March 16, 2023

From: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/zach-greenfield/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:01:06] Podcast Sponsors

[00:06:44] Guest Introduction

[00:09:13] Zach’s fitness and diet routine

[00:19:08] Homeschooling

[00:24:36] Having an entrepreneurial bug

[00:31:21] Podcast Sponsors

[00:35:58] Greenfield Water

[00:47:33] Structuring process

[01:07:58] Products in development

[01:10:19] Fondest memory when growing up

[01:13:09] End of Podcast

Ben:   My name is Ben Greenfield. And, on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast. 

In some of these farms, we're not even using the physical vortexing of water. We're using our harmonizer which is basically resonance and subtle positive electromagnetic frequencies that are imparted completely comprised of ingredients that are in congruency with nature. And, with both of those, with both vortexing and harmonizing, we're noticing less herd anxiety, calmer animals, faster weight gain in livestock, decreased mortality rates.

The benefits that they've noticed have been incredible. And, it equates out to them for increased profits in addition to all the positive effects that's having on the animals.

Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show.

Let's talk CBD. I use it I use it especially at night. I sometimes double up on it when I travel. It's hard to find the good stuff. The stuff that actually works not only to manage inflammation and pain but also to help you sleep like a baby.

I go full spectrum. And, not only do I go full spectrum but I go with CBD that's like small batch super high quality harvested from these very specialty farms in Kentucky. It's made by Element Health. 

I've been using this CBD since 2018, total game changer for me with sleep, with recovery. Their Full-Spectrum CBD is by far the most potent stuff on the market. It's all handcrafted on family farms. The quality is second to none they got a gummy also, which is amazing. I popped two of those gummies and I'm out like a light within about 30 minutes. They also have their Maximum Strength bottle which is holy cow, it works. Like one dropper full and I'm out even on like a plane flying. Whopping 4,800 milligrams of full spectrum CBD. Insanely powerful stuff.

And so, if you're looking for CBD actually works, that's powerful, that's clean, that comes in either, like I mentioned, a super tasty gummy or an oil, they even make like a not a vaporizable formula it's like a smokable formula almost like CBD joints. This company has it all figured out. 

My buddy Adam Wenguer guy runs it. He's been on the podcast before, really smart dude. So, here's how you get 15% off of any of the Element Health CBD products. Go to elementhealthsupply.com/Ben and use code BEN15. That gets you 15% off. Elementhealthsupply.com/Ben and use code BEN15. I'll get you 15% off so enjoy it.

Hiya. No seriously, Hiya. That's kids' multivitamin. It's amazing. Most kids' multivitamins got 5 grams of sugar or more. They can contribute to health issues paradoxically. This Hiya stuff, they make it with no sugar, no gummy junk, but it tastes amazing. Kids love it. It's a pediatrician-approved superpower chewable vitamin. 

Okay, again. Typical children's vitamins, they got like two teaspoons of sugar in them. They're basically candy in disguise. But, Hiya. not only fills all the common gaps in modern kids diets to provide the full body nourishment that children need with a yummy taste that kids love. But, they've got vitamin D, B12, C, zinc, a whole host. Fifteen essential vitamins and minerals to support immunity, and energy, and brain function, mood concentration, your child's teeth, their bones, but it's also guilt-free. Non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free, everything else you can imagine.

They designed this for kids of all ages. They send it straight to your door so parents have one less thing to worry about. And, my kids love it, everybody that I've showed it to, all the parents who've children have tried it swear by this stuff. It's a multivitamin that parents can give to their kids guilt-free and it fills all the gaps in so you don't have to worry about your children's nutrient and micronutrient status.

Now here's a cool thing. You can get a bottle with your first order and then they send you eco-friendly refills every month. And, to do this and to get 50% off that first order, you go to hiyahealth.com/Ben. That's H-I-Y-A-H-E-A-L-T-H.com/Ben. That will allow you to get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults and gives you amazing savings. So, hiyahealth.com/Ben.

Alright, let's talk ketosis. When your body churns out ketones, it is a state of metabolic efficiency, mental clarity, improved athletic performance, better metabolic health. The reason for that is that ketones are 28% more efficient at generating energy than sugar alone. That means you can do more with less. And, ketones are usually made when your body's push to the limits, when it's deprived of carbs, when it's fasted, when it's had a whole, whole bunch of fat, coconut oil, and butter, and all the things. But, you can also, using the magic of science, shift yourself very rapidly into a state of ketosis that you'd normally have to fast for days to get into by supplementing with liquid ketones.

You can usually drink ketones to do this. And, there's one form of ketone brain fuel called Ketone IQ, fittingly enough, and it is literally, quite literally brain fuel. None of the insulin spikes, or caffeine jitters, or mid-afternoon energy crashes you get from most energy drinks. You just fuel with Ketone IQ, one serving of this stuff, and it shifts you into the state of ketosis that you want. Again, without being fasted or restricting carbohydrates. So, it's almost like you'd have your cake and eat it too. Or, if you're already into ketosis and you want to put the icing on the cake and get even deeper into ketosis, this stuff works fantastically for that too.

It's made by HVMN. They created this stuff through a 6-million-dollar contract from the U.S. Department of Defense. Deep partnerships with some of the top researchers in the Ketone industry. It's a cutting-edge drink and you get 20% off. Here's how. Go to hvmn.com and use code BENG20. That gets you 20% off any purchase of Ketone IQ. That's an exclusive offer for my listeners only. Hvmn.com/BENG. It's called Ketone IQ by HVMN. 

Well, well, well, folks. It's time for another entertaining podcast with one of my dear family members. It's always fun for me to be able to put family members of mine in the hot seat, the podcasting hot seat so to speak and watch them sweat. Plus it's always endearing to be able to just speak with one of my loved ones on the show.

My dad's been on the show, Gary Greenfield. He joined me on a podcast where we talked all about water, and sunlight, and grounding, and even his whole history of moving to Idaho from Miami, Florida with a dream of becoming a farmer. And, how he eventually went from being a fireman, to owning a coffee shop, to repairing espresso machines, to becoming an expert in the water filtration industry including a form of water filtration that includes what seems to be an increasingly hot topic in the health industry these days, structured water.

And then, I also interviewed my mom, Pat Greenfield. We talked about homeschooling and alternative education. We talked more about coffee because it's impossible to talk to a Greenfield without coffee coming up. We talked about writing, editing, music. We even delved into some of her history of trauma and how she's dealt with that, and that was very open, and raw, and pretty meaningful interview. And, I'm going to link to both of those in the show notes for this podcast, which you can find at Bengreenfieldlife.com/Zach. That's Bengreenfieldlife.com/Z-A-C-H because my guest on today's show is none other than my younger brother, Zach Greenfield.

Now, Zach has a deep history in all sorts of different areas. He's been a model, a firefighter, and a paramedic. And, he has also, of late, come on as director of operations at Greenfield Water Solutions and he knows a lot about water structuring units and how to filter your water and clean it. And, because I just published my “Boundless Parenting” book, I thought it would be interesting to A, talk to a family member, and also because I get so many questions from you guys about how to filter your water and what the best technology is for doing so, Zach also knows a lot about this as well.

So, he lives not far from me in Liberty Lake Washington. By the way, are you still finishing your nursing degree too?

Zach:  Yeah, I'm still in nursing school.

Ben:  Awesome, cool. Well, there's a lot that we can talk about here. But, if someone were to google Zach Greenfield, which I've had some of my friends do before, Google image search Zach Greenfield, there are some photos of you displaying your six-pack abs and massively fit body. And, I know you're a former model and maybe not quite so into that these days. But, I'm curious as a Greenfield, and people are always asking me this question so I'm going to flip it around and ask you, what are some of the key things that you're doing these days that's part of your fitness routine, or your health routine, or your diet routine?

