94: Stop Wasting Your Money on These 9 Biohacking Devices!

Michael Kummer: You know, as part of my job, I come across a lot of interesting devices, and many of which I shared with you on a podcast, on the blog, on the YouTube channel, because I truly think they can add value and can help you improve your health and wellbeing. But at the same time, I also come across a lot of devices that are absolutely useless and that you, you should not be spending time and money on.

So in this episode, instead of. Presenting you with my top recommendations, I'm gonna present you with the top devices that are absolutely useless. Welcome to the Primer Chief Podcast, and we'll start out with an electric spoon that tricks your taste buds into enjoying salty flavors without any salt. So it uses electrical stimulation to make you to engage your taste buds and make you think what you're eating is salty, even if it doesn't have any salt.

And I'm like. Who on earth came up with that idea? Well, it was someone from Japan, but eat salt. Salt is incredibly important. The whole idea that, you know, you need to maintain a low sodium diet for your heart health is, is bullshit. You know, that's been proven wrong. I. A long, long, a long, long time ago, and you should absolutely be enjoying high quality salt.

That's a very important electrolyte that your body needs to function optimally, and you don't need a plastic spoon with electronics and EMFs in it to trick you into thinking you're eating salt even though your food doesn't have any salt. Number two. A smart straw that tracks water intake. You know, I think the only thing more useless than calorie tracking is water tracking as if your body can tell you when you should drink, you know, and the best indicator is thirst.

You know, that's the body's mechanism of telling you that you should be drinking, you should be hydrating. But even if you, if you're maybe out of touch with your. Body or what have you, and you don't know for sure you're drinking enough, are you, are you, you know, over drinking? Maybe just look at your urine, you know, if it's, if it's brown, go to the hospital because there is a serious issue.

If it's dark yellow, you are not hydrated well enough, so you. Can borrow benefit from hydrating more, and if it's very pale yellow, you're good to go. You know, you don't need any, any straw or bottle to tell you when it's time to drink. You know, more importantly is with that, those smart straws, you know, they're all connected either to Bluetooth, to wifi, what have you.

That exposes you to EMFs. They're probably made out of materials. They are not good for you. So no, no smart store required to tell you when it's time to drink water or to tell you how much water you drink. Who cares? No animal. On this planet, other than humans need to be told what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat, and how much to drink and when to drink.

It's absolutely mind boggling that we think we need this because we are so out of touch with our own bodies. 

Thank you to this episode’s sponsor, OneSkin!

OneSkin’s lineup of topical skin health products leverage the power of the company’s proprietary OS-01 peptide to remove dead skin cells, improve collagen production, increase skin hydration and more.

Check out my before and after photos in my OneSkin review: https://michaelkummer.com/health/oneskin-review/

Get 15% off with my discount code MKUMMER: https://michaelkummer.com/go/oneskinshop

 Number three is a Bluetooth fork that vibrates when you eat too fast. Now I get it, a lot of people eat too fast. They rush through meals because they're already mentally, you know, somewhere else, you know, to-do lists, what have you, but. Needing a fork that tells you that you're eating too fast a fork, that that tells you that you are not present during mealtime isn't really the solution.

You know, here is an easy way to slow down your eating. You know, you pick up your fork, you put a piece of, uh, meat or whatever you're eating into your mouth, and then you put the fork down and chew. And only when you're done chewing, when you've swallowed and you're ready for the next bite, you pick up that fork again.

That's an easy and free way to slow down your eating. And the, the problem really is that it's not about only about eating. If you are not present during your mealtime, chances are you're not present anywhere else either, and that's a systemic problem that you need to work on. You need to be present and think only about what you're currently doing and not about anything else.

Number four is an AI powered smoothie maker with subscription pots, you know, as if making a smoothie is rocket science. You add some water or milk, some fruit, you know, maybe yogurt, whatever, into a blender and your smoothie is ready. Maybe some protein powder. You know, do you really need an eye powered machine to tell you?

Well, here is the thing. If you use any of those pots, you know, you not only get the good ingredients, you get highly processed chunk food like gums and thickeners, like, you know, artificial and quote unquote natural flavors, preservatives, sweeteners that you don't want, you know, cheap protein powders that.

You know, you can get better fruit concentrates or chooses instead of real whole fruit. You know, it's processed chunk food that at the end of the day, yes, it's convenient, but I. If we've learned anything is then convenient. Foods are terrible for your health. You know, take fast food as an example.

Incredibly convenient. Good for you, not so much. And an AI powered smoothie maker. Seriously. Do you need the AI to tell you that, to mix, you know, some milk with, with organic, uh, strawberries and maybe some protein powder? I don't think so. Number five are mood tracking wearables that flash, you know, colors based on your energy or based on the mood that you are in.

I'm, I certainly hope that you can tell what mood that you are in without having to get a flashing wearable that tells you that you are angry, you know, but it's obviously, you know, those devices go beyond just showing what mood you're in. You know, there are some that you can use to track your mood where you, you know, you push a button depending on your sad or happy or whatever, and then you can look back and.

