Forever Chemicals, Tap Water Toxins, and the Truth About Clean Hydration with Helen Christoni
Jul 28, 2025
WELCOME TO EPISODE 252
In today’s episode of Beautifully Broken, I chat with water advocate Helen Christoni about what’s really flowing through American pipes—and how easy it can be to switch from suspicion to solution. Together we unpack the toxin-laden cocktail in most tap water (think microplastics, PFAS, arsenic, chlorine, chloramines, lead, drug residue), and explore how municipalities manage—but don’t eliminate—contamination.
Helen explains the difference between pitcher filters, sink/fridge filters, reverse osmosis, distillers, and full home systems—emphasizing NSF certifications, tank maintenance, remineralization, and how you can both detox and hydrate safely. We also dive into the brand‑new AquaTrue shower filter, because what you absorb on your skin matters as much as what you drink.
If clarity, energy, beauty, or toile health are your goals, this episode arms you with actionable, science‑based tools to upgrade your water—and protect your cells at the source.
Episode Highlights
[03:22] Helen Christoni’s journey from beauty entrepreneur to clean water advocate
[06:52] What’s really in your tap water: PFAS, pharmaceuticals, arsenic, chlorine, lead
[09:47] Why municipal treatment doesn’t protect you—and the risk of infrastructure decay
[17:38] Pitcher vs. sink vs. RO vs. distillation: What works, what doesn’t
[23:57] AquaTru’s unique 4-stage filtration process explained
[28:16] The first AquaTru shower filter: why it matters for your skin, lungs, and lymph
[39:52] How to scale your water solution: from budget filters to full home systems
[46:15] The power of clean water during illness, recovery, and peak performance
[47:58] Helen’s beautifully broken moment—and how stillness helps her heal
LINKS & RESOURCES
Buy AquaTrue Water Filters: http://aquatruwater.com/beautifullybroken
BEAM Minerals: http://beamminerals.com/beautifullybroken
Use Code: BEAUTIFULLYBROKEN for discount
Silver Biotics: [https://bit.ly/3JnxyDD]
Use Code: BEAUTIFULLYBROKEN for discount
CONNECT WITH FREDDIE
Work with Me: https://www.beautifullybroken.world/biological-blueprint
Website and Store: (http://www.beautifullybroken.world)
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YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/@freddiekimmel
FULL EPISODE INTERVIEW
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Freddie Kimmel (00:01.248)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the beautifully broken podcast. I am here with Helen Crestoni. Welcome to the show.
Helen Christoni (00:08.119)
Thank you, it's so nice to be here, Freddie. Thanks for having me.
Freddie Kimmel (00:11.342)
This is very topical. We are coming up to the soon launch of the biological blueprint. We're going to talk about all the regulatory systems of the body and how we can use not only ancient wisdom but modern technology to maintain a terrain that grows health, just like a healthy soil that we would for our favorite little plant. And water is such a big part of that. I want to ask you, what lights you up about water?
Helen Christoni (00:40.413)
I mean, think that water, mean, you die without water. You know what I mean? You can last for quite a while without food, but keeping hydrated, water is vital for health. And I think that there's a lot of misconceptions about water, pure water, not pure water. And I think people really don't know what to do. And so I really love to educate about the...
Freddie Kimmel (00:45.634)
Ballad. Yeah.
Helen Christoni (01:06.997)
options that people have as it relates to their water. And also, like, just kind of raise awareness for what some people might not know about, like, everything that's, there's a lot of bad stuff in our tap water. I think people don't really understand that, that some of the health correlations to what's lurking in our tap water.
Freddie Kimmel (01:27.906)
Amazing and we're gonna get into that and there's so many things we could do with our lives So what what inspired you to be involved in the space of we'll say longevity or amplifying others health?
Helen Christoni (01:38.019)
Sure, I I started in the beauty business. I was in the beauty business for several years and I had my own health issues. You know, I was diagnosed very early with severe osteoporosis. I had all kinds of hormonal fluctuations much earlier than most people do. And so when I was having these health challenges as a really healthy person,
I reached out to the CEO of Ida Living, who I worked with previously, and I was like, my bones are breaking, I'm not healthy, please tell me what to do, because I held him in such regard, and he was like, purify your air and purify your water. Make sure you're removing the toxic bourbon. And I found myself in this environment, in the beauty industry, where I was literally mainlining phallates and all these harmful chemicals all day long, and I was such
big part of that problem, you know, that I really had to do like, like, check what I was doing with my life. And so I got very disillusioned with mainstream beauty, and just how toxic that environment can be. And I came here to Living and I started consulting. And when I learned about
aqua true, water purification, as I learned more about the impact it has on people's health, I felt very compelled to start sharing this conversation on social media, whoever would listen, my friends, like you're having problems, purify your water, know, like, and I like removing environmental toxins from my surroundings, really kind of putting my own health in order has been game changing for me. And I just want to share it with people.
So I now spend my days educating on the importance of pure air, pure water, and how important it is for foundational health.
Freddie Kimmel (03:33.324)
Yeah. Amen. As you're saying that, you know, the, the, the beauty industry, which one of my besties came, she was one of the very, very high end hairdressers and colorists in California. And on the backside of her career was rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme disease, you know, all of popped up in her terrain. And then very interesting, she had areas on her hand where she's like, this is where I would always nick my fingers with my scissors.