Zach:  A big one for me is really having structure. So, I always have a trainer. I always have workouts that are prescribed for me with resistance training, HIIT, cardio. And, really I tend to thrive with structure. So, I actually also track my macros, I track what I eat. Don't really have to, but it gives me structure. And, you know, I thrive with that. 

So, I don't take a ton of supplements. I do pretty basic creatine, EAA, colostrum. Stuff like that, nothing crazy, and I keep it pretty simple.

Ben:  It is kind of interesting because you get a lot of people now talking about how they're trying to keep things natural and not take a lot of supplements. And then, I recently came across this guy. He apparently holds like the world record in age reversal as far as achieving perfect fitness biomarkers, and epigenetic age reversal, and slowed pace of aging, and all this crazy stuff. His name is Bryan Johnson. And, I think I'm actually going to interview him on my podcast or figure out a way to chat with him at some point. 

But, if you actually go to his website, I think it's blueprint.bryanjohnson.co, he has a whole list of all the supplements that he takes. And, it's literally, I don't want to put words in his mouth or in this case capsules in his mouth, but it looks like probably the equivalent of maybe like 60 or 70 capsules in the morning. Probably another 50 to 60 in the evening, a few more before bed. And then, all these other ones kind of like spread between meals. It's nuts. And, I've talked to some people in the anti-aging or longevity industry, and to me, it seems like you have to strike a balance because it almost feels like these people are like living their whole lives in a hyperbaric chamber or a cryotherapy chamber like popping hundreds of supplements all the time and just hyper obsessed with adding one extra hour to every 24 hours of the day of longevity so they can live a long time.

Jess and I were actually talking about last night on the drive home about how it just seems near obsessive and we wonder what the sense would be to live a long time if you're spending most of it worrying about how you're going to live a long time you know.

Zach:  Yeah, I totally agree. I mean it gets too complicated for me. There's too much to track and I don't know. I like to keep things pretty simple and easy to where I don't have to put so much focus on that or actually even worry about that stuff. I haven't found it necessary and I just haven't had the desire to do that now.

Ben:  A lot of people ask me about how we ate growing up. And, my general impression because they're like, oh your mom and dad's super into health were they like the hippies and patchouli oil and shopping at whatever the early equivalent in Lewiston Idaho of Whole Foods would have been and I say no. But, what do you think as far as how we were raised? Like were there any aspects of health or healthy eating or healthy living that you can remember?

Zach:  I don't remember there being a big focus on it. I think we kind of had like a typical average American family diet, to be honest. Like we would eat I remember on Wednesdays, McDonald's had like the 29¢ cheeseburger and 39¢, whatever it was. And dad would bring home bags of that. 

Ben:  I think it was 29¢ hamburger, 39¢ cheeseburger.

Zach:  Yeah, yeah. And, that was like kind of a Wednesday thing you know. And then, we would do, Saturday would be like milkshakes and popcorn for dinner. So, we had obviously a balance of veggies and stuff, but there was really nothing crazy special about our diet growing up. I actually even remember us eating fluoride supplement tablets with our multivitamins, I mean. 

Ben:  I remember The Flintstones. I don't remember the fluoride supplements, which is crazy.

Zach:  You have these little pink tablets.

Ben:  Oh wait. That's what those were, those were fluoride? I just grabbed as many vitamins as I want because all the ones we had tasted good. The 29¢ hamburger, 39¢ cheeseburger I do remember that because we had a giant Suburban. Mom would go through the drive-through. We would have giant greasy bags full of burgers and that would be our meal from like Wednesday through about Saturday till the hamburgers and cheeseburgers ran out.

I remember that we did have lettuce, but it was always like the big white iceberg lettuce. Then we have the giant canisters of ranch dressing from Costco and would just drown the lettuce in ranch dressing, and that was our vegetables. Take and Bake pizza was another big one. Remember Take and Bake pizzas?

Zach:  Oh, yeah.

Ben:  A lot of like Little Caesars and Papa Murphy's. And. then the other one that we used to do a lot was like date nights and post-baseball dates. The top three I can think of was we did Dairy Queen a lot. Like tons of Blizzards at Dairy Queen. And then, the McDonald's Big Breakfast, that was the one where I would always compete with dad to see who could eat the entire Big Breakfast at McDonald's with a little crunchy hash brown, and the eggs, and the syrup and everything, and then donuts. Tons of donuts.

Zach:  Oh, yes. Yeah. I remember all that.

Ben:  At what point did you kind of like start to learn a little bit more about healthy nutrition or about shifting your diet?

Zach:  Honestly, probably not until I left for paramedic school. Diet really wasn't like a big deal to me. And, when I got to medic school, I was super skinny at that age. I was 19 years old. I went to medic school with, I went to a contract school through the Air Force through the Pararescue program. And so, there was like two PJs and like a Navy Seal in my class, and these guys were yoked. They got me interested in weightlifting and dieting. These guys like helped me with my diet, helped them put together a workout plan. And, that was kind of like my first introduction into fitness was through these guys in my class.

Ben:  What are you using right now to track your macros?

Zach:  I use MyFitnessPal.

Ben:  Oh, yeah. That's a good one. I know a lot of people use Cronometer and MacroFactor. The one I've used in the past is Cronometer because it'll give, when you type in your food data, it gives you a breakdown of a lot of like micro-minerals, micronutrients, individualized fatty acids. Like if you actually do want to track which since I hung up the hat with bodybuilding, I don't do as much anymore like I did. I think Cronometer is really good. I haven't messed around that much with MacroFactor but it's supposed to be pretty decent also.

Zach:  Yeah. I'll have to check it out. And, I mean again, that for me it's like I don't even get down that nitty-gritty. Like I'm just tracking. I pay attention to the types of fats that I eat, but I just track the three main protein, carbs, fat, and then on my own, obviously like I dial things into where I'm eating pretty healthy food. You know it's not just like I'm getting fats from any fat. Like I'm pretty I'm selective about what I'm actually eating. But, I generally only track the three major components.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Did you ever run into, especially in the modeling industry, a lot of issues with what you hear about eating disorder and what's the one from “Zoolander,” bulimia, the ability to read minds?

Zach:  Yeah. My modeling experience was a little different because being like a bigger person, I didn't do high fashion or anything like that. I really did like a lot of athletic stuff, more athletic-oriented stuff. Like maybe Nike or Adidas and stuff like that. And, that's a totally different vibe, totally different niche, but you don't see a lot of the same stuff. Like it was a really good experience for me. It was a lot of really solid people, really fitness-oriented people. 

There were a couple times when I did see the whole bulimia thing. But, it wasn't really common. My experience was actually pretty good, probably different than like a typical fashion modeling experience.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. I briefly, when I was bodybuilding, and we got to the point where you had to make weight. And, I think I was middle-heavyweight. It was when I was competing middle heavyweight and I came in the morning and I was like a pound heavy. And, I remember sticking my finger down my throat in the bathroom like spitting, throwing up, feeling all the acid coming up the throat and thinking, oh my gosh, like how could someone do this for years? And, you hear about things like esophageal cancer and acidic damage. And, I realized that it's a pretty major issue

But, yeah, like it's just so rampant in that world. I think in the bodybuilding and the fitness modeling world too. It's pretty crazy.

Zach:  Yeah. No, that's nuts. I mean, it's not. I was, fortunately, didn't really get around any of that. I would say it was a good experience overall, but yeah, it's crazy. It happens.

Ben:  So, growing up, we obviously did not have what I think a lot of people think we had, which was some uber-healthy upbringing with the focus on diet and fitness, etc. But, one unique aspect of our upbringing was we were homeschooled. 

I don't know what your thoughts are about being homeschooled and if you felt the same way I did as though it was a little bit weird, it was a little bit awkward. But, how did you navigate socially through being homeschooled and then kind of getting out into what a lot of people call the real world college, etc. after homeschooling?

Zach:  In that space we were in, you almost don't know what you don't know, right? I didn't have the experience of being able to compare what public school would be like or even private school. I think we were fortunate to have been well socialized as homeschoolers probably more than most because we were in the, remember, the homeschool group. The Port Cities Home Educators or whatever it was.

