239: Part 2 - How to Clean Your Toxic Tap Water - with Helen Christoni

Jan 9, 2026

Helen Christoni, a water-quality expert from AquaTru, dives into the shocking truths about our tap water. Modern water supplies are tainted with heavy metals, microplastics, and PFAS that boiling cannot remove. She reveals how contaminants infiltrate during treatment and through aging pipes. The duo also uncovers the pitfalls of bottled water and shares essential insights on effective filtration methods, including the benefits of reverse osmosis. Christoni offers practical tips to minimize toxic exposure, highlighting the importance of clean water for overall health.

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ANECDOTE

Personal Reaction To Tap Water Taste

Josh's wife hated room-temperature tap water until they switched to filtered water, then she drank it fine.
Josh accidentally drank unfiltered tap water and gagged from the chlorine, showing dramatic taste differences.

ANECDOTE

Trade-Show Arsenic Shock

At an Orlando trade show, Helen found a local's water had arsenic at 1,000× health guidelines.
She immediately recommended a reverse-osmosis system because that level is dangerous even in tourist areas.

INSIGHT

Contamination Often Happens After Treatment

Water leaves treatment plants then travels miles through aging pipes where contamination increases.
Lead pipes, seepage and infrastructure cracks allow pesticides, pharmaceuticals and industrial runoff into tap water.

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As health nuts, we obsess over calories, chemicals and sunlight, but we rarely think about two things we consume more than anything else on earth: air and water.

This is Part 2 of a two part series on clean air and clean water, and it may change how you look at every glass you drink, every meal you cook, and every shower you take.

Because our modern water is no longer natural. Municipal/city water systems disinfect water just enough to prevent infectious disease, but not enough to protect you from heavy metals, forever chemicals (PFAS), pharmaceutical residues, pesticides, microplastics, and industrial runoff. Add aging infrastructure, lead pipes, agricultural contamination, and chemical disinfectants like chlorine and chloramines, and what reaches your tap is often far from clean.

Even worse, contaminants don't boil out - meaning the water you cook with can concentrate toxins rather than remove them. And because your skin is your largest organ, you're absorbing these chemicals not just when you drink water, but when you shower and bathe.

In other words, we no longer live in environments our biology was designed for. We drink, cook, and bathe in chemically treated water, and then wonder why inflammation, hormone disruption, fertility issues, neurological disease, and chronic illness are exploding.

This episode breaks down what's actually in your water, where it comes from, why the system is broken, and what you can realistically do about it

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Why modern tap water is contaminated, even when it meets "safety" standards
The most common toxins found in drinking water (PFAS, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics)
Why boiling water does not remove contaminants and can make things worse
How water infrastructure, lead pipes, and industrial runoff pollute your supply
The hidden health impact of chlorine and chloramines on the gut, skin, thyroid, and immune system
Why showering in unfiltered water can be as harmful as drinking it
How microplastics enter the body through bottled water, cans, and hot-filled plastics
The truth about bottled water vs. filtered water
Which water filtration methods work and which are mostly a waste of money
Why reverse osmosis is considered the gold standard for water purification
How to remineralize purified water safely and intelligently
How to check what's actually in your local water supply
Why clean water is a foundational step in healing not an optional upgrade