And she has really bad arthritis and a couple of these finger joints, is really, you know, just again, interesting correlation. I've heard that many, many times from people coming out of the beauty industry that they are saddled with such severe autoimmune issues that they have to stop practicing.
Helen Christoni (04:18.039)
Well, I I also have a bestie, very famous hairdresser, also colorist. And I mean, he has cancer. He's had cancer for the last seven or eight years. And if you were to ask that person what they think, he really thinks it's from the just being surrounded by chemicals. And so I think it's so important that people really pay attention to their environment and educate themselves. know, like, of course, we're out here. We're doing the things. We're living our life.
really understanding what can be adding contaminants to your environment is super, super important.
Freddie Kimmel (04:55.63)
So let's talk about if we could go in and talk about tap water and different water tables within the US. It's usually where I like to start with people. What is your experience and how do you like to educate people on what is coming out of the tap?
Helen Christoni (05:12.579)
Well, I mean, first and foremost, think everybody needs to run their water report, right? So for those of you who aren't driving right now, if you're at a desk or when you get to one later, go to ewg.org. And in the right hand corner, you can run your tap water report. And you can really understand what is in your municipality's tap water. understanding what that looks like is a very big aha moment.
to people. was a big aha moment to me. And I'm sure like for those of you listening, if you were in your top, you'll be like, my gosh, like just to put it, I was recently in Orlando. I was like in a mom conference for the table of moms and I was running people's water reports. And one of the ladies, she lived in Orlando, Florida, and her arsenic and her water was a thousand times the health guidelines. So a thousand times the health guidelines arsenic. So it's like when you start learning these things,
Freddie Kimmel (05:38.371)
Mm-hmm.
Helen Christoni (06:07.877)
you're like, my gosh, I need to do something with my water because I have all this arsenic in my tap water and I'm cooking with it, washing our faces with it, you know, and that's not really like, no one's signing up for that when they turn on their tap, right?
Freddie Kimmel (06:20.45)
Yeah. Where is the breakdown? How does that happen? How does it happen in a municipality in large cities that we get these? And I've looked at my reports. talk about ewg.org all the time. We talk about that in the blueprint. And again, it's a great thing to do guys. It's so simple. Brings a level of awareness. My big question is why, why are we there?
Helen Christoni (06:41.859)
Yeah, well, let's talk about it. So what happens with water? How does it even get to our house? So we have aqueducts, all these places where we collect water.
And then what happens is it goes into the infrastructure and different municipalities actually like put something in the water that coagulates the water. They put a chemical in that like separates what they think is really bad water from good water. Then they go in and they run it through their version of a filtration process, which is typically like gravel, you know, maybe a little bit of carbon. They put it through filtration. Then they
go in and disinfect the water with chlorine or chloramines to really make sure that it's potable without bacteria. then they disperse it. And on the journey,
to our homes, like it may be in pretty good shape for the most part, like, you know, when it leaves the municipality or your water district. But what happens is the journey traveled. First of all, there's really tiny microscopic things like microplastics in the water that's not necessarily getting purified by whatever they're doing at the municipality. You know, this chlorine, this chloramines they're putting in their water, it can, you know, it's been correlated with wreaking havoc on our skin
health, our gut health, all our gut bacteria. We wonder why we're having so many gut issues here in our country. Chlorine chloramines aren't necessarily good. Disinfectants are not good for our gut health. And then the road traveled. So our infrastructure, we still have, I believe, something like 12 million lead waterways here in the United States of America. So our water is traveling through some of these lead waterways.
Freddie Kimmel (08:31.107)
Hmm.
Helen Christoni (08:36.447)
ways to get to our house. And then there's such breaks and disruptions in our in the road traveled for this water that is getting exposed to things like forever chemicals, PFOS, PFAS, know, drug residue has been found in water and all these harmful things. And then in some cases, in some municipalities, they still add things like fluoride, which is a big conversation that's been gotten a lot of awareness. And a lot of these things are really hard to remove.
And so when you get to the tap, like I think for my water report, it's like 19, we've got 19 contaminants, it's over the health guidelines. And something's just, they're really having an issue. The government just does not have control over delivering pure water to our homes.
Freddie Kimmel (09:22.638)
Mm.
Freddie Kimmel (09:26.348)
Yeah, yeah, the, you know, I was just, I know that I've looked up multiple areas where I've lived in the past and it's, it's, know, it's, it's pretty wild. You start to get into the, you start to get into the weeds. You're like every single zip code I've lived in has not only toxicants, carcinogens and maybe sometimes like eight or nine within thousands of percentages of
the range that you would want. It's pretty crazy. I'm actually a lawyer had reached out to me because I have had cancer. I have had metastatic cancer. I've had a lot of surgeries. And as a result of that, where I grew up, they were like, hey, we actually found, know, of course the lawyers are running a campaign and they're searching for people who have had this disease in this area. But they're like, every single zip code you've lived in is like, has been an area that's been submitted to our legal firm.
is a result of Pifa contamination. they're, so they're starting to tie these things all together, right? You know, it's, yeah, so it's very topical for me. Are people with groundwater that people, a lot of times people are like, I'm fine, I have a well. Are people, are they fine? Are they like, it's well water? Cause that's usually the response, like I'm good, I know my well.