Ben:  Right. Port Cities Home Educators, which is like a co-op kind of.

Zach:  Yeah. There was a lot of your like what you would consider like a typical homeschooler. Like kind of anti-social, like nerdy or dorky, which was at that time we were homeschooled, that was kind of like the view of homeschoolers. Now I think it's obviously changed because so many more people are homeschooling, especially after COVID, stuff like that. But, during that time it was like the nerds and the dorks and anti-social kids.

Ben:  Yeah. Suspenders, spectacles hold up to the belly button, black sneakers that were handed down to you from your 18 siblings that came before you, yeah.

Zach:  And, I think like our experience was like different looking back, in hindsight. But, you were involved in sports a lot more heavily duly enrolled in sports through public school than I was and so my experience was probably a little bit different in that there were times when I was kind of was aware of the difference. Especially even going to like public school games or playing basketball against public schools. Just a different mentality and a different vibe. 

And, I did would feel a little bit like an outsider. Like I wasn't part of like what normal kids go through. But, I don't think it really ever bothered me that much. I was aware of it, but I mean being kind of more of like a free spirit, happy-go-lucky. I loved the experience because I could get done with school at noon unlike good education then I could pursue all my hobbies, and go outside, and hike, and swim in the pool, or whatever. And, it was I had no complaints there why would I want to give that up to go sit down in a classroom for eight hours.

Ben:  That was the same with me. Like the coolest part was you could get up, you could just burn through all of your studies even though we were very curricular-based. Like with River and Terran, we unschooled them. We don't use a lot of books. It's just a lot of life-based experiences that form the crux of their education. But, for you and me and Isaac and Rosie. Well, not Rosie. He had a little bit different education. But, like Natalie growing up, it was a lot of books like the Abeka Curriculum and the Bob Jones Curriculum. 

And, we would just basically wake up and we'd have the stack of books. We'd know what the lessons were for that day. We'd burn through them. And, like you said, we'd be done at like 11:00 am-noon and then the rest of the day was just like hiking, playing in the pool, hanging out with our friends. For me I was pretty nerdy so I would finish school then I'd convince mom to drop me off at the library, go get like eight more books, and come home and read some more because I just love to learn.

And, it's just the accelerated pace of learning in general. I don't know if you remember this but I started college I was 15. Like that's why I enrolled at LCSC just because you get ahead when you're homeschooling. But, yeah, I think that probably our saving grace was being a part of a huge group of homeschoolers. We just, we pretty much always had people over at our house, didn't we?

Zach:  Oh man, like all the time. I remember another thing we used to do was the ITBS testing, which was like Idaho State required. Homeschoolers used to do this testing where it was like to make sure you were on par. You know we were mostly ahead of the curve just because we had pretty focused education. But, I remember that being also one of those things where I was like well, I know we're doing, we're not behind or anything like that from a scholastic sense. There was confidence there that we were doing just fine.

Ben:  Yeah. I remember taking those standardized tests every year because we had to. It's the same thing in Washington with River and Terran. Like we actually have I think it's 12 core subjects in Washington: science, chemistry, math, reading, writing, social sciences, etc. They have to demonstrate core proficiency in via journaling and keeping track of their daily activities. But, we actually don't have to take a yearly standardized test as long as we keep journals of everything that they've done, and those are available to be audited or whatever, we don't really have to worry. Besides the fact that we have to bear in mind if they do want to go to college, we need to ensure that they're not behind on certain subjects so that if they do need to take a college entrance exam, they've never seen algebra, or calculus, or something along those lines. 

But, it's not that difficult. And, you're right, like the percentage of people homeschooling now has just absolutely exploded. I don't know what it was before COVID, but I heard it was, I think it was something like between 1 and 3%. And, last I heard it was above 10% after COVID. So, it's obviously becoming a lot more common.

The other thing that was interesting I think for us was the whole idea of having a dad who was a serial entrepreneur and a grandfather who is a pretty successful businessman and entrepreneur. I want to talk about Greenfield Water here in a little bit and what you do and about water filtration technology and all the questions that we get about water because half the time just passing people on to you. So, I thought it'd be cool to actually do a podcast and answer some of these questions.

But, just from an entrepreneurial business standpoint in general, do you feel we grew up, I always wonder this so I want to ask you, like we grew up with this entrepreneurial bug and almost this idea that you don't work for people you start your own business?

Zach:  Yeah. Even though it wasn't entrepreneurialism probably, at least for me, it wasn't in my sights growing up, I think just as a kid in your formative years when you're around that stuff, like the whole concept of that is pretty natural. Especially seeing dad go from like heat at the jet boat, the custom jet boat welding company.

Ben:  I forgot about the jet boat company.

Zach:  Yeah. And then, for me, the ones I remember the most where we had the private rural fire service for people that paid monthly for fire protection or the ambulance company. And so, kind of like following him around and being in these places, like physically present in these places growing up, just the whole idea of it kind of became like, “Well, he can just do this.” He can just go into these different arenas and start something, And so, the whole obstacle some people have of like, “Well, I don't know if I can do it,” really maybe didn't exist as much with us because as we saw it all the time. We were around it all the time and we saw him go through with his stuff and make it work.

So, I think naturally, just that energy being around that, was probably really helpful in us making decisions to go and do the same thing.

Ben:  I think my perspective on it was I saw dad, once he decided to go from firefighting into starting an ambulance company, and then a communications company, and then remember if he bought a bagel franchise for a while. He started running coffee shops, had the rural fire department. What else did he do? He had what was the thing you just mentioned I had forgotten about?

Zach:  Oh, the jet boat.

Ben:  Yeah, the jet boat company where I was a janitor down the jet boat warehouse. That and making coffees and making copies and doing medical insurance billing were three of my first jobs. I remember I would actually take the Mavis Beacon typing tutor software and just crush that every day because I wanted to beat Gina, the medical billing secretary, at how fast we could do medical insurance claims.

So, I think starting when I was 13 until I was 15 I would get up at 4:00 am and just jam through as many insurance claims as I could for like two hours. They paid me almost nothing. It was like 10¢ cents a claim that I finished, but it was like a competition to myself to see if I could finish more claims than Gina did during the work day. So, I actually learned a ton about medical terminology and the language from doing that.

And, back to the entrepreneurial thing though, I haven't talked about this much on the podcast before but Grandpa Bill on Dad's side, he was a really successful entrepreneur. I mean, first in cookware and then next in the Ansaphone Dictaphone answering machines. Like he was buddies with Zig Ziglar and all those old-school motivational speaking sales guys. 

I don't know if you remember but if you went and looked at the bookshelf in his office, it was all like body language books, and sales books, and self-improvement books, and psychology of business books. I think dad probably got a little bit of that from him and then I feel like I personally just picked up a lot of that through osmosis just watching dad run all these businesses. But, always at the back of my mind, I never thought dad thought big enough. Like with Greenfield Coffee for example, I was always like dude, start a website, like ship internationally, franchise, do the Starbucks thing. I always wish that he would go big with the business.

Now it seems like Greenfield Water is actually, it's taking that direction. Like it's actually branded and it's popular. It's becoming this, it's kind of like nationwide or even worldwide phenomenon. But, it is interesting to grow up with a dad who's just constantly shifting from job to job, career to career, business to business like that. I feel like a little bit of that rubbed off on me and maybe you too.

Zach:  Yeah. I mean, I think the thing is with Dad is he was he went into these different businesses but it wasn't really, I think it was less of like, “Oh, I can strike it big doing this.” But, for him, it was more like a passion-driven thing. And, I think that's probably why a lot of them weren't like trying to scale up and get big because it was really kind of like a patch. And, he was kind of focused on the passion and trying to do the best job you possibly could at that one thing.

