that if people are are concerned or or or struggling there.
Podcast Reflections and Final Thoughts
Scott BennerYeah. Well, I'll share this with you. I think that a portion of my job, shouldn't say it that way, but a part of what I do is I think I'm a cheerleader.
Hannah ParrYeah. Yeah.
Scott BennerI think I'm a I'm the person that stands behind you and goes, you could definitely do this. Like, you should go out there and start swinging your hands. I think you're gonna win. And did you get beat up a little bit? That's okay. We'll do it again. Learn from your mistakes. Try out, you know, and we'll go back at it a little better prepared the next time. I think that somewhere between information, community, not feeling alone, understanding that failure might be part of success, those things really are like, theyre all paramount, oddly enough, mixed together, then delivered to you in the way that hopefully you can pick it up. But also, you said there's so many voices on the podcast that part of the reasoning behind having so many regular people on the podcast all the time is that no one out there listening is gonna hear themselves in a diabetes influencer. You know what I mean? No one's gonna hear themselves in the shiny mom that donates all of her time to the JDRF. I know they changed their name, but they shouldn't have because I'm not on
Hannah Parrthe phone. I know. I keep saying JDRF too.
Scott BennerThose voices are good to hear sometimes, but not every day. Like, daily, it just needs to be people who have never once been asked to talk into a microphone and share and share their story. Like, that's my idea behind the way I do the the interview stuff in the podcast. Like, I just want people who have no story to tell, they think, when they start, and then let them begin to talk. You know, hopefully, they'll get out a little something that somebody listening will go, oh, okay. You know what? I, you know, that makes sense to me. I I've seen that before in my own life. What did they say fix it for him? You know, and maybe move people in the other direction. I mean, do you do stuff like this often? Do you get interviewed with any frequency?
Hannah ParrOff and on. Yeah. Yeah. I have. Yeah.
Scott BennerSo you have a way that that kinda goes for you sometimes. Did it go that way today with me?
Hannah ParrAs far as the question and answers and kind of the flow of things? Yeah. Yeah. I would say
Scott BennerIt felt good? Definitely. Okay.
Hannah ParrYeah. Good. Yeah. No. No. I'd say it it definitely I think it's that that question and answer, but I love that when we scheduled this, we didn't have any topics. And I walked in today just wanting to connect with you and maybe share something that could help somebody out there. And I love that we just let our conversation go where it took us. Yeah. To me, that's that's more authentic, and it I think it gets us further. You know, it's sharing things.
Scott BennerI listen. I'll tell people listening right now. I mean, we're, you know, we're we're at the end here. We're done. But I'll tell people right now that when you said, like, how the practice you you work in and what you do and when you said I have a YouTube channel, I want you to know and I don't mean this disrespectfully. I had no idea about any of that. I was like, oh, that's interesting. Part of my preparation is not understanding what it is I'm about to talk about because I just think it lends to me, I don't know, saying stuff that anybody would say in that situation. I try really hard for that not to happen. Like, a couple of times during this conversation, you said, oh, that's a good question. And I thought she's either very well born and knows how to make me feel good, or I actually asked her a good question.
Hannah ParrNo. You definitely I think you asked me questions I really care about, you know, and things that we talked about are so important to me, and it wasn't, you know, just like, what are the rates of this, or what's the prevalence of that, or what do you do in this situation medically? You know, it's it's the real kinda truth behind my life, and and so I appreciate your your perspective there.
Scott BennerOh, I'm glad. I appreciate that. I I, you know, the truth is is that if somebody thinks, oh, I'm gonna go on that podcast and I'll and it'll make my YouTube channel bigger. Like, stuff doesn't work that way.
Hannah ParrRight.
Scott BennerI can't do anything today that's gonna help you. You're gonna go make that thing. I'll tell you right now, here's how it's gonna work. You're gonna go make that thing, and if it helps people, they'll tell somebody else about
Hannah Parrit. Right.
Scott BennerYou know, I got approached recently about going and, like, doing an interview somewhere, and a person was very nice, and I have absolutely no like, nothing against, like, the idea of doing it. But I was like, I don't really wanna do that. I don't see the point in it. And, you you know, like, what am I gonna go talk people into liking me and then they'll they're gonna come try what they'll grab the wrong episode once they'll be like, that guy's asshole. And I'll be like, oh, great. There we go. All that work to get somebody to listen once in the in the one episode they pop onto, they, you know, they didn't like a thing I said. Or, you know, you know, a person told me recently, it took him a while to get started with the podcast. The parent of a child with type one, imagine this if you can, Hannah.
Hannah ParrOkay.
Scott BennerFirst episode that comes on for her is a woman telling the story of the of the school nurse giving her daughter two hundred units of insulin by mistake.
Hannah ParrOh, no.
Scott BennerYeah. Can you imagine if that was your first episode of the podcast? Oh my god. Right? Somebody's like, well, you come and you'll tell your story. And I'm like, I don't I don't want to. Please leave me alone. I was
Hannah Parrlike Right. It's like you've got the people, Skye. You found
Scott Bennerthem. I'm like, leave me alone, please. I just don't know, like, what the point is. And that person was like, well, you'll expose yourself to a different audience. And I was like, I don't care. But I didn't mean I don't care like that. I meant, like, if this what I really come to believe is that if this doesn't grow organically through helped people telling someone else, then the then the growth is sort of meaningless.