Helen Christoni (10:47.795)
No, I mean, think that, you know, there's rain.
runoff and there's agriculture typically in areas where you have well water and you know as we know there's all kinds of things sprayed in the air to to help grow or not different farmland stuff like that I mean there's a whole monosano thing I mean it's it's just really important that people test their water if you have a well understand what's going on like you have to treat your water I always recommend purifying
your water, even if you have well water, just for that level of confidence. Everybody needs to know what's in their water. unfortunately, the
you know, the government isn't really in a place where they can fix the problem. They keep trying to, I have to say, there was a bipartisan bill that was passed a few years ago, but what happens is that big business just comes in and they lobby and they sue, and then, you know, then regulations get rolled back and there's this whole thing like happening between big business and government that makes it like really impossible for them to fix a problem with our water. And so it's not
around the corner, you know, like there's not going to be a solution around the corner. And so there's really simple ways to purify your water. And it's something that we can all do at home to just make sure that our drinking water and the water that we cook with is as healthy as it can be.
Freddie Kimmel (12:04.77)
Yes.
Freddie Kimmel (12:18.7)
Yeah. Amen. I also just want to join with you in that I do look at the litigation and the different bills that are passed. I also don't want to wait. I don't want to wait and I don't have agency there. now, right now, I can walk down and I know I have clean water. Now, I need to remilralize that water and I could, you know, then there's again,
I think awareness is our superpower, which always, it's just so resonant. It's been resonant for the last five years. Probably my favorite phase is that you go through these phases of like, okay, I've got good drinking water, but what about my bathtub? What about my shower? What about the different areas? And when I'm outside, maybe at the garden and it's a hose and I'm getting misted, misted, misted, misted. So there's a lot of different areas that we touch water and
I just think again, it's like, go through a list, where are you getting your hydration from? What's your bathing look like? What about your, you know, and then we have to ask the question, what do I work out in a public gym? Or do they have a filtration system? And it's not to be afraid. I just think it's like, if you're going to build a plan, just create a checklist, build your awareness, and then take one step forward, whatever that looks like. mean, I...
You know, again, I don't want to use all this information people are hearing to create fear, but like, what is that empowerment piece? So where do you start with people with that?
Helen Christoni (13:52.873)
Sure. Well, I think first of all, our bodies are detox machines, right? Like we were created to be able to detox toxins that we have in our system. And the one primary way that we do that is by drinking water.
Freddie Kimmel (13:58.754)
Yep. Yeah. Yes.
Freddie Kimmel (14:06.104)
Yeah.
Helen Christoni (14:12.003)
And so you don't want to re-tox when you're detoxing. So I think it's very important that the drinking water that we're picking up and we're using to flush and detox our body is as pure as possible. And to your point, with minerals. And unfortunately, we're not getting a lot of minerals from our tap water. You're getting way more contaminants in your tap water than you're getting minerals. And so people don't typically get their minerals from our tap water.
Freddie Kimmel (14:15.758)
Mm-hmm.
Helen Christoni (14:41.027)
But I think that that making sure that what you're like using to detox is as pure as possible is really really important and that really comes down to Purifying at home and then also I think that you know So let's say like you get your home environment really tight You can make choices on where you go to the gym and what you do But I mean if you have 80 % of that really wrapped up the 20 % of it probably can be detoxed by your own you know, I like everything in moderation here and
Freddie Kimmel (15:07.906)
Yep, I like that.
Helen Christoni (15:11.061)
I always like to tell people like right when you wake up in the morning and right before you go to bed at night, those are the two times where everyone should just drink a glass of pure water because it just gets your system, it like winds your system up and it closes your system down kind of and it's simple things like that to make ensure that we are detoxing properly and just make sure you're using purified water.
Freddie Kimmel (15:38.818)
Yeah, I love that. So let's talk about drinking water first. What are our options for what you would say, what are our options for filtration? Because we're going to have people out there with different financial scalability. It's like, what are we willing to invest in this? Let's go maybe from the bare minimum to magic wand. Freddie, this is what I wish everybody did.
Helen Christoni (16:05.268)
Sure.
And so there's different types of water filtration. And so I'll just go ahead and take you through them. First of all, you have your pitcher filters. Your pitcher filters are single carbon block pitchers. And if you're just pouring water in and it's going right through, what you see is what you get. They're typically used to remove chlorine and lead from the water and also improve the taste. The thing is with pitcher filters that people really need to be
careful is they're not necessarily certified to NSF standards to remove large amounts of contaminants for the filter life. And so there's something called NSF certifications. And what the NSF does is they have these tests in place where companies, they test their filters to filter life to remove contaminants. And so it's important that people realize what that means. And so when you look at like a picture filter,
They might have one certification, two certifications, but it's pretty limited on what they remove. Another thing with picture filters is that you need to make sure you stay on top of your filter changes. Because if you don't change that filter right when you're supposed to, it leaches contaminants, like it superdoses contaminants back into the water. I say this because there's lots of moms that send their kids to college and dorms and, know, like, we're going to get you a Brita filter.
And they don't really like, like, trust me, these these kids are super dosing their water with a contaminants, right? So like, make sure you know that, that that super dosing happens. And you don't want to be like getting to the point where you're like super dosing yourself with lead, because that's not fun, right? So so pitcher filters like, look, they're better than nothing. And it's a really good like, like, it's a first step.
Freddie Kimmel (17:42.296)
Yeah.
Helen Christoni (18:00.555)
And then you have your sink filters and you also have your fridge filters.