Ben: That's a good point. It's more like art. I don't know if you read Rick Rubin's new book, “The Creative Act.” When he talks about artists, he talks about how you do it for you, you do it for the art, you do it for the expression. You don't do it for the money, or the fame, or the popularity, or the number of customers. I never really thought about it from the perspective that you just outlined.

Like dad did always pride himself in this is going to be the most amazing cup of coffee. Even if only three people drink this it's just like the best cup of coffee ever. Or, when you go and visit him at his water filtration facility down there in Viola now. You know if you get a tour of the facility, he's super proud all the way down to the back room where there's like the drops of water from Jacob's Well surrounded by icons of the holy desert fathers and each filter that goes out is blessed with this water. Like it is kind of this thing where it's this unique blend of him taking a great deal of pride in the actual art and uniqueness of the substance and not necessarily the popularity of it you know.

Zach:  Yeah, totally. And, I think that's something that I really noticed when I came into Greenfield Water especially. You know being like the one business of his that I'm obviously now very involved in, it's been very, very evident that's the case. It all comes from like a desire to provide something because of a passion he has and because of the realization he has I think it's incredibly important, especially for offering something that's like really works and is really quality versus just trying to sling things off the shelf.

Ben:  There's this device. This dude swung by my house like three years ago with this wristband ankle band thing that he put on me and then he used an app to cause it to vibrate into social mode, which made me feel like I was on a blend of like having a cocktail, and maybe a dark chocolate bar, and being surrounded by amazing people. And then, later on I discovered it worked for sleep, anxiety, increasing HRV, focus, concentration.

I got one for each of my sons. They now use it to wake up. It's called an Apollo. Mine is on schedule. When I wake up, it goes into Clear and Focus mode. And then, later on, it goes into Work mode. I forget what the Work mode is. Anyways it's all on schedule. Later on, after that, it goes Relaxation and then Sleep. I can just wear this thing all day and it automatically adjusts as I go. No side effects. Safe for adults, safe for children, students, you name it. It's just this gentle vibratory haptic sensation.

They did a recent sleep study and showed that consistent Apollo wearable users gain an extra 30 minutes of high-quality deep sleep and high-quality sleep in general per night. It's safe. It's non-invasive. They've done six clinical trials on this thing. It's called the Apollo. You get 15% off this bad boy. Go to apolloneuro.com/BenGreenfield. That's A-P-O-L-L-O-neuro, N-E-U-R-O.com/BenGreenfield and use code BG15 for 15% off.

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That's probably like the longest introduction ever into water, but I thought it'd be interesting just for people to hear a little bit about our background and how this whole Greenfield water thing came to be. 

And, correct me if I'm wrong. By the way, just a little bit back to the beginnings of Greenfield Water, from my understanding, when dad was repairing espresso machines, he might have a little bit different way of telling this story, and maybe you too. But, he found that, and being gourmet coffee roaster, he found that the two major things that affected the quality of the coffee and the cupping experience was the quality of the bean, the sourcing of the bean and the roasting process. But, then also the water that was being used in the espresso machine or in the making of the cup of coffee. And, that's how we originally got interested in the science of water. Does that sound about right?

Zach:  Yeah, exactly. I mean water is something that's I think a lot of times overlooked too in like restaurant industry and stuff like that is really the quality of the water and how much it actually affects the taste of the coffee. It's huge.

Ben:  Yeah. Yeah, so let's talk about Greenfield Water. So, how do you describe Greenfield Water to people like as far as what Greenfield Water Solutions does?

Zach:  Well, really, I mean we offer high-end water filtration. But, I think the more foundational aspect of it is the structuring and energizing that — the component that we add to all of our systems. And, really I would say the ultimate description would be bringing water back to its natural state, which covers quite a bit of ground. That covers clean water, that covers water that's energized and structured in a natural state which is congruent with using principles that are congruent with nature which our body is going to respond to the best.

Ben:  So, structured water is that basically what the water filter is producing? Like when it goes through the filter and comes up the other end, is the main differentiating characteristic the fact that the water is. Some people call magnetized, some people call it hexagonal water. But, basically, water with the structure that's been altered to form a cluster right like a crystalline, structure like a hexagonal structure that you normally wouldn't get if it was sitting in cisterns or in municipal water supplies. It's basically water closer to what water would be from a molecular standpoint if it were like tumbling over rocks in an underground spring or something like that.

Zach:  Yeah, exactly. And then, adding the component of filtering to that. But, ultimately I think the most foundational key difference in providing a water filter that gives you clean water that's great but then making it really health beneficial and actually increasing your life force energy and helping with recovery and hydration, that's really the key thing. I mean you're getting most of the benefits of water are going to come from putting it in that state versus just running it through a filter and making it clean.

Ben:  And, it's different than H2O like structured water. And, Gerald Pollock is probably the most well-known guy at University of Washington who has done a lot of research on what's called fourth phase water or easy water, this idea. And, Dr. Thomas Cowan talks about this a lot too if you look at water for example in a fruit, or in like a chia seed pudding, or in structured water, or probably most relevant to health in the actual water that's in the cells in the human body. The chemical formula is closer to H3O2. Like it's three hydrogen molecules combined with two oxygen molecules. It's thicker, it's denser, it's more viscous than normal water, and it's more of a gel-like substance. And, from a cellular standpoint, that's what allows for the transfer of electrolytes in and out of cells. 

There's this old-school idea, I think it was Gilbert Ling was the original researcher who proposed that possibly this sodium-potassium pump that we all learn about in biology is not necessarily the main way that charges, move in and out of a cell. And, that the main way that charges are distributed is via the movement of charges through this gel-like structure of water. And, those molecules of structured water because they're thicker and denser and more viscous are supposed to have a higher what's called a vibrational charge. And so, you're actually able to stay hydrated better and you're able to allow for electron transfer in and out of cells a little bit more readily when the water is in that hexagonal pattern.

And then, Gerald Pollock, what he found was at University of Washington like if he'd shine photons of light like sunlight for example at water in a test tube, that the water that was structured kind of moved up the test tube against gravity in the same way that it would say like in the vasculature of a plant. And so, the water has less resistance to traveling through vessels.

And, there's this guy, Stephen Hussey, wrote a book called “Understanding the Heart” and he talks about how the heart is a toroidal shape. Yeah, I think he describes as like a tetrahedron shape inside the chest where when the heart beats or pumps or contracts, there's no way from a physics standpoint that the strength of that pumping action would be strong enough to move all the blood in your body through all the little capillaries that would distribute blood throughout the entire body all the way out to each fingertip or the end of each toe and throughout each organ.

And, therefore, what the heart is doing is when it's pumping it's creating like a vortex. It's almost like a swirling action that swirls the blood that structures the fluid and that allows for it to move against resistance more readily because it's pulled by a charge. I think it's a positive charge on the interior of the vessel and a negative charge in the water that's allowing water to move in the same way that water would move against gravity up through a plant. That's the way that it's moving through your body.

And so, if you're getting things like sunlight exposure drinking structured water getting adequate intake of electrolytes and minerals, and things like magnesium, you're actually able to have better cardiovascular performance and ultimately better oxygenation of tissue. And, poor oxygenation of tissue is what's related to most chronic diseases. And so, if you're able to somehow structure the water in your body to drink structured water, to get adequate access to photons of light, you almost create this perfect scenario for hydration and oxygenation.

Zach:  It's been incredibly helpful to have people like Dr. Gerald Pollock kind of put a scientific mark on something that was really kind of considered woo-woo for quite a long time. So, I think it's important to have that and it's been incredible to have people like him kind of describe the functionality on a scientific level.

I think in addition to that, there's also the energetic side of things other than the physical vortexing. There's so much evidence that shows that water actually collects, stores, and transmits information like a computer almost like that receives stores and transmits information. 

And so, Masaru Emoto who is a water researcher with human consciousness, which is essentially EMF energy, he was able to see that water subjected to different energetic stimuli would have an effect on the water when the water was frozen. And so, he would study the crystalline structure of water in that state. And so, they kind of brought like this it brings like this important energetic side to the physical vortexing of water too, which is I think really important to add to the effects of structured water and it's important to understand that stuff too I think.