Hannah ParrRight.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. So anyway, like, you know, I hope your thing does great, but because Thanks. Yeah. Because if it does, it'll mean you're helping people.
Hannah ParrRight.
Scott BennerYou know? Yeah. And I want that. That's the thing I want.
Hannah ParrWell, you're doing great there. I was I was telling my husband last night. I was like, oh, the juice box podcast. I don't know anybody with type one diabetes that doesn't know about this podcast that heard it from somebody else with type one diabetes. I mean, that's that's it. I mean, that's it it's really amazing how well you spread yourself, yourself, but but it's it's amazing amazing that it's all through word-of-mouth. Well, I think a lot of people can see themselves in you. You know, you're a parent that cares deeply about their child with type one diabetes, and you're trying to figure it out. You know? And and then you're interviewing other people doing the same. And I I think that it's it's kind of a calming voice just to know that, hey. Somebody did it. I can do it too.
Scott BennerI appreciate that. Thank you. And I have a nice deep voice. Really, that's really all that matters. So, you have a nice speaking voice, Hannah, that must people must be, like, listening to you. Do you work
Hannah ParrThank you.
Scott BennerDo you use a lot of lighting and all that stuff, or are you just, like, holding your phone up in front of your face, or what are you doing?
Hannah ParrI live in an apartment, pretty close to Downtown Austin, and they actually have a, like, a they call it a podcast room, but it's basically like a little kinda WeWork space. Yeah. And it's never and it's never used. So I just go in there with my phone and balance it in front of the window, and it's like a little bookshelf background. It's all pretty.
Scott BennerNice.
Hannah ParrThat works out pretty good.
Scott BennerThat's awesome. Good for you. I'm I'm glad you're enjoying it. I I really hope it does what you hope for it to do. You can tell people where how do they find that, please?
Hannah ParrI am on I'm doctor Hannah Parr on Instagram and on YouTube, and that's probably the best place to get started.
Scott BennerP a r r? Mhmm. Hannah. Hannah classic spelling?
Hannah ParrYes. H a n n a h. Yeah. Awesome. It sounds funny to say that because I just changed my name just this past month. So I feel like I'm I'm introducing myself newly with the the new last name.
Scott BennerOh, yeah. You got married and you had to change did did you want to change your name or did the was it a sticking point?
Hannah ParrNo. I really wanted to. I like that we had a unified family name growing up, and so that was important to me. Nice. But I kept my maiden name as my middle name now, so it's still a part of me.
Scott BennerQuestion you don't have to answer, but I'll Okay. I'll end on this because I find the people your age and like, younger people have real opinions on this. Do you combine your money? Did you get one bank account, are you keeping your money separate?
Hannah ParrOh, you know, this is such a good question. When we started talking about this, we're like, what what do people do? We don't even know. We have trashy p t. We were lost. I mean, really, it was like, what's a what are ways to strategize this? So we combined our finances, but we are keeping our own, like, our personal savings that we have up until now in our four zero one k retirement stuff. We're gonna keep that all in our own name and then have a combined checking account where our paychecks go and we, like, live out of that.
Scott BennerLook at you. Very old fashioned. Very nice. Yeah. I like it.
Hannah ParrYeah. It's it was interesting. It's kinda it's something I hadn't thought about a lot before it got time to figure it out.
Scott BennerI'm pretty old. I'm from the world where my money is her money and her money is her money. And that's how that works. And then they just let me eat. So I think it's fantastic.
Hannah ParrIt's like the one pot strategy. That's what my dad's like right now. It's like we just have one pot and we figure it out from there and I like that.
Scott BennerWe're either in this or we're not. It's kinda how I figured it. Well, good for you. I I I wish you a ton of success. Sounds like you're gonna build a family soon. I hope you have a lot of good luck with that too.
Hannah ParrThanks.
Scott BennerThanks for coming on and doing this with me.
Hannah ParrYeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was great to talk to you more, and, and I just I'm so impressed with what you're doing and just so glad that you're a voice for people.
Scott BennerOh, you're very
Hannah Parrhelped me and countless people, and it really I think you're very humble in in how you talk about how people wouldn't like you, but it really does change lives. And I know you know that, but it doesn't hurt to hear it again, I'm sure.
Scott BennerThank you. I like I find if I mix my humility with my sarcasm, it's hard to understand what I'm saying. And then it's pretty much that's the only level of comfort I can find in all this. The truth is that, like, Hannah, seriously, I I won't I won't bore you any longer. But I I am not completely comfortable being the person who's helped all these people. It's hard to be comfortable with that. And it's hard and it's hard it's difficult to say out loud what you've done because then it just sounds it's garish. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, I could sit here and lay out for you what I think I've done for people and I think it's all I'd be accurate about it and it would sound like I was bragging. But I don't feel braggadocious about it at all. And so when somebody says something nice, just kinda go like, oh, thank you because you because either I'm gonna say, oh, no. You're being too kind or I'm gonna go, no. You're actually you're right, but you haven't said enough. Let me explain to you.
Hannah ParrRight.
Scott BennerI don't wanna be that person because I'm not. And the other person that just kinda feels uncomfortable, I'm trying hard not to feel uncomfortable. So I just use sarcasm and bad humor to try to skirt my way through it, which I think I'm doing pretty well so far. Thank you. I really do appreciate it. Hold on one second for me. I'll let you get back to your life.
Hannah ParrOkay.