Sink and fridge filters are marginally better than picture filters because you need pressure to purify water. And so the more pressure you're putting through water in the purification process, the more contaminants are going to be removed. And so you can find some picture filters, not picture filters, but sink filters and fridge filters that have a little bit more, like a few more certifications or certified to remove more contaminants for the filter life. Same thing. Make sure that you're changing
those filters. Like when your light goes on in your refrigerator to change your fridge filter, please change it. You're super dosing your ice cubes if not. We can taste it. You always know when like ice tastes funny. That's super dosed ice. And at restaurants too, it's like skip the ice, right?
Freddie Kimmel (18:53.506)
Brutal. don't drink water at restaurants. so wild, the tastes. Again, I'm doing reverse osmosis with minerals here from the AquaTru. This water tastes like straight up pond chemical. Now this one's minty. What's going on here? It's wild.
Helen Christoni (19:13.549)
And then we have, like you said, you've got your aqua-chew reverse osmosis. So reverse osmosis, like aqua-chew and all of our products are certified to NSF standards to remove 84 contaminants. And there's a lot of contaminants that are really hard to remove, like fluoride. Fluoride's top of mind. You're not gonna be able to remove fluoride for very many gallons in a sink filter or a fridge filter. You really need a reverse osmosis to really
remove some of the big contaminants. We're also certified to remove microplastics, chromium, forever chemicals, all the things, you know. So I think like for real peace of mind, think RO is really a, it's like a game changer for at home water purification because it's so important that we're not only drinking with purified water, but we're cooking with it.
Freddie Kimmel (19:50.478)
Mm.
Helen Christoni (20:07.799)
because contaminants don't boil out. And this is one of the reasons I'm so pat. Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (20:10.798)
It's a great reminder. It's a great reminder. Because sometimes I'll quick use the, I have a spigot on the sink, which is RO. Maybe we could talk about this, but I have a tank under the sink on my RO. And I've heard from different doctors and different people in the water industry that the tanks under sink in an RO don't always completely empty. And you can sometimes get bacteria in those tanks.
Helen Christoni (20:40.215)
So let's talk about the tanks, right? Like, because I can talk about this. It's very important that you flush your tanks and that you clean your tanks and that you're really moving through that water. You never want to have sitting water. I think identifying what system you need for your lifestyle is really important. If you have a high traffic house, that's It's just fine because you're running through that water, you know, and but if you're a household isn't necessarily high traffic, you want to make
Freddie Kimmel (20:43.041)
Yeah.
Helen Christoni (21:10.329)
sure that you're servicing that machine and like once a week go through and make sure all the water runs out so there's ways to ways to do that if you have some concerns. I think that
the cooking thing is one of the reasons I'm so passionate about this because I've made so many meals for my family, for my daughter, you know? And no one wants to be like, here's some Forever Chemicals mac and cheese, right? Or here's mashed potatoes during the holidays made with my Forever Chemical water. Forever Chemicals are forever. And they're called that for a reason. And so I think that it's so hard for our body to get rid of them. And so when you're
Please, please, please use purified water and also for your puppies, you know, like, and for our fur babies, you know, like they're so small and you see all these dogs getting sick, these cats getting sick and it's like, please, please give our animals purified water.
I could talk a little bit about, you know, one of the things like our mission here at Aqua True is that everyone has the right to pure water based in science because there's a lot of there's a lot of false claims that happen by people selling water purifiers. And so really looking and seeing what they're what these water purifiers are certified to remove is very important. And we made it really easy for people like we have a countertop unit
where people can just pour water from the tap and it literally, it's called the carafe. It's got this beautiful glass pitcher and you could just purify your own water at home. It's really, really easy to use. And then I think another thing that, you know, a lot of people, there's two things that people are concerned about typically with reverse osmosis.
Freddie Kimmel (22:50.883)
Mm-hmm.
Helen Christoni (23:02.147)
One is the minerals. Like people are like, oh, it's depleting all the minerals out of the water. At AquaChu, we have a remineralization filter. So we have like addressed that. if minerals are very important to people, actually remineralize the water better than what it was coming out of your tap to begin with. And then people always complain like there's a little bit of discharged water.
Freddie Kimmel (23:04.91)
Hmm.
Freddie Kimmel (23:20.558)
Mmm.
Helen Christoni (23:27.439)
in the countertop of our sussmosis systems. And a lot of people are concerned about water waste. And I really, like, I hear that, you know, like I'm a big environmentalist, but that little bit of wastewater is...
Freddie Kimmel (23:37.134)
Hmm.
Helen Christoni (23:41.443)
poison. Like it's all the contaminants, you know, that you would be drinking otherwise. And so I think like flipping the perspective of that is really important because literally it's like this much water and it's concentrated contaminated poison. Please like, like I think like just throw it down the sink, get rid of it. And you do not want your family ingesting that because our water is really bad.
Freddie Kimmel (23:42.862)
Mmm.
Helen Christoni (24:08.033)
You know, our water has horrible things in it that can really have adverse health effects to you and your family. So don't worry about the little bit of water. Just throw that poison down the sink.