Ben:  Yeah. It's interesting. Like Masaru Emoto catches a lot of flak because I think some of his research wasn't as well done as a guy like Gerald Pollock when it comes to actual molecular composition of the water. But, his idea was well water that gets exposed to certain energies especially water if it's in this hexagonal structure is able to hold or store that information, which is the theory behind things like homeopathy or dissolving things in very, very small amounts in water and the water carries the information, or the frequency, or the energy of that thing that it's been exposed to. And so, when you drink the water you get a lot of those effects.

Like there's one device, it's called an Infopathy device. I've experimented with it a little bit. It'll like blast the water with the frequency or the energy of let's say something you'd want to have before a meal to stabilize blood glucose like berberine. And, rather than taking a berberine capsule you could actually drink the water that's been exposed to the frequency or the energy of berberine and get a similar effect. I realize like a lot of people are raising their eyebrows at that and wondering how legit that is. But, I think that the bigger picture whether or not you believe water could be the same as taking a supplement is that if water is somehow structured, it can allow for better carrying of minerals through the body and may possibly allow for better hydration.

I think what's interesting is some of the stuff that you guys have noticed when you're using these filters that structure the water with things like animals, pets. I know you've done some stuff with people, but I think I think dad was telling me about some of the farms that use the larger filtration units. What have you guys seen?

Zach:  Well, it's pretty incredible. I mean, in some of these farms we're not even using the physical vortexing of water. We're using the harmonizer, which is basically resonance, right? And, subtle positive electromagnetic frequencies that are imparted like completely comprised of ingredients that are in congruency with nature. With both of those, with both vortexing and harmonizing, we're noticing less herd anxiety, calmer animals, faster weight gain in livestock.

A lot of these farms are conventional too. They're not necessarily like totally organic farms, decreased mortality rates. And then, a big one is an animal's preferring troughs with structured water or with a harmonizer in the trough versus your standard tap water. And, a lot of these are anecdotal from ranchers and farmers that are using these devices but the benefits that they've noticed have been incredible. It equates out to them for increased profits in addition to all the positive effects that's having on the animals.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. And, despite the science in my opinion again being weak, this idea that you can order water kind of like a crystal right and that forms that exclusion zone that allows it to move through vasculature more readily and may also enhance the filtration process if you do create this unique molecular structure in water. I think that's interesting even though there's not a ton of great science behind it. But, I think what's more compelling is what actually happens to people what they report when they drink this water, and when they bathe in and shower in it, and how it tastes.

So, as far as the actual filters themselves, what's going on? Like how is it how is the structuring process actually taking place?

Zach:  You know we manufacture the vortex or energizers but we don't manufacture filters. So, we go out and we find the best companies we can either in Germany or America or Italy or wherever that provide the best filtration we can find. So, we marry the vortex or energizer to that. So, like on a typical under-sink system we have three stages of filtration. And then, as it goes up before it goes up to your sink or your spigot, it's going through a vortex or energizer. So, it's kind of like to polish the water off our final step is structuring and energizing the water before it goes into your glass.

And, it's the same thing with our Whole Home Systems too. Every filter that we sell has that attached to it.

Ben:  So, the actual filters themselves you're importing those. Where exactly you're importing them from? Where were you finding the filtration technology?

Zach:  In kind of searching for like the best filtration we had to bring on people that were actually very well educated in water filtration that had been in the industry for a long time. And then, through them we found suppliers that comparing different types of carbon, comparing the surface areas of the carbon, the carbons charge, its effectiveness. And, most of our media has come out of Germany through company called Watch Water. This company's kind of on the spearhead of water filtration and figuring out how to have optimal filtration without the side effects of RO and distillation like about water waste and without removing all the minerals. 

And, that's the company that we've been really working with a lot just because of how forward-focused they are, and how focused they are, and not kind of staying stagnant in an old archaic filtration techniques. But, actually, as water is getting worse, being able to move with that and provide the best filtration possible.

We're constantly looking for the silver bullet. You know you're never going to find the silver bullet, but the goal is to get as close as possible. That's why we work with companies that are constantly moving in that direction.

Ben:  You've seen my water filtration system. I have a well so first, it's going through a manganese filter and a bacterial iron filter. But, then it passes through one of these whole house structured water filters that you guys make. Is it like a carbon block? Is it reverse osmosis? Or, what's the actual filter?

Zach:  We have different filters for different functions. So, we do have catalytic carbon, carbon block, we have arsenic-specific filters. We're working on a technology right now that we've beta testing with some customers. 

No filtration is perfect like you take RO for instance, you're not going to get everything out with our RO. There's nothing that can get everything out of the water. You can get close, but you have drawbacks to each of those. So, we're working with the technology now where we're able to achieve distillation level filtration and even better without the water waste and without any of the other drawbacks of distillation in RO like having a holding tank, and wasting a ton of water, and having concentrated contaminants and membranes.

Our goal is to be able to get the water to where you just turn on your spigot and the water is coming out of the same pressure as the house without having a drain, without having a holding tank, or anything else. And so, we're testing in technology now.

I mean any filter you use is going to be affected by water dynamics because no water is going to be like wild water, right? Water is so dynamic and complex everywhere you go. And so, the challenge is to be able to provide a filter that filters to the customer's expectation without having a lot of the drawbacks and being able to work with different water dynamics and still have a really good outcome.

Ben:  So, it's the first thing that somebody should do, and I do want to talk about what people could do if they can't do a whole house because obviously, the gold standard would be filter and structure all the water you're going to be drinking, bathing in, feeding to your pets, washing your dishes in, etc. And, I do want to talk about some options for people who may not be able to install a whole house system like if they're renting or they're in a condo, or apartment, or something like that. 

If someone wants to install one of these filtration systems, and there's a whole bunch of different options in terms of the filtration mediums, is the first thing that somebody should do to actually test their water?

Zach:  It depends. Like if you're on city water, the contaminants, the amount of chlorine, the amount of fluoride, it's all going to fluctuate. Like today it might be different than that next week because they might add fluoride or they might add chlorine. The contaminant profile is also going to change.

So, on city water, if you do a water test, it's not really required because that's just going to take a snapshot of where the water is at right now. The only advantage would be like you might pick up like if they have old galvanized pipes you might see that oh they've got lead in their water, that would be the only advantage to like maybe see how your plumbing is.

But, overall, for city water, we just need a local water report. You know city water treatment facilities are transparent about, for the most part, they're really transparent about the levels and ranges of everything in the water. So, we can look at that and set someone up pretty effectively with a system where they don't need a water test. You know the well water of course there's a wild card.

Ben:  Yeah. I know you guys have a whole list of different water test kits on your side, but I think what a lot of people don't realize you can just type in the name of your town or city or whatever with the phrase water quality report and you'll get a listing of what's actually in your water. And, I think EWG, the Environmental Working Group, they have a whole like water database where you can also look up what's actually in your water. 

So, if someone were to were to call you guys or email you and their location and that they're on municipal water not necessarily well water which they'd have to test, you can at least get a decent idea of what type of filtration technology they should use in their home?

Zach:  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that gives us a really good snapshot. You know some of the things that are not on there are obviously pharmaceuticals, maybe glyphosate. There's certain things that you're not going to find on a city water report that we just assume are in the water, right? You go to any city tap water area you're probably going to have trace pharmaceuticals in the water like progestin, estrogen, ibuprofen, heart medications. So, we always assume that's present in the water so we always treat that regardless broad spectrum filter. 

But, it is good to know for certain things like arsenic for instance which is more challenging to remove and requires something more specific, it's really important for that. And, all those major contaminants that we need to see are always listed on city water reports.

Ben:  What about fluoride?

Zach:  Yeah, fluoride is also listed on there too. Not all cities add fluoride, majority of them do. like, for instance, Spokane where we live does not add fluoride to the water and there's no naturally occurring fluoride either, which is a big plus. That's pretty rare. Fluoride levels are always, they always have a range of how much fluoride is in the water.

