Key Points:
- In the kitchen, Greenfield shows a low-cost technique for producing nutrient-dense sprouts as well as how to prepare nature’s multivitamin — beef heart.
- In his biohackers’ paradise living room, Greenfield shows off his yoga trapeze — a contraption used for flexibility-inducing exercises — and a body-cleansing infrared blanket.
- In Greenfield’s bedroom, he showcases a relaxation-promoting nerve stimulator.
The biohacker, health consultant, and author of 17 New York Times bestsellers Ben Greenfield has come up with a number of ways to create a biohackers’ haven in his home. All the while, he uses home biohacking methods that spare his bank account. In a YouTube video, Greenfield describes his home biohacking endeavors, which anyone on a budget can apply to their homes.
Biohacking is when various methods and techniques are used to modify or enhance his/her biological composition for purposes such as lifespan extension. Although biohacking can encompass expensive, health-promoting endeavors like using pressurized hyperbaric chambers that cost up to $100,000, one can also biohack on a budget by using cheaper alternatives.
A Biohacker on a Budget Can Grow Sprouts and Prepare Nature’s Multivitamin — Beef Heart
Along the lines of the biohacking ethos, maintaining a nutrient-rich diet is essential for improving one’s biological composition. In that regard, Greenfield shows how to grow your own sprouts. Greenfield uses a sprouting kit that keeps a jar of sprouts at a 45° angle for optimal growth. He uses this kit to grow sprouts from lentil, chickpea, and green pea seeds. Greenfield claims that, given the importance of consuming sprouts, people can avoid breaking their budgets by growing as opposed to buying them at the supermarket.
Sprouts are very nutritious, because they contain lots of sulforaphane, a compound believed to confer anticancer properties. Sprouts also have a high density of other nutrients like folate, magnesium, and vitamin K. Greenfield also says that sprouts are easily digestible, unlike many raw plants like kale and spinach, since the process of sprouting breaks down compounds that we normally would not be able to digest. Since sprouting kits cost anywhere between $6 and $20, they provide a cost-effective way to biohack your diet with more sprouts.
“It is shocking how simple sprouts are to make in your home,” says Greenfield.
Moving on to Greenfield’s refrigerator, he showcases what he refers to as nature’s multivitamin — organ meats. Beef heart is Greenfield’s organ meat of choice, which he marinates in milk kefir — fermented milk with cultures of beneficial bacteria and yeast. A 24-hour marination in a sous vide bag — a vacuum-sealed bag that helps stabilize internal temperatures — with milk kefir breaks down tough organ meat fibers and draws out the “gamey flavor.” Greenfield then drops the heart into a pan of boiling water (boiling at 145℉ for about six hours.
Once the heart is done cooking, Greenfield thinly slices the heart and puts it in an inexpensive air fryer for 10 to 15 minutes. By purchasing the equipment necessary for preparing organ meats along with sprouting kits, Greenfield has set himself up with a biohacked kitchen that combines “healthy eating with molecular gastronomy.”
Budget-Friendly Sauna Sweat Sessions and Back-Loosening Hanging Exercises in the Living Room
Moving on to his biohacked living room, Greenfield shows off an infrared blanket, an alternative to using an expensive infrared sauna. Infrared saunas use long, infrared light to heat the body from the inside out. As a new biohacking fad associated with reducing blood pressure, purchasing one for home use can cost upwards of $1,500 to $10,000.
For Greenfield’s infrared blanket made by a company called Higherdose he paid around $600. In this blanket, he can curl up and sweat profusely from exposure to infrared light waves, all the while maintaining his budget.
Another important device Greenfield uses to maintain his limber physique is the yoga trapeze, which hangs in his living room. He says that it took him a few days to learn how to use it; however, upon doing so, he had the trapeze exercises etched in his mind for easy daily application. The yoga trapeze loosens up the back, neck, hamstrings and hips. By taking his legs, crossing them over the fabric, and hanging upside down, this contraption is ideal for ultimate whole-body stretching. The yoga trapeze device can be purchased for around $100, offering an efficient, budget-friendly way to manage joint flexibility.
A Nerve Stimulator to Induce a Deep Resting State
One of the things Greenfield keeps in his bedroom to assure a deep rest for sleep is the vagus nerve stimulator — a device that stimulates a key nerve for purported relaxation. Vagus nerve stimulation is believed to induce relaxation of the nervous system through stimulation of the rest-and-digest parasympathetic nervous system. As such, expensive vagus nerve injections and stimulation techniques are a new fad among biohackers, according to Greenfield.
The alternative that Greenfield presents, which can be used daily in one’s home before sleep, is the Pulsetto vagus nerve stimulator, costing anywhere between $270 and $540. Putting electrode conducting gel on the metal points on the device and then positioning them on your neck, right behind your jaw bone, delivers mild vagus nerve stimulation. Applying the Pulsetto for about 10 minutes can lull one into a deep resting state to induce sleep.
Using Budget-Friendly Biohacking Methods Ensures Optimal Adherence to Health-Promoting Habits
By purchasing the necessary equipment for a biohacked, nutrition-promoting kitchen, a living room for crafting an optimized physique, and a rest-inducing bedroom, you will be on your way to biohacking your home on a budget. Using similar techniques, longevity clinics are opening up across the country, but their monthly memberships are along the lines of $200 a month. By making small investments in things like sprouting kits, air fryers, and vagus nerve stimulators, one can have daily access to techniques provided at longevity clinics. Moreover, buying these biohacking devices will provide the convenience of practicing the techniques at your home and save thousands of dollars over the course of a few years.
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