Freddie Kimmel (24:08.216)
Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (24:17.782)
Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And, and just for people that are on the podcast listening to this and, and you don't see, I'll cut some clips in of the Aqua 2 working and doing its thing, but essentially this is really cool countertop unit, which is pumping the water back and forth through these filters and cycling it. So you get a clean tank and then you get the off gas tank and, the, the, the dirty water, the leftover
you start to see where that tank starts to get really cloudy. It is a no way near the drinking water. And it's so funny because my partner, Cynthia says, she's like, can we really not drink this? I was like, no, they said, they said don't drink it and don't recycle it. Like whatever we're doing, you we're putting it outside, we're using it on some, hopefully the plants are not going to die from it. They seem to be doing okay. But we're, you know, we're trying to do the best we can with that, that, that junk water.
But that's you, you see it in the water. see the different tones of the drinkable and the non drink.
Helen Christoni (25:21.249)
And you smell it. And people that live in really like, I mean, the worst the water, the worst the smell. think you were talking about how aqua tree works and it's, and so let's dig into that a little bit, like different types of filtration. so, aqua tree has four different levels of filtration. First, we have the kind of the sediment filter, which removes all the big stuff, rocks, sediments, large particles. And then it goes through a carbon filter as the second level.
Freddie Kimmel (25:35.725)
Yeah.
Helen Christoni (25:51.125)
and that carbon filter removes chlorine, chloramines, lead, and then it goes through the third filter, is reverse osmosis. And for those of you who don't know about, you missed that science class, I know I did, I had to re-educate myself. Reverse osmosis is the water passes through a membrane and the pure water goes to one side and the contaminated water is left behind. And then we have a fourth level of filtration, which is this coconut VOC.
filter or the remineralized option of that. And what that does is that removes things like the forever chemicals and things that are not necessarily tested, like drug residue, all kinds of, mean, there's like rocket fuel residue on our water. There's just, there's so much that's not tested by, by the municipalities that ends up in our water. Like no one wants to have like hormones, antidepressants, all these things in our, in our
water and so that fourth filter addresses that and so you really have a quadruple filtration system and right at your counter and it's really easy to use and it gives you really great peace of mind.
Freddie Kimmel (27:05.804)
Yeah, yeah, amazing, amazing. I personally, I've had lots of filters in my life and even, you the one thing we didn't mention, can we just talk about distillers quickly? Because for a while I was distilling water and I liked it. It had a unique taste to it. It's funny that the water almost tastes like it was burnt and it was slow. But my understanding is to distill would remove
Helen Christoni (27:15.947)
Okay. Yeah.
Helen Christoni (27:34.221)
Very good.
Freddie Kimmel (27:35.584)
a good way to purify water.
Helen Christoni (27:38.145)
Distillation is a beautiful way to purify your water. It's just really slow. And so for people that have households and families and going and sippy cups and all the things, right, it's not necessarily practical, know? So I think that's where...
Freddie Kimmel (27:49.868)
Yes, yeah, yeah,
Helen Christoni (27:55.683)
reverse osmosis systems like AquaTooth really come in hand because it's on demand. You got it done for large families. We have options for that. But distillation is a beautiful way to purify. So if you're using a distiller, you're fine if it works for you and you're a water consumption. But we really tried to make something that was great for busy households, little kids, and a lot of people running around with water usage.
Freddie Kimmel (28:25.548)
Yeah, yeah, it was really a time thing. But there was a different taste, just because of the heating of the water, which, and I think probably the heating of the chemicals and the different minerals in there. was almost like a burnt taste in the water, which I didn't love. The other thing that I love about the aqua-dura is just, it's pretty cool. It actually kind of purrs like a cat when it's doing its water filtration.
Helen Christoni (28:30.561)
Yes.
Freddie Kimmel (28:53.646)
I was like, I really like this. And the other, it fits well in the house. you can slide, you can get a little roller tower so you can slide it in under a cupboard. So it's kind of profile and then you can slide it out when you're going to fill a picture on it.
Helen Christoni (28:55.331)
Go ahead.
Helen Christoni (29:06.647)
You know, I love that you say it sounds like a kitten because my dad calls it his little tugboat. You know, like my father loves it. And I love to share this story about my dad. My dad is 85 years old and he has some heart health issues. And it's very important that he stays hydrated. And, you know, my stepmother recently, like, shot me a text and she was like, this little aqua tree is so imperative for your father's health because he's not having to go back and forth by all this water.
you know, and it's just there. It's easy for him. And so that really warmed my heart. You know, my dad needs to drink a lot of water. If he gets dehydrated, he can be at stroke risk. I mean, this is serious stuff here. you know that he calls it his little tugboat. He's got one in his office now. He's got one at home. And really, I think that it warms my heart that my own family gets such benefits. And now, you know, like it really, once you start drinking purified water, you become that water.
Like my husband calls me water Helen and it's like you just don't you just don't trust the water in Restaurants and places that you go. You're either gonna give me a glass bottle of water, please But you're you're passing up the you know, tap water that they're serving
Freddie Kimmel (30:22.828)
Yeah, yeah, I'm the same way. Now, let me ask you this. So I do the RO, we're a beam mineral house. We'd use beam minerals. They have an electrolyte and they have a humic and fulvic. So we get that potential. We get all the electrons. We get all the charge, the voltage. And then we also get a gentle binder with the fulvic, which I just like, man, what a, you know, again.
Helen Christoni (30:31.715)
Love you. Yes.
Freddie Kimmel (30:50.478)
I'm going to give them a little plug here. You guys know you can use code beautifully broken on your, on your purchase there. think it's 20 % off in the car and that those two bottles last a month and I'm sharing that with my partner so that it goes a long way.