Ben:  Okay. I wasn't sure because I've heard that some of the test kits don't actually test for fluoride and they'll test for a lot of like heavy metals, elements, compounds, inorganic chemicals, pathogenic bacteria, etc. But, sometimes you have to do a separate fluoride test. So, it can be kind of kind of a process to actually test if you want to go above and beyond what your local water report is telling you or what the EWG water database is telling you. 

But, I know you guys have a pretty helpful section of your website where you lay out all the different water test kits that one could do, what they're testing for, and whether you're on well or municipal what to get. So, I'll hunt that down and link to it. Again, the show note's going to be at bengreenfieldlife.com/Zach. Because, it sounds to me like that'd really be step one before you decide what kind of filtration technology you want to get.

And then, once you've got the test results or what you want to get as far as a filter, you've used this term a few times, Zach. I think you said harmonizer.

Zach:  Yeah, our harmonizer.

Ben:  What is that?

Zach:  So, the harmonizer is a small cartridge that's within the vortexer. So, we have the vortexing which is your physical toroidal vortexing of the water to mimic how water moves in nature.

Ben:  Okay. So, is that where the water is passing through all of the — I know a lot of companies use plastic beads. You guys use like glass beads to vortex. 

Zach:  We use glass or quartz balls in triangular formation that we have several of them lined up down the tube so the water is able to roll around each ball, collide, and do the continuous thing to really mimic how like water would move in a waterfall or down a stream, which sounds very simple but it's actually a pretty powerful effective technique to structuring water.

And, from there we have water that if you consider that water stores information, there's a lot of negative information that's been imparted to the water between its journey from the water source to your sink where the chemicals or straight pipes right angle turns, which tends to restructure water. So, many different aspects.

So, the harmonizer in there is meant to sort of impart positive information to the water using the subtle natural EMF basically. This EMF will convey that information to the water.

Ben:  You mean like electromagnetic fields?

Zach:  Like electromagnetic frequency. So, it's basically the frequency like a manifestation of a waveform conveys information like a digital signal or like voice and music frequencies, for instance, like convey information wirelessly. It's the same concept but it's within a cartridge in the vortex there. And so, as the water moves through there, it's going past the vortexer which is imparting that information to the water which is where we see a lot of, I mean you can't quantify structured water very easily. It takes a lot to do that. Other than seeing that in trials and the outcome of plant cell or plant health and soil health and stuff. But, what we can quantify are energetics.

So, if you were to run water through a vortex there and pass the energizer and use gas discharge visualization or electrophotonic videography, you're able to see a massive increase in energy emitted from that drop of water.

Ben:  Interesting. Okay. So, if the water passes through the structured water filter and then travels through all these maze of pipes within a household or a property, does it actually maintain any amount of the structure by the time it gets to your tap, or your sink, or your shower head, or whatever?

Zach:  It does and that's something that you know, I mean it depends how big your house is. If you have an 8,000 square foot house you might need a bigger vortexer. But, really the way that we've quantified this is obviously farms that are using long pipes, we had similar effects with leaf samples and soil samples using almost a kilometer of pipe. It's hard to quantify how much distance, but we know that the water will stay structured in most households because we do over-engineer and oversize our vortexers to ensure that the water will stay structured.

But, in our trials, we've noticed that we have similar effects with a certain amount of a certain distance of pipe. So, the water will stay structured in a pipe, it just depends on how long the water is traveling through that pipe like the distance of the pipe, and that's something that we're constantly researching.

Ben:  Okay, got it. And then, these harmonizer cartridges that you have as part of the filtration system, to my understanding that's like a sealed copper cartridge that's got different quartzes, and minerals, and like tourmaline, and shungite, and zeolite, and bentonite, and things like that, all these Earth minerals and sea minerals. And, that's what is combined with the actual structuring. So, it's getting vortex and exposed to all these minerals, is that right?

Zach:  Exactly, yeah. Like nearly every element on the periodic table of elements, and then it's immersed in a highly charged spring water and then placed in that cartridge.

Ben:  Do you have any hypothesis as to why, when I did as dad told me, I put it I got a harmonizer, I put one in my refrigerator. I've got one next to all my essential oils, and I've got one in my hot tub and one in my pool. I want to put one in the hot tub and in the pool, we had a significant decrease in the amount of chemicals that were required to keep the water clean. We just have to use trace amounts of chemicals now because the water stays clean. And, I know that our water that we're using to fill the pool is structured and filtered. But, when I put the harmonizer in, it's like it's somehow upgraded. Do what's going on with the harmonizer if you just put it in a refrigerator or in a pool or a hot tub or something like that?

Zach:  With the way that the harmonizer works emitting positive EMF, you do create a biosheild against negative EMF. That's also a concept for just personal health device like we're in a pendant, for instance, it's harmonizer. 

What we noticed in the trials on farms in the conventional farms that still use pesticides and chemicals and like the structured water will actually potentiate the effects of some of those and actually allow them to use 30% on average less chemicals on their farm or less pesticides because of the way the water is working. So, we're increasing the permeability of the water. Some of those concepts I'm still grasping and understanding.

Ben:  After all, you're just a fitness model.

Zach:  You're right. It's able to potentiate a lot of the things that you're putting in the water. But, in another sense too, especially like with the pool, we're also decreasing chlorine smell and decreasing the amount of chlorine you're using and having better effects in the pool. And, a lot of those concepts are more than just potentiating some of the chemicals that are put in, but also changing the dynamics of them too to where they're more effective.

Ben:  So, if someone's using a lot of these personal protection devices for EMF like there's also like I have a Somavedic over here in the corner. People are constantly sending me the stuff. I got a Somavedic. I got a key device. I got the Blue Shield. All sorts of these different EMF-blocking type of devices. This harmonizer would kind of fall into that category?

Zach:  Absolutely, yeah. I mean a lot of these companies like Somavedic, they're all like these proprietary. It's all the same concept, right, of subtle positive electromagnetic frequency ideally in a natural form, which our body tends to respond to the best. But, they're all the same concepts, each one just has a different proprietary way of doing it.

Ben:  Okay, got it. Now the vortexer because I want to talk about what you do if you can't afford or don't have a house that you would install a whole house structure harmonizer unit in. I have this on-the-go thing that dad gave me. It's a handheld vortexer that you're supposed to pour water through. I obviously don't need to use that in my home because I have the whole house filter. I can travel with it, but then the main thing I use it for is when I pour a glass of wine, there's an old-school Tim Ferriss tactic of using a latte frother to froth any poured wine to make it taste better, to introduce oxygen, etc.

But, what I do when I have house guests over is I pour the wine through the device and the difference in the taste between the wine that's been vortexed versus that hasn't is absolutely staggering. But, is that the only real solution that you guys have for people who don't have a whole house filter is you just pour your water through this vortexer or are there other things that you have, countertop or otherwise, people don't have a whole house option?

Zach:  Yeah. Like for instance where I live, I don't have a whole house option. You can put under sinks in the under-sink filtration systems in rentals. A lot of people will use gravity feeds so they'll basically get have like a Berkey or something similar. Or, we sell actual filters that fit the Berkey and fit gravity feed devices, which are probably the cheapest and easiest way to go. And then, they'll just have a handheld vortexer so that when they pour the water the filtered water out of the bottom reservoir of their gravity feed, it goes in through the vortexer into their glass. So, you can use it kind of manually that way. Obviously, it's an extra step, but if you don't have a spot for an under sink that's a good way to go. 

And then, we have countertops that will also hook up your sink faucet. Just kind of grab onto your sink faucet and then you can run water through it that way, and that actually has a vortexer flow tooth built into it oh with a single filter. And so, you're able to get it a little bit more conveniently that way. 

