Wellness Unfiltered Pod

Episode 12: All hail the Sugar and Energy Queen Michele Chevalley-Hedge, and the Labels That Are Lying to You, Justin Finally Learns to Breathe, and Lee’s Rant on the Fillers Nobody Warned You About.If you’ve ever eaten clean all day and still crashed by 3pm, reached for something sweet and felt worse an hour later, or picked up a “healthy” snack and had absolutely no idea what half the ingredients actually were, this episode is for you.Michele Chevalley-Hedge from A Healthy View, is a clinical nutritionist, author, and health educator whose books include Beating Sugar Addiction for Dummies and Eat, Drink and Still Shrink. She has spent decades working across elite sport, corporate health, and school communities, and she brings the same principle to all of it: facts over fads, nourished not punished.Justin, meanwhile, has been breathing incorrectly for roughly 59 years. Lee and Irene fix that.And Lee has a rant. It has a title. It is called Fillers That Fool Us, and once you hear it, you will never look at a supplement label the same way again.✨ In this episode we chat about:🍬 What’s Popping: Sugar, Energy and the Labels That Are Lying to YouMeet Michele• A New Yorker in Australia: Michele grew up in an Italian-American family where food was love, community, and connection. Her father was a dedicated gardener. Her mother’s side was, in her words, the Chickarello Mafia, six sisters cooking abundantly for 27 cousins every weekend. She came to Australia in 1990 to speak at an IBM conference, fell in love with an Australian man within 24 hours, and never left. Thirty-six years later, she is still certain she made the right call.• From IT to Nutritional Medicine: Michele originally studied technology, business, and education, and worked in the IT industry before retraining. After her third child, she returned to study medicine and found her direction in her first nutritional medicine class, an emerging field at the time with relatively little evidence-based research. She recognised the opportunity and stayed.• The Modern Nutritionist: Michele describes herself as the nutritionist who loves a little coffee, wine, and chocolate. Her business is called A Healthy View for a reason: no extremes, no punishment, no all-or-nothing thinking.Sugar 101: What’s Actually Going On• The problem is added sugar, not natural sugar: Natural sugars found in dairy, fruit, and vegetables are not the concern. The issue is the added sugar hidden in foods that look, and are marketed as, healthy.• The recommended maximum is 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day. Most Australians consume 36 or more. Michele’s analogy: if you took 6 times the recommended dose of any pharmaceutical drug every single day, there would be consequences. Sugar is no different.• What overconsumption actually does: Sustained excess sugar affects energy, cognitive function, neurological health, libido, mood, fertility, and sleep. These are not abstract risks — they are things Michele sees in clinical practice every week.Is Sugar Addiction Real?• Clinically, it acts like one. It is not classified as an addiction in the same way drugs are, but it produces a dopamine feedback loop that drives repeated behaviour. The mechanism is hormonal, not just psychological.• The good news: the palate can be reset. Small, consistent changes, without punishment or deprivation, are enough to shift the feedback loop over time. As the body begins to regulate more effectively, sleep improves, energy stabilises, mood lifts, and the improvements become more compelling than the sugar itself The Blood Sugar Roller Coaster: A Real Life Example• The morning: A chai latte from a cafe (8 to 10 teaspoons of added sugar) and a banana muffin (another 8 to 10 teaspoons). Two things that look healthy, with 15 to 20 teaspoons of sugar already on board before 9am.• The crash: Ninety minutes later: fatigue, brain fog, irritability. Not low iron. Not early menopause. A blood sugar crash. The higher the spike, the harder the fall. At the bottom of that fall is where hunger, mood dysfunction, and energy collapse live.• The cycle: The response to the crash is more coffee or more sugar, which starts the cycle again. By 3pm, after a salad lunch with no fat, protein, or smart carbs, the body is running on empty and reaching for anything it can find.• Every spike drives inflammation. And chronic inflammation is the underlying pathology in virtually every major disease — cardiovascular disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, Alzheimer’s, autoimmune conditions, depression, and more.The Gut-Brain Connection• Research from Deakin University’s Food and Mood Centre is producing world-class randomised controlled trials on food and mental health. The field is still in early stages, but the direction is clear.