Helen Christoni (31:03.523)
I'm also a big fan of BAME and I think that they have beautiful products and it's a gorgeous way to remineralize your water. So I think minerals are really personal and I think that we're also mineral depleted and mineral deficient that, you know, it's important that we have this conversation too. think there's a taste factor and you really need to, you really need to find out what works for you.
And until you do, that's why we put that remineralization option in for people. Because some people don't want to think about it. Some people just want it. And then some people want to think about it, which is great. I love the team at Beam. I think they're great people. And I really love their product.
Freddie Kimmel (31:36.077)
Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (31:44.238)
Well, I love the idea, I also love the last filter that you were saying, like the charcoal VOC to get the PFAS. Like I wouldn't want to leave that out. That's important for me. Yeah.
Helen Christoni (31:52.607)
No, mean, forever chemicals are really correlated with some serious health conditions, bone disease, heart disease. I mean, I can go on and on. are not good for us, just like microplastics. Like they're living in our bodies. And so it's super important that we just like...
I can't say it enough times, forever chemicals last forever, they do not break down. And so when once you you can't unhear that, like so make sure you're addressing it in your drinking water. Like when you make changes in your drinking water, it really takes care of so much. I just read a I read a study, I believe it was by Harvard that said if you just stop drinking out of single use plastic.
you're reducing your microplastics exposure, something like 80%. I mean, that's meaningful. It's measurable. And you find people like, we've got microplastics in our heart arteries, in our brains of dementia patients. It's like they're finding them in men's testicles or wreaking havoc on our fertility as women. So, like these little changes that you can make can really have lasting effects for your health.
Freddie Kimmel (32:43.246)
Hmm, wow.
Freddie Kimmel (33:04.898)
Yeah, I love the simplicity of that. And I'm definitely going look up that study and put it in the... Yeah, beautiful. Even better, even better. I don't have to go find it. Although it's really easy with this new deep research function on some of the AIs. You can just immediately like all the microplastic studies that you want to look at. My next question I kind of want to move to is, so we've talked about drinking water. talk, how much, let me ask you this. When you're talking to people, I always mention how...
Helen Christoni (33:09.921)
I'll send it to you. Yeah.
Helen Christoni (33:18.856)
yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (33:34.158)
We're solving for a lot of health problems, but 70 % of the US is chronically dehydrated and how many aspects of cellular function are out the window. So we're going to start solving for things like brain fog and poor sleep and poor muscle tone and inability to lose weight when we really just need to be hydrated. How much water do you tell people to drink?
Helen Christoni (33:55.917)
I mean, I really kind of like I'm an eight, like an eight glasses a day girl, right? Like, and I think I kind of stand true to that. And just go for it. You know, if you have one, if you have one in the morning when you wake up and before you go to bed, and then you have a glass of water with your meals, you're almost there, right? Like you're at five. And then okay, like some tea, coffee, there's water in that you're done, check, check. So I think like make sure when you sit for your meal.
Freddie Kimmel (34:01.655)
Okay.
Freddie Kimmel (34:20.972)
Yep. Yeah.
Helen Christoni (34:24.621)
you're just drinking your glass of water. And also before and after bed, and I think the rest of it just kind of comes along for the ride. know, like you're working out, you're grabbing some tea with a girlfriend, like you'll get there.
Freddie Kimmel (34:26.723)
Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (34:37.558)
Yeah, I have a chart in this and I should, what I should do, I should make this a free offer, but I won't get it in by the time. I have a great chart. You're to have to take the course of all the different ways in which, you know, you have a weight body weight, you have a baseline hydration with minerals. And then we have add and subtract for like different lifestyle activities. So if you're in the sauna, you know, it's, it's a, it's an extra 16, one cup of coffee.
Helen Christoni (34:58.711)
Yes.
Freddie Kimmel (35:02.978)
which is a diuretic is usually going to add, you're going to need another eight to 12 ounces of regular water. And I have it all laid out, you know, a really intense workout, HIIT workout, hot yoga. You know, sometimes we forget it's like, I am drinking enough, but for my lifestyle, am probably maybe four to five glasses low for the day.
Helen Christoni (35:19.608)
for sure.
Helen Christoni (35:23.459)
Yeah. So I'm a, I'm an ultra runner. And so for fun, I've gone out and I've ran, you know, like hundred mile distances in the mountains. and during, I, you know, it's questionable, like, but, I think that, you know, of course, when you're putting your body through,
Freddie Kimmel (35:27.586)
boy. Yeah, for fun.
God bless ya.
Helen Christoni (35:42.497)
large endurance efforts, super important that you're on top of your hydration and your remineralization for sure. And I think that's just so lifestyle focused. But I think for just like, you know, regular day to day, if you hit your meals before and after bed, you know, is really the like, it makes it easy, you know, and because I think some people get stressed out too, you know, when they're like, you've got these big water jugs now, which I think is great, if that's what you're about. but I think that
Freddie Kimmel (36:01.624)
Yes.
Helen Christoni (36:12.881)
I think that just kind of like keeping it simple and also I think when people are trying to watch their weight to having that glass of water before they they have their meal is really helpful you know because some people think they're hungry and they're just thirsty.