But, I'd say the most popular way that people use especially if they're like RV living or just renting and unable to put anything in or don't want to spend $800, you spend a few hundred bucks you can get a gravity feed and you can vortex the water after that. That way it's filtered. And then, it's a good idea to filter your water not just structuring and energizing it. Although the foundational aspect, you're going to get the most benefits with a handheld after a filter.

Ben:  Yeah. So, your countertop filter, that's going to use one of the different filters that you talked about like a ceramic, or a catalytic carbon, or whatever. And then, that will go through the vortex flow tube. So, technically you have a freestanding filter system, I could just put on my counter, hook up to my kitchen water, and have in the kitchen if I have like a condo or apartment or something like that.

Zach:  Yeah, absolutely. And, it's a single filter. You know it's not going to have the same filtering capabilities and under sink but they're really quality broad spectrum filters that do a good job at least making your water much safer.

Ben: And, what do you do about hardness or scaling? Is that something that you take into consideration with the filters or do you have some kind of solution for that?

Zach:  Yeah. So, obviously for under sink, we're not really treating hard water that much highly mineralized water. We do have a lot of anecdotal oral testimonials of customers that have resolution of like scale deposits and stuff in their tea kettles by just having the water run through vortexer. We have shown a decrease in TDS with just a vortexer, which can implicate some water hardness as well.

For our whole house systems, we use a technology called nucleation-assisted crystallization. So basically we're able to treat anion scale, cation scale, and silica while keeping the minerals bioavailable to the body. And, we can do that on whole house levels. So, basically, you're saving your pipes from scale and you're saving your shower heads and all that nasty buildup from scale while also keeping the minerals in on like a softener, which has the salt aspect to it, and takes out the minerals, and is generally environmentally incredibly terrible. 

There's drawbacks to everything of course. But, the water conditioning stuff that we use for hard water on whole house level is pretty effective and also will remove the issues that people sometimes get with really hard water like on with their hair and skin.

Ben:  Yeah. I know you also have some garden and pool-specific options in addition to the whole house and the kitchen countertop options. And then, also some of these EMF blocking type of devices. But, it can be kind of staggering, kind of dizzying for people to know what it is they're supposed to get. I think you told me at one point that you spent a lot of time on the phone with people just walking folks through which system they're supposed to get.

But, let's say somebody's listening and they want to structure their water and then vortex their water and see what that feels like and taste like, etc. Is the best thing to do to just call up or go to the website?

Zach:  The best way is really calling us or emailing us, and we do get a lot of those. And, that's one of our goals with water filtration is to have it so dialed that we can really just throw one system at most tap waters and have it work effectively, which is what we're really close to.

Inevitably people will need to call and kind of get some direction on stuff. That's just the nature of this business, and that's something that we want to be able to continue to provide for people.

Ben:  Do you have anything new coming down the pipeline, I guess pun intended here, that you guys are developing, in addition to just looking at the most up-to-date filtration technologies?

Zach:  We've just finished testing and lab testing the technology that affects the pH of the water. So, we're able to drop the pH of the water, remove all the constituents of the water to zero, and then re-alkalize the water naturally through a mineral cartridge. We're beta-testing that with a few people right now.

The nice thing about it is there's no water waste. You know we're not removing the minerals. We're dropping the pH with this technology but not removing the minerals. I don't know nearly as much about it as our chemist who's working on it. But we have incredible results with it even with fluoride, arsenic, we're getting zero level readings with this stuff and it's pretty incredible.

So, that's what's coming down the pipeline. If it all works out it's going to be really kind of the apex of water filtration.

Ben:  So, what's it doing exactly, this newer technology? Like how's it different?

Zach:  Basically, pH variances can affect how water is filtered. And, I couldn't go into the science of all of it just because I just lack the amount of knowledge that our chemist has. But, basically, we're affecting the pH of the water and then running it through carbon we're able to remove things that normally you wouldn't be able to remove with a normal pH. Because as water filtration is really subject to the dynamics of each person's water, and which can be very challenging.

You can have one filter that removes 100% of fluoride in one area and you go to the next area and it might remove only 65%. So we're trying to bridge that gap of being able to take water dynamics out of the picture and get the same amount of filtration to manage customer expectations wherever they live.

Ben:  Interesting. I know we're running short on time and we only kind of scratch the surface of what's going on as far as the water filtration industry and some of the options out there for structuring. But, I'll include some links to helpful resources as far as test kits and some of the stuff on your guys' website. Folks, go to bengreenfieldlife.com/Zach then you can get access to the show notes and a link to resources for everything that we discussed.

Alright, one more kind of fun question. If you could, since I did want to talk a little bit about us, and our history, and our family, etc., what would be your fondest memory growing up of particularly you and me since it's you and me on this podcast? It's your top memory of you and me if you could pull one out. Don't embarrass me too much.

Zach:  When you were in a fun mode you were super funny, and then you would go into focus mode where it's like, oh, he's inaccessible because he's focused on this thing. But, in the mornings when we woke up, you would always do, it was like a TV show and it just is like the Sega that kept on going. You had these characters. I don't remember what they were like Bart and Butterball and something like that. You would do these stories underneath the covers for the little characters would pop up.

Ben:  No, my feet were the puppets. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah.

Zach:  Yeah. And, you would do these stories and then you would stop and it was like watching a TV show, like a cliffhanger. I'd always wait for the next morning when you'd tell the story again. It keeps the story going. That was like probably one of my fondest memories because it was like I don't know, I just something that stuck out to me.

Ben:  [01:11:24] ____ my son's idea. I do it with my feet where you like put the feet underneath the covers because the feet look like two heads and you kind of pop up and I'll say, “Hey, I'm Bart.” “Hey, I'm Butterball.” And then, the other way I'll do it is with socks putting socks in my hands.

I don't do it with my sons as much these days. They're 14 so they're getting a little too mature for dad to be doing foot and sock puppet theater actions, but yeah. It's a good fun memory.

Zach:  And then, when we used to build like Lego fortresses in time to overhead fan and then wait for it to get closer and closer to the wall and explode.

Ben:  We used to do that a lot. You would take a lot of my top GI Joes and tie them with strings to the ceiling fan and I'd walk in and have a bunch of beheaded and de-limbed GI Joes. Yeah. We could probably go on for a really long time with memories and bore people, but I think the main thing I want to get across to people was there's some pretty crazy cool water technology that exists now. Zach and my dad are kind of the two experts on it, in my opinion, and their stuff is really good. I'm obviously biased because they're family members, but I've seen what they're doing, and the water enhancement stuff that they're coming out with is unparalleled.

So, I'll link to everything. If you go to bengreenfieldlife.com/Zach. I know we have some little discounts here and there on some of their stuff so I'll make sure I put all that in there and pass along the savings to all you who are listening in.

Zach, that was fun, man. We may have to do a part two if people ask for it.

Zach:  Definitely. Good times, always.

Ben:  Alright, folks. You can leave your questions, your comments, your feedback over at bengreenfieldlife.com/Zach. You can also watch the video version of this podcast because we're doing videos now on YouTube, or in the show notes, or wherever else fine podcasts and videos are found. Until next time. I'm Ben Greenfield along with Zach Greenfield signing out from bengreenfieldlife.com. Have an amazing week.

More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh entertaining, well-informed, and often outside-the-box approach to discovering the health, and happiness, and hope that we all crave. So, I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And, if you liked it or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast listening channel wherever that might be, and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. It means a lot.

 

 

It’s time for another entertaining  podcast with one of my dear family members.

My father, Gary Greenfield, joined me on the podcast “Why Water, Sunlight, Grounding & Relationships Are The Keys To Your Health & How To Feed, Clean & Protect Your Body Forever,”in which we discussed his history of coming to Idaho from Miami (with the dream of becoming a farmer) and how he eventually became an expert in the water filtration industry, his journey from evangelical Christianity to orthodox and much more.

Later, my mom, Pat Greenfield, joined me on the episode “Ben Greenfield Interviews His Mom: Homeschooling, Coffee Shops, Writing, Music & More,” in which we discussed my upbringing, homeschooling, trauma, and much more.