Seriously. I mean, I'm all for journaling. You know, writing down how you felt on a given day, you know, and then correlate that with maybe your food intake, with your stress levels, with, you know, your level of exercise, with how much time you spent in nature. All of that is valuable. But introducing gadgets, introducing connected devices that pollutes even more.

I don't think is the answer. And there are some devices like, you know, the up mood that, you know, measure your unquote mood, you know, through HRV and some other factors. And then send, you know, someone a notification that, Hey, you know, Michael is pissed right now. Really? I mean, you know, that that just takes away the whole human interaction and reading someone.

Someone's body language. I mean, you can typically tell if someone is not in a great mood or if someone is happy, and yet they'll show you even without saying it. And so, you know, again, relying on devices to let someone know or to let yourself know how you feel, I think is just an, uh, an incredible waste of time and resources at the end of the day that land up in the trash and fill up, um, you know.

Trash dumps at some point, and we absolutely don't need that. Now, one related to the smart straw I already mentioned, US work more smart water bottles that light up and sink with your calendar, you know, and again, it goes back to drink when you're thirsty, you know, look at your pee. If you absolutely have, if you have no clue whether or not you have thirsty or drinking enough, you know, just look at your urine and you can tell, you know, and there are even some bottles.

That are specifically designed for kids, you know, have like a virtual pet inside that grows when kids drink water, you know, wifi enabled, but seriously a hundred dollars bottle for a 5-year-old that's made out of plastic and exposes them to EMFs. Just because you fail to teach your kids how to listen to your bo to their bodies, I think it's absolutely ridiculous.

You know, they are waste of time, waste of money, waste of resources. Number seven. Is a meditation part that you can climb into like a space capsule. So you're an absolute silence. You know, it's, and it's only $15,000, so who wouldn't wanna have one of those meditation parts? But you know what, you know, how about you're sitting in your, in your, in your.

Car, you know, in the garage or in a driveway or in a parking lot, you kind of get the same experience. You're by yourself. It's probably relatively quiet, but how about instead of that being in the, in absolute silence, why not? You know, take a walk in nature and listen to the sounds that we are supposed to listen to, that calm us down, that help us meditate.

You know, I've yet to see anyone being. Disturbed by the sound of, you know, wild birds or you know, insects or what have you. If you get disturbed by that, I think something's wrong with you. So I'd rather go in nature, save just five, $15,000 and just spend the time, you know, walking in nature or if, if that's not your thing, you know, just sit in your car and meditate there.

Uh, number eight, and that is really, that's the, the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in recent history, and that is cold wear. That's supposed to make cold plunging more comfortable. I. What I mean that's, that in itself is an oxymoron, core plunging, and comfortable. I go into the cold because I wanna feel uncomfortable, so, okay.

I can learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And why on earth would you wear shorts that are made out of insulated neoprene? To feel more comfortable in the cold. That doesn't make any sense. I mean, I can get if people wear like neoprene gloves or whatever because of their fingers, because arguably maybe there is not a whole lot of benefit from, you know, having cold fingers or even cold toes.

Even though I would argue if you wanna embrace cold, I. Get into the cold without wearing any gadgets that make you feel more comfortable. I think that's ridiculous. And pants in particular, or shorts? I think they crossed the line of where I'm like, why even bother? Just take a warm shower if you don't want to get uncomfortable.

You know, this is absolutely ridiculous. And this was a, a product, it was pitched to me just recently and I'm like. Do I look like I wanna wear, uh, shorts to make me more comfortable in the cold? Ridiculous. Number nine is also a new ai, uh, powered app that lets you track calories by taking a picture of your food.

And I've talked about just in a recent episode than nonsense of tracking calories for anything. There is absolutely no fucking need to track calories for. Any purpose. You know, there is no animal on this planet. I've mentioned it before, that needs to be told when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat.

Every animal on this planet just eats based on how they feel, how they are wired. It's only stupid humans that have been so messed up over the years that need to be told. Evidently what to eat and how much to eat. That's absolutely ridiculous. And specifically with calories. I get it. If you wanna track your protein intake because you're an athlete or you know, wanna, you know, gain muscle mass or what have you.

But tracking calories, 1000% useless. And you definitely don't need an AI powered app to tell you how much, how many calories. You are eating now. Those were nine devices or gadgets that I find to be incredibly useless. If you know of more, let me know. Beta sending me an email. Or if you're watching this on the platform that supports comment, leave a comment.

If you came across a gadget that you think is absolutely useless, or if you think that some of those that I. Mention in this episode are actually used, useful, in your opinion. Let me know as well. I'd like to hear your take on that, uh, because I just don't see it. Um, but again, again, you know, we have all different perspective, different backgrounds, different use cases, and so I'd like to hear from you.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let me know. Until next time, on the next episode of the Primal Shift podcast, we're talking pre-workout routines. No hype, no powders. Just what actually moves the needle. Turns out it's way simpler than most people think.