Freddie Kimmel (36:28.514)
Yeah. Yeah. And I would even say, I would tell people, try to, think, I think it's eight, your, your kidneys can handle, I think it's 800 milliliters an hour. And over that you're just flushing extra minerals. So there is also this like, you know, it's again, not to, not to overcomplicate things, but to just gulp and gulp and gulp water. You know, we also don't want to have this large 16 ounce gulping session before we go eat food because you're diluting your stomach acid.
So there's some intuitive things where I like people just to think about the context of when you're doing these things. I do personally like the idea of a bigger water bottle. And in my head, I'm like, I need three, or I need two of these, right? And that's for me, it's a really easy one to track. It's funny, I have a hydrogen water bottle that has, tells me in my app. It's like, Freddie, you're supposed to do 500 milliliters in the next hour.
and it pings me, it reminds me. So yeah, there's a bunch of different ways you can use technology to improve your hydration, just like there's apps out there to tell you if you've gotten enough sun exposure to get your vitamin D for the day. Yeah. Can we pivot a little bit too? So we've got drinking water down, I think pretty good. What about our other exposure sources? So let's talk about the shower and the bath.
What's our risk ratio from taking a 20-minute shower in unfiltered water?
Helen Christoni (38:02.115)
I think that our skin is our largest organ and I think we need to keep that in mind. And I think a lot of people are really plagued with a lot of skin conditions, hair conditions, and if you wouldn't drink it, why would you bathe in it? So if we're not drinking, if we're not okay drinking our water, think showering in it is questionable. And so I think if you can filter.
Freddie Kimmel (38:05.539)
Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (38:16.75)
Mmm.
Helen Christoni (38:27.465)
your shower like AquaTree we actually just launched a shower filter literally last week we've been working on it for years and years because it's really complex to to filter that level of output.
Right. so, the filter weight is, it's just not so easy. You know, so I think that there's only so much you can filter out. Like you can have a whole house reverse osmosis system that's an option, you know, and, or you can filter where it's coming from. And so like we've got this great shower filter. We're very happy that we were able to get something that removes chloramines because a lot of the municipalities use chloramines and people don't even know what it is. You know, it's like a
Freddie Kimmel (38:42.924)
Yes, yep.
Freddie Kimmel (38:55.182)
That's right. That's right.
Helen Christoni (39:12.815)
chlorine alternative and it's widely used, hard to remove. so like we literally have worked on this thing for years and years and years to ensure it removes chlorine and chloramines so everyone will get the benefit. And then also heavy metals, which you don't want to be bathing in. And I got to tell you, once you shower in a, with a filtered, a filtered shower, I don't know about bath because I haven't used a bath filter yet.
But it is a game changer. Like the water's just, like, you just feel different. And you're like, how did I live without this thing? So I also think like so many people have issues with psoriasis and all this stuff. Like, it could be just a game changer for so many people. So if you wouldn't drink it, don't shower in it and get yourself a filter.
Freddie Kimmel (39:48.824)
Hmm.
Freddie Kimmel (40:06.36)
Yeah, amazing, amazing. I've not seen much for a bath. If it can't be outside, like we have a tankless water heater and everything's on the outside wall, there's not a utility room. there's not, it's hard to do a whole house filter. It's also a rental. So, you know, I'm not gonna go throw down 5K on a whole home system at this location.
But the bath, the only thing I've seen for a bath is literally like charged, it's like charged rocks where you hang like this big bowl under the bathtub thing. I'm sure that's pretty minimal, but you know, it is something in a bath is, you know, if you're in there 20 minutes, you got to think about how hot and warm we get and the pores open up and all, and all those things. So thinking about your exposure rates there. It's a really.
Helen Christoni (40:54.275)
100%. And also, like I said, look, we're great detoxers. And so everything in moderation. If you're going to take a bath once a month, take the bath. But just be conscientious. Maybe not go do a dry sauna for an hour and then take a bath. I think that everything in moderation. think for daily showers, things that you do on the daily, if you are a daily bath taker,
You know, you might want to really take into consideration your filtration options and.
for sure for the shower like so many people in the shower every day. know women who are concerned about you know all the toxic stuff they're putting in their hair to keep it beautiful and whatnot like you know it's a game changer for beauty also your skin health your hair health and nothing but but benefits with filtering your shower water and if you can like there there are there is some technology coming at the sink level which I also think is really important because we're
frequently washing our face, you know, and our hands. And so I think like if you can address that at the sink too, it's great.
Freddie Kimmel (42:03.544)
Yeah. Yeah. It's an amazing investment. If you think about the, if you, if you're buying bottled water, hopefully not. but I know a lot of people who do a, you're dosing yourself with not great water, no minerals and a lot of microplastics. they have the, the, the one I have, I have the family option, so it's a gallon and it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a countertop. And you know, we fill it a few times a day, but man, it's like,
such a savings of not buying any bottle of water. It's like an incredible savings. think that unit was around, I think it was 475. We got a little bit of a discount. But I was not, I also want to say this on the podcast, that AquaTru did not give me a filter. I, I matched them for years. I was like, Hey, I always recommend this. And I could not get ahold of anybody at the company. And I was like, I'm no, it's fine. I was like, I'm going to buy it because
Helen Christoni (42:57.699)
I'm so sorry.
Freddie Kimmel (43:02.976)
I know it's great. Like I know, I know it, I know it's great. I know it works. know the system, I understand it. I also, I got to be honest with you. I wouldn't go back to an under counter after having this one because of the serviceability. Like I can just pop the thing open and drop in new filters. And it's just, it's kind of like, it's kind of like a reusable ink cartridges as printers, which I now do. I, I don't buy a new printer every six months. I just refill the ink. You know, that's, that's
pretty much the same thing. And it's just really easy to use and it's a very aesthetically pleasing product.