• Real whole foods support the gut microbiome, which in turn supports serotonin production, immune function, and cognitive performance. Fibre, diversity of plants, and the absence of ultra-processed ingredients are the primary levers.• The SMILES Trial: A landmark randomised controlled trial studying the effect of a real whole food diet on depression and anxiety. All foods in the study came from Coles and Woolworths. The results showed greater improvement in mood disorders than antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication alone. This is not a supplement. It is just eating real food.Sugar by Any Other Name• Sugar has at least 25 different names on ingredient labels, including agave, rice malt, brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, barley malt, dextrose, and fruit concentrate. If it sounds like a yoga retreat in Byron Bay, it is still metabolically sugar.• The label detective hack: Find the sugar number on any nutrition panel. Divide by four. That is approximately how many teaspoons of sugar the product contains. A can of Coca-Cola: 40 grams, 10 teaspoons. A ginger beer: 14 teaspoons. A commercial healthy smoothie: often 21 teaspoons of added sugar from concentrated fruit syrups.• If sugar appears in the first five ingredients, question the product. The placement on the label tells you how much of it is in there.Better Sweeteners, Worse Sweeteners• Natural sweeteners Michele supports: coconut sugar (low GI, contains inulin as a prebiotic), honey, dates, pure maple syrup (for its polyphenols and micronutrients). These come with context; fibre, nutrients, and a lower glycaemic impact than refined sugars.• Sugar alcohols (anything ending in ‘-ol’): Mannitol, sorbitol, erythritol, and others are used in sugar-free products to allow the “no sugar” claim. For people with sensitive digestion, these cause significant bloating, gas, and diarrhoea. Michele sees this regularly in school-age girls consuming sugar-free energy drinks. Even for people without obvious sensitivity, she recommends avoiding them.• Stevia and monk fruit: Michele’s preferred alternatives for those wanting sweetness without added sugar. Both have a reasonable safety profile and do not disrupt blood sugar.• Real Coke over Diet Coke: Michele and Lee are both on record: if it comes to a choice, the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks are more concerning than the sugar in the original. Aspartame has emerging research linking it to neurological effects. Neither endorses soft drink, but the message is to be more afraid of the synthetic substitutes than the sugar itself.What to Eat for Sustained Energy• Every meal should answer three questions: Where is the fat? Where is the protein? Where is the smart carb? This combination blunts blood sugar spikes, supports satiety, and keeps energy stable across the day. Michele’s term: no naked carbs.• Breakfast: Eggs with avocado and a good piece of bread or leftover roasted vegetables from dinner. Fat, protein, and smart carb in one bowl. Not a sugary muffin and a cafe chai.• Lunch: Ideally leftovers from the night before, with legumes or brown rice added for smart carb content. Simple, affordable, and effective.• Hydration first: Most people confuse hunger for thirst. Starting the day with water and staying hydrated throughout is a non-negotiable foundation for energy. Without it, everything else is harder.• Fast food navigation: Guzman y Gomez and Fishbowl are workable if you build your bowl with protein, fat, and smart carbs. Skip the chips from the fryer; have homemade chips in olive oil at home if you want them.Where to Find Michele• Michele’s clinical practice focuses on personalised nutritional medicine, including work with schools, corporate clients, and elite athletes.• Her books include Beating Sugar Addiction for Dummies, The Australian Healthy Hormone Diet, and Eat, Drink and Still Shrink.• Recommended peanut butter brands: Fix and Mayver’s (both available at major supermarkets). Look for products with one ingredient: peanuts.🧠 Womansplain: Justin Finally Learns to Breathe• The Question: Justin has been shallow breathing through clenched teeth for, by his own estimate, most of his life. He knows from yoga that belly breathing is the goal. He does not always remember to do it. He wants practical instructions. Numbered, if possible.• Shallow chest breathing: Keeps the body in a low-grade stress state. The nervous system reads it as a signal that something is wrong, even when nothing is. The result is a constant, low-level sense of depletion that most people have simply accepted as normal.• Nasal breathing as default: The nose filters, warms, and humidifies air, and supports nitric oxide delivery. Mouth breathing is technically for emergencies, singing, or loud complaints. Nasal breathing is the resting standard. A larger nose, Justin was informed, offers superior filtration and is, in Lee’s words, a premium air processing unit.