Eat Off Your Toilet Seat

Hank talks about how your toilet is actually one of the cleanest places in your house, despite its function. Research has shown that cutting boards, dish towels and sponges have FAR more fecal bacteria on them than your toilet seat, highlighting the very sophisticated scientific ways we have of detecting bacteria as well as the sophisticated natural ways our bodies have of taking care of low levels of that harmful bacteria. So that's good news...




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References for this episode can be found in the Google document here: http://dft.ba/-3fyo

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  People & Blogs

[TheHarleyEvans]

this is why i burn everything after i use it whilst screaming KILL IT WITH FIRE

[DoctorNickSaidHAI]

I like how everybody's afraid of germs when in fact they probably help us more than hurt us. I mean, that's what the whole immune system is built for. If you don't give it germs to practice on, it can't train for new germs that come around, thus explaining why the cleaner people get sick more often. Now I'm not saying dirty people (like not showering, etc.) don't get sick (perhaps as often), because they definitely do... I'm just saying being TOO clean has major effects as well. :U

[OuroborosChoked]

It was not intended as a guilt trip. It's about the BIG PICTURE. You really have no social conscience, do you? It's all about you, isn't it?

Well, enjoy your less practiced immune system. I'll live to be 100... you can die at 65 of a minor infection that might've been stopped... had it not been for people carelessly abusing antibiotics and antibacterial sanitizers...

Cheers.

[RusticKey]

Yes.

[James O'Brien]

but not all bad bacteria

:)

[Balee Tong]

Kills bacteria even below the waterline. Says every toilet cleaning product.....because obviously, we like drinking from the toilet.



[woodfur00]

The "think of the children" guilt trip doesn't work on me. I don't plan on having kids, and I'll keep my house as clean as I want it, thanks.

[OuroborosChoked]

The thing with encouraging resistant bacteria is that your immune system has a harder time fighting things that are resistant to being killed. However, the more practice it has fighting invaders, the stronger it gets. If you kill all the things it would practice on and only leave the things it'll have a hard time fighting... can you guess what happens next?

Now imagine bringing someone with a less-developed immune system into this environment... like a young child. Now the child is sick. A lot.

[natethehuman]

It's like we watched the same video...

[woodfur00]

So what, we just let them multiply? Think about this. We could use soap, and have a large number of resistant bacteria, OR we could not use soap, and have the exact same number of resistant bacteria but with the addition of zillions of regular ones. I think I'll stick with option A.

[RusticKey]

We alone have trillions of bacteria in just our intestines, :\

[OuroborosChoked]

1. If you use your toilet seat as a cutting board, it would contain the same germs as your cutting board because you're using your toilet seat like a cutting board.

2. If you microwave your sponge to kill *most* of the bacteria, only the strong (or microwave resistant) bacteria will survive... meaning you're only helping the bacteria get stronger. Please don't do that. While we're at it...

3. Stop using antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer, and misusing antibiotics for the same reason.