Helen Christoni (43:39.745)
Yeah, we really made it. took the guesswork out of Pure Water. And so I think that's really what we aim to do. And it took years in development. And we're really, really proud of the brand and just the difference that we're making in people's lives because it's really affecting a lot of people's health in a great way. And so super proud of it.
Freddie Kimmel (44:00.3)
Yeah. And for, for, for God's sake, for the Lord's sake, if you have a friend or a family member currently going through cancer or cancer treatment, and I always frame this for people is that the body, whatever path you choose, if they're, if they're under these intense, intense therapies, the last thing we want to do is put an additional energetic burden on the body by trying to manage bad water. Hydration will make a difference in treatment outcomes.
Helen Christoni (44:27.095)
Yes.
Freddie Kimmel (44:27.278)
totally verifiable. We can look at different PubMed studies. The cellular function is better. Mitochondrial function is better. You're not burdened with the energetics, but also the delivery of some of the medicines are going to be better. You're going to get that transport chain in and out of the cell functioning better. A simple thing like water will impact your journey through cancer, whatever treatment you're choosing to do, whether it's totally allopathic or holistic. just, that's my soapbox moment for people out there. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Helen.
Helen Christoni (44:56.663)
Yeah, I mean, think so many people, you we get all these shows and people are so into health and longevity. And I just want to say that, you know, pure water is really foundational because if you're not really hydrated with pure non-toxic water, your body's not going to really absorb to your point all this additional good stuff we're trying to put into it. So like, like I said before, make sure you're not re-toxing your detox and drink pure water.
Freddie Kimmel (45:18.445)
Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (45:25.846)
The last thing I want to ask you, I just bumped over to the website, I don't see the shower filters up there yet. They're there. Where are they?
Helen Christoni (45:32.397)
They're there. They're absolutely there. I think you should go up top. Like we're just launching them. So, but they're absolutely there. I'll make sure you have a link so we can share it with us.
Freddie Kimmel (45:41.686)
Okay, great. I'll make sure I see countertop, countertop, under sink, aqua troop is...
Helen Christoni (45:46.987)
Is it up to just click the top navigation on the website? Yeah. It should say. That's so interesting. Okay. Well, let me, let me check into that and I'll make sure. Yeah.
Freddie Kimmel (45:49.686)
Yeah, I see that. I see water purifiers, replacement filters, support login.
And that's okay. Undersync, aqua to carafe. Now I'm scrolling through some other stuff. Filters, filters, filters. Filters, filters, filters. More filters. I don't see it. Maybe they took it down to work on it for a second, but we will, we Yeah, we will make sure everybody has the link and we'll swing back around. Thank you for being a guest on the beautifully broken podcast. This was amazing.
Helen Christoni (46:08.995)
It should be right in the hamburger. Maybe because we had some issues there.
Helen Christoni (46:19.875)
Awesome.
Helen Christoni (46:27.245)
Thank you for having me.
Freddie Kimmel (46:28.812)
Yeah, I'm gonna ask you two more questions before you go. Beautifully Broken Podcast, the times we fall down, we pick ourselves back up. That's what it's all about. What does it mean to you to be beautifully broken?
Helen Christoni (46:30.519)
Yeah, let's go.
Helen Christoni (46:40.575)
gosh, I mean, I'm in a really broken season right now. And so I think just, you know, when you're sometimes you're getting broken open. And I think just, you know, keeping yourself open to things that you've never discovered before and like your inner strength and leaning on the people around you is so important. And so I think when you're breaking, you may be broken, be
being broken open.
Freddie Kimmel (47:11.98)
Yeah, beautifully said. And then you want one more bonus question. What is in the last, I would say the last calendar year, what is one of the most beneficial favorite health hacks that you've applied to your journey?
Helen Christoni (47:27.497)
Meditation, hands down. You know, I've been doing a lot of meditation. I really do one like big period of it. I do an hour once a week and it has really changed me. Like just that stop and the ability to just, you know, be open for that hour or whatever it is has really been a game changer for me personally.
Freddie Kimmel (47:29.07)
Hmm.
Freddie Kimmel (47:49.806)
Incredible. I join with you. That's probably been one of the big ones for me. And I've been doing it The last three weeks, I think I'm up to almost 750 minutes net. So I'm just grabbing everywhere that I have a window. I'm doing five, I'm doing 10. I got a little fun biofeedback headset that's reading my brain waves. So it's telling me, Freddie, at any time to work anymore. It's really fun technology that we're going to talk about on the show.
Helen Christoni (48:01.133)
wow, awesome.
Helen Christoni (48:08.131)
So.
Helen Christoni (48:15.363)
I love it.
Freddie Kimmel (48:19.118)
I'll remind everybody that listens to this. We don't have a code for Beautifully Broken, but you can go right to BeautifullyBroken.world. can go to the store and you can see the link for the aqua tree right there. And it's right under our technology section. So check it out and we will see you again soon. Again, thank you so much for your information. It was so, so great. So clear, so actionable. I appreciate you.
Helen Christoni (48:45.069)
Thanks, Freddie. Thanks for having me on.
Freddie Kimmel (48:46.915)
Yes, big love.