And this podcast episode features my younger brother Zach Greenfield, who is the director of operations at Greenfield Water Solutions. Prior to coming on board with the family business in 2021, Zach worked for the past 18 years as a flight paramedic, and firefighter paramedic in Los Angeles, CA and the Pacific Northwest. During this time Zach also started and ran a successful private label Amazon FBA business, which he sold in 2019. Zach resides in Liberty Lake, WA with his 2 daughters, Rowan and Zofia, 12 and 8 years old. In his spare time, Zach is finishing his nursing degree, enjoys skiing, fitness, spending time with friends and family, and enjoying the Pacific Northwest outdoors.

Greenfield Water Solutions (use code BEN10 to save 10%) creates water enhancement products that put life force energy back into your tap water utilizing concepts of structured/energized water. Our goal and our promise is to deliver information and products that are congruent with nature and truly life enhancing for body, soul and mind.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-like me, I know you’re somewhat interested in fitness and health. What are some of the key things you do to maintain your body or brain as a part of your daily routine?

-how did you used to work out and eat when you were a model, and did you run into a lot of problems in the modeling world that seem to be prevalent, like eating disorders and things like that?

-tell me about what you think were unique aspects of the way that you were raised or educated.

-growing up, did you ever think it was weird or awkward being homeschooled, and if so, how did you tackle that?

-my impressions of you, growing up, is that you were always kind of the happy go lucky joker who was always up to something funny and finding humor in everything. What were your impressions of me?

-do you feel like you got much of the entrepreneurial bug or talents passed on to us by our father or grandfather?

-how did you go from being a flight paramedic to being involved in the water business?

-what are some of the key products that you sell at Greenfield water, and how do they work? (This will Rabbit hole all over the place because we can discuss the whole house filters, the pour through, the necklaces, etc.) – this will probably be a good half hour or so of the podcast.

If not addressed above… What are some of the things people are noticing from the use of these technologies?

do you think there any pervasive myths in the water, filtration industry and if so, what are they?

where do you see yourself and greenfield water in five years?

-Introduction…06:28

• Interviewing family members
• Ben’s younger brother Zach Greenfield
  • Former model
  • Firefighter and paramedic
  • Director of Operations at Greenfield Water Solutions (use code BEN10 to save 10%)

–Zach’s fitness and diet routine…09:16

• Having structure
  • Always having a trainer and a prescribed workout
  • Tracking what he eats
  • Basic supplements like
    • Creatine
    • Aminos
    • Colostrum
• Bryan Johnson
• It’s important to find balance
  • Avoid being obsessive
  • Keeping things simple
• How Ben and Zach ate growing up
  • Typical average American family diet
  • Fluoride supplements

-At what point did Zach start to learn about healthy nutrition?…14:57

• Influenced by classmates at paramedic school
• Got interested in healthy nutrition and shifted his diet
• Tracking macros
  • My Fitness Pal
  • Cronometer
  • macrofactor
• Mostly tracks fats, protein and carbs

-Any eating disorders while in the modeling industry?…16:55

• Did mostly athletic stuff; totally different compared to high fashion
• Fitness oriented people
• Had a generally good experience while modeling

–Homeschooling…20:12

• Fortunate to be well socialized as homeschoolers
• Port Cities Home Educators
• Aware of differences with public schools but never being bothered by them
• Lots of free time after lessons
• Part of a large group of homeschoolers
  • Many friends
• Percentage of homeschoolers today is above 10%

-Having an entrepreneurial bug…25:06

• The influence of being around a father and his businesses
• Grandpa Bill was a successful entrepreneur
• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin 
• Greenfield Water Solutions (use code BEN10 to save 10%)

-Greenfield Water…38:09

• Beginnings
  • The quality of the coffee depends on the beans and water
  • Dad got interested in the science of water
• Greenfield Water Solutions offers
  • High-end water filtration
  • Structuring and energizing
  • Bringing water back to its natural state
• Structured water
  • Filter gives clean and health beneficial water
  • Molecules are thicker and denser
• Understanding the Heart by Dr. Stephen Hussey
• Dr. Gerald Pollack
  • water collects, stores, and transmits information
• Podcast with Dr. Gerald Pollack
  • Is All Water The Same?

• Podcast with Thomas Cowan on water:
  • Why The War On Cancer Has Failed & What You Can Do About It: Mistletoe, NAD, Deuterium Depleted Water, Melatonin, Gerson Therapy & Beyond!
• Dr. Gilbert Ling
  • The Association Induction Hypothesis
• Dr. Masaru Emoto
  • Influence of human consciousness on water
  • Ideas behind homeopathy
• Infopathy
• Podcast with Anton Fedorenko:
  • How To Turn A Glass Of Water Into A Pharmaceutical, Supplement, Remedy & “Information Carrier” Using The Science Of Infopathy.

-Using filters and structured water in farms…45:34

• Used the Vortexer and Harmonizer in farms (use code BEN10 to save 10%) 
  • Calmer animals
  • Faster weight gain
  • Decreased mortality rates
  • Animals preferring filtered water

-Structuring process…46:58

• Finding the best filtration systems
• After filtration, vortex and energizer
• Filters imported mostly from Germany
• Whole Home System (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
• Watch Water
• Constantly improving
• Different filters for different functions
  • No perfect filtration
• Challenge to provide filters without a lot of drawbacks

-Is testing the water the first step?…51:58

• Testing the water
  • Not required for city water
  • Well water has to be tested
  • Test kits and EWG (Environmental Working Group) water quality reports
  • Broad spectrum filters and specific filters
  • Testing for fluoride

-What is the Harmonizer…55:41

• Harmonizer is a cartridge inside the Vortexer (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
  • With glass and quartz beads
  • Imparts positive information to water
• Electro-magnetic frequency imparts the information to the water
• Pipe length is a factor 
• Harmonizer cartridges with minerals

-The Hand-held Vortexer…1:02:26

• Wine tastes different when poured through the Vortexer (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
• Under sink filtration systems
• Counter top filter

-What about hardness or scaling?…1:05:29

• Undersink options do not treat for hard water but a lot of anecdotal reports of decreased scale deposits by running through the Vortexer (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
• Whole Home System (use code BEN10 to save 10%)

-Garden and pool options and other systems…1:06:55

• Garden and pool options (use code BEN10 to save 10%)

-New products…1:07:58

• Just finished lab testing new technology to drop water pH, remove all constituents and re-alkalize with a cartridge
  • pH affects how the water is filtered

-Fondest memory of Ben when growing up…1:10:28

• Super funny when in fun mode
• Building Lego fortresses

-And much more…

Upcoming Events:

• Keep up on Ben's LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldfitness.com/calendar!

 

Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

– Zach Greenfield

• Greenfield Water Solutions (use code BEN10 to save 10%)
  • Harmonizer
  • Vortexer
• Why Water, Sunlight, Grounding & Relationships Are The Keys To Your Health & How To Feed, Clean & Protect Your Body Forever
• Ben Greenfield Interviews His Mom: Homeschooling, Coffee Shops, Writing, Music & More

– Podcasts:

• Is All Water The Same?
• Why The War On Cancer Has Failed & What You Can Do About It: Mistletoe, NAD, Deuterium Depleted Water, Melatonin, Gerson Therapy & Beyond!
• How To Turn A Glass Of Water Into A Pharmaceutical, Supplement, Remedy & “Information Carrier” Using The Science Of Infopathy.

– Books:

• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
• Understanding the Heart by Dr. Stephen Hussey

– Other Resources:

• Creatine
• Aminos
• Colostrum
• My Fitness Pal
• Cronometer
• macrofactor
• Infopathy
• Bryan Johnson
• Port Cities Home Educators
• Dr. Gilbert Ling
• Dr. Masaru Emoto
• The Association Induction Hypothesis
• Watch Water
• EWG (Environmental Working Group)

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