• Diaphragmatic (belly) breathing: The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle below the lungs. When it contracts downward, the lungs expand and the abdomen rises. The test: one hand on the chest, one on the belly. The belly rises on the inhale, the chest barely moves. If the shoulders are going up, the technique is wrong.• Box breathing: Inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Repeat. Used by military personnel before high-pressure situations. Activates a manual override on the stress response within about a minute.• The physiological sigh: A double inhale through the nose followed by a long, slow exhale. One of the fastest ways to offload excess carbon dioxide and reset the nervous system. The exhale being longer than the inhale is what activates the parasympathetic, rest-and-digest response. Sighing, it turns out, is clinically validated.• Synchronised breathing in rugby league: Justin noticed that modern rugby league teams gather in a circle and breathe together after scoring. Lee confirmed this is deliberate and evidence-based. Synchronised breathing, particularly with a shared extended exhale, pulls multiple nervous systems out of sympathetic overdrive simultaneously. Research suggests it also builds cohesion and trust between people. The shared exhale is, literally, getting on the same wavelength.Justin’s homework:• Close the mouth. Nasal breathing only, on default.• Hand on belly at the desk. Three deep belly breaths every time you sit down.• When the jaw clench arrives, box breathe. Four in, four hold, four out, four hold.🚨 Lee’s Rant: Fillers That Fool Us• The rant has a title. It is called Fillers That Fool Us. Lee is not calm about this.• Maltodextrin: A highly processed starch made in a lab. It spikes blood glucose faster than many foods people feel guilty about eating. It also acts as a feeding ground for the wrong gut bacteria, contributing to dysbiosis. Some products carry low-FODMAP certification while containing maltodextrin as an ingredient, a situation Lee considers a significant consumer betrayal. Maltodextrin is added for one reason: it is cheap, it bulks products up, and it makes expensive ingredients go further. It was not added by a nutritionist. It was added by someone looking at a spreadsheet.• Citric acid (the manufactured version): There are two types. Natural citric acid exists in lemons and other citrus fruits. Manufactured citric acid, found in almost all processed foods and many supplements is produced by fermenting black mould on corn sugar. For people with gut inflammation, this is the last thing they should be consuming dressed up as something citrusy. Symptoms of sensitivity include headaches, itching, watery eyes, sinus congestion, and digestive upset. It is in protein bars, bliss balls, potato chips, sugar-free lollies, and the majority of supplements on the market.• These are boardroom ingredients, not wellness ingredients. They were not included to improve the product for the consumer. They were included to reduce costs, extend shelf life, prevent clumping, and improve the visual presentation of the product. The irony is that consumers have become so conditioned to perfectly flowing, non-clumping supplements that they file complaints when they encounter a pure product without anti-caking agents.• Lee’s call to action: Audit your pantry this week. Flip over the packs. Find the products containing maltodextrin or citric acid. Tag Lee on Instagram at @leesupercharged with what you find.• Brands that don’t use them: Lee’s Supercharged Your Gut range contains neither. Eden Health Foods also produces a vitamin C powder without maltodextrin which does clump, because purity behaves differently than processed fillers, and that is entirely the point.📝 Lee’s Nutritionist Nerd Notes: Episode 12 MentionsSugar, Blood Glucose, and Inflammation• The 6-teaspoon guideline comes from the World Health Organisation and is aligned with recommendations from leading researchers in cognitive, metabolic, and cardiovascular medicine. The average Australian consumes six times this amount daily.• Glycaemic response: When blood glucose rises rapidly, the body releases insulin to bring it back down. The speed and height of the spike determines the severity of the corresponding drop. Chronic spiking keeps inflammation elevated, which is a known driver of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Alzheimer’s, autoimmune conditions, and depression.• Insulin resistance develops when cells become less responsive to insulin due to sustained overexposure. This makes fat loss harder and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes over time.• Natural sugars in fruit, dairy, and vegetables behave differently from added sugars. They come packaged with fibre, water, and micronutrients that slow absorption and blunt the glycaemic response. The 6-teaspoon limit applies to added sugars only.Dopamine, Habit Loops, and Palate Reset• Sugar activates the brain’s dopamine reward pathway, which is the same system involved in habitual behaviour patterns. This is why consumption can feel compulsive and why restriction without substitution tends to fail. The more effective intervention is crowding in whole foods until the preference shifts.• Palate adaptation is real and measurable. As added sugar intake decreases over several weeks, perceived sweetness from natural foods increases and cravings for highly sweetened products tend to reduce.Gut-Brain Axis and Mood• The gut-brain axis refers to the bidirectional communication network between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system, operating via the vagus nerve, the enteric nervous system, and the immune system.• Approximately 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut. Disruption to the gut microbiome through poor diet, ultra-processed food, or inflammation has a measurable downstream effect on mood, cognition, and stress response.• The SMILES Trial — Food and Mood Centre, Deakin University (Supporting the Modification of lifestyle in Lowered Emotional States) was a 12-week randomised controlled trial examining the effect of a Mediterranean-style whole food diet on major depression. Participants eating from the intervention diet — foods available at standard Australian supermarkets — showed significantly greater reduction in depressive symptoms than the social support control group.Sugar Alcohols and Sweetener Considerations• Sugar alcohols (-ol endings: sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, erythritol) are used in sugar-free products as a labelling loophole, they technically allow a “no sugar” claim. For people with sensitive digestion or IBS, these compounds cause osmotic diarrhoea and bloating. They are FODMAPs for a reason.• Erythritol: A 2023 Cleveland Clinic study found an association between high erythritol blood levels and increased cardiovascular risk. A subsequent small trial found that 30 grams of erythritol — roughly the amount in a tub of keto ice cream — temporarily increased platelet aggregation for several days. The research is not conclusive, but Michele’s clinical approach is to apply a precautionary principle and recommend stevia and monk fruit instead.• Aspartame: Classified in 2023 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B). The evidence is not definitive, but given the availability of alternatives, both Lee and Michele recommend avoiding it.Maltodextrin and Manufactured Citric Acid• Maltodextrin is a highly processed polysaccharide derived from starch (corn, wheat, potato, or tapioca). It has a glycaemic index higher than table sugar. It also feeds gram-negative bacteria and can contribute to dysbiosis in susceptible individuals. It is used as a bulking agent, anti-caking agent, and texture modifier.• Manufactured citric acid is produced through Aspergillus niger fermentation on glucose substrates, typically corn syrup. It is chemically distinct from naturally occurring citric acid in lemon or lime juice and has been reported to cause inflammatory and allergic responses in sensitive individuals, including headaches, skin irritation, joint pain, and digestive upset.• Neither ingredient was designed with the consumer’s health in mind. Both serve manufacturer interests: reduced cost, extended shelf life, improved texture, and enhanced product appearance. Breathing: The Physiology• Shallow chest breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight response), maintaining low-grade cortisol and adrenaline elevation. Over time, this contributes to fatigue, anxiety, poor sleep, and immune suppression.• Nasal breathing supports nitric oxide production in the paranasal sinuses. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator with antimicrobial properties. It improves oxygen delivery and reduces airway resistance.• Diaphragmatic breathing activates the vagus nerve and promotes parasympathetic tone. It is the breath pattern associated with rest, digestion, and recovery.• Box breathing (4-4-4-4) is used in military and emergency services training for rapid cortisol reduction. Research supports its effectiveness in reducing subjective stress within 1 to 5 minutes of consistent practice.• The physiological sigh (double nasal inhale followed by extended exhale) is one of the most rapid mechanisms for offloading carbon dioxide. Dr Jack Feldman have published research identifying it as the most effective acute breath pattern for nervous system regulation. The long exhale is the key: it is what activates parasympathetic response.• Synchronised breathing between groups has been shown in research to increase interpersonal trust, social cohesion, and collective attentional focus. This is why team breath practices before athletic competition have measurable performance and cohesion benefits beyond the physiological effects of the breath itself.📌 Episode 12 LinksSupercharged Food — Lee HolmesSupercharge Your Gut — Lee’s ProductsClean Nectarine — Irene FalconeGuest:Michele Chevalley-Hedge — A Healthy View Peanut Butter Brands Mentioned:Fix Peanut ButterMayver’s Nut Butters Referenced:The SMILES Trial — Food and Mood Centre, Deakin UniversityGuzman y GomezFishbowl 🎤 Listen & Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Substack Follow us on Instagram:@theleeandireneshow | @leesupercharged | @cleannectarine Join the conversation on Substack: https://theleeandireneshow.substack.com/ Sponsor an episode? Email wellnessunfilteredleeirene@gmail.com Disclaimer: This show is for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional before incorporating new wellness solutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theleeandireneshow.substack.com

Episode 10: Mason Taylor on Mushrooms & the Ancient Art of Not Falling Apart, Justin is in a Bit of a Pickle, and Irene's Forever Rant About Forever Chemicals. 🍄This week, the cabin gets a very special guest. Mason Taylor, founder of SuperFeast, Daoist philosophy devotee, and quite possibly the most passionate man alive on the subject of medicinal mushrooms, joins Lee and Irene for what may be the most downloaded episode yetMason takes us through the ancient Chinese three-treasure system of Jing, Chi, and Shen and why your goal should never be immortality, but rather arriving at elderhood with your full self intact. He breaks down the difference between a therapeutic mushroom product and a glorified chocolate powder, explains why Tremella made Irene's skin look extraordinary, and reveals the underground Australian fungi nobody's talking about yet.Justin, meanwhile, wants to know if 2008 pickled onion brine counts as a sports supplement. And Irene has a rant-slash-rave about France's forever chemicals ban and why the brands who quietly reformulated their products are not getting the standing ovation they were hoping for.✨ In this episode we chat about:🍄 What's Popping: Welcome to the Secret Cabin• The Cabin Guest Situation: Mason Taylor arrives, giving Justin cause for what Lee generously describes as 'wariness' and what is more accurately described as side teeth and a low growl. There is room for more than one man in the cabin. Deep breaths, everyone.• Mason Taylor Introduction: Founder of SuperFeast, mushroom maven, Daoist, and the man whose original podcast episode with Irene over nine years ago remains her most downloaded ever. He has come all the way from Byron Bay.• Mushroom Pun Cap: Three puns maximum. They exceeded this before Mason even sat down.🌿 What's Popping Deep Dive: Mason Taylor on Daoism, Mushrooms & the Three TreasuresDaoist Philosophy & Longevity• The Dao (Taoism): An ancient philosophy for moving through life more synergistically with people and the world. Mason describes it as 'real deep personal development, frameworks so life happens a little more smoothly.'• Longevity ≠ Immortality: The goal isn't to live forever. The goal is to arrive at elderhood with enough vitality that you've done your work, tackled new projects, contributed to community, and refined yourself, without projecting unprocessed baggage onto everyone around you.• The Real Question: As Mason puts it: Does the world really need David Asbury forever? He only cares that this podcast beats his on the Australian charts. It will, after this.The Three Treasures: Jing, Chi & Shen• Jing (Foundational Essence): Your superannuation of vitality. Bones, sex drive, the ability to age without degenerating early. Think of it as the ship. If you're burning the candle at both ends, you're leaking Jing.• Chi (Vitality): The crew that runs the ship. Your capacity to integrate life, mobilise yourself, animate the machine of your body. Diet, breathwork, doing work that generates charge.• Shen (Spirit/Mind): The cargo. The culmination of your personality, your mind, the refined diamond of who you are. The goal: protect it through the journey so your wisdom is fully intact in old age.• Cultivating vs Leaking: You are always doing one or the other. Any practice, herb, work, or lifestyle choice either cultivates your treasures or leaks them. This is the core Taoist health question.SuperFeast A Purpose-Driven Organisation• Built from Six Moments: Mason mapped six 'lightning strike' moments across his life that gave birth to SuperFeast, not for public branding, but as an internal compass. Every product, strategy, and company virtue derives from them objectively.• The Purpose Statement: To dramatically lower disease and degeneration, creating superhumans who may enter into the realms of elderhood.• The Business-Dao Wrestling Match: Mason openly wrestles with the tension between commercial and contemplative. His resolution: build the organisation like an ecosystem. Integrate all tiers, animism, hierarchy, flat family structure before graduating to an autonomous, purpose-driven one.• Getting Back in the CEO Chair: Mason is currently back at the helm, reviewing marketing strategy to realign it with SuperFeast's founding essence.The Superior Herbs: A 2,000-Year-Old Framework• The Shen Nong Ben Xiao Jing: The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica one of the founding texts of Chinese medicine. It identified a handful of superior herbs; Reishi, Ginseng, Rehmannia, Goji, Schizandra, Eucommia Bark, Astragalus and specified not just which herbs, but exactly which microclimate conditions were required for them to carry their therapeutic treasure.• The Herbs and What They Do: These aren't symptom-treatment herbs. They're taken over a long period to protect the treasure of the body and prevent degeneration. The earlier you start, the more constitutional shifting you do.• Why They Work: These herbs are adaptogenic, they intelligently restore regulation in the body. Think of them as 'little friends' that come in and help the body find its own balance, rather than forcing a pharmacological outcome.Irene's Personal Mushroom Story• Nine or so years ago, Irene had Mason on her first podcast. It was her most downloaded episode. She started taking Jing and Tremella. The difference in how she felt and looked was, in her words, 'unexplainable.' She has since lost her way (largely due to selling a business, stress, and the natural chaos of life) and is now deeply, publicly committed to starting again.• Tremella and Skin: Irene describes eating it 'by the tablespoon' and never looking so good. She is emphatic: this was not placebo. It shone from the inside out.• The Plateau Question: When you stop feeling a big effect, that's not a sign the herb has stopped working. It may mean you've done the constitutional shifting it was bridging. Next move: dose up, or pivot to another formula for a different season.• The Wrong Time to Stop: The most stressful, depleting moments of your life are precisely when you should be ramping up, not stopping. Mason's rule: when you're hammering your body, that's when these allies matter most.Lion's Mane: The Neuroscience Catches Up• Mason's Mother's Stroke Recovery: Mason used Lion's Mane during his mother's stroke recovery at a time when it was considered extremely fringe. She has now made what some doctors call a miraculous and Mason calls a practical recovery.• The Research Has Arrived: Lion's Mane is now being studied as a primary neuroprotective agent. The science has caught up with what Daoist herbalists knew centuries ago.• Why It Exploded: The fear of neurodegeneration is visceral. Watching a loved one lose their mind is one of the great fears of our time. Whoever was 'doing the branding' for Lion's Mane in the Taoist immortal realms, Mason says, absolutely nailed it.• The 2-Minute Noodle Problem: Mason's term for venture capitalist brands that spot a market gap and add a token amount of Lion's Mane extract to a gummy or chocolate. He is visibly pained. Particularly when people with serious diagnoses, MS, immune deficiencies, reach for the quick, cheap version because they don't have time to research.How to Know You're Getting the Real Thing• Look for Fruiting Body: Not mycelium grown on grain. The fruiting body is what has the therapeutic compounds. Check the label.• Look for Extract: You want the mushroom to have been extracted (as in a traditional tea or tincture process), not just whole-ground dried mushroom. If the label shows 'herb equivalency', it may just be whole ground product.• Wood-Grown: Mushrooms should be grown on wood, not grain substrate. Organic certification is a reasonable starting filter, but SuperFeast operates beyond organic, testing for way more pesticides and heavy metals than required, to standards exceeding US and Australian organic certifications.• Trust Through Time: Mason has been doing this since 2011, shows up everywhere, and has never had to change a product due to a quality or integrity issue. He started at markets where mothers would return after three months and tell him directly if something didn't work. That accountability never left.• TGA Listed: SuperFeast is now TGA-listed as a registered medicine in Australia, which Mason notes is an almost impossibly expensive and opaque process for a small company, but gives independent credibility to the therapeutic claims.• The Supply Chain: SuperFeast's herbs and mushrooms come from small, obscure farms in remote mountain regions, far from any industrial zone. Mason visits them. They are not mass production. Wild harvesting is used when responsible; when an herb approaches unsustainable harvesting levels, they move to growing in wild-simulating conditions five years ahead of when it becomes a problem.Psychedelics vs Functional Mushrooms• The Line: Clear to most people now. Functional/tonic mushrooms are non-psychedelic, legal, accessible, and taken for cultivation and long-term vitality. Psychedelic mushrooms are a separate category.• Where They Overlap: Mason is a sponsor of MIND Medicine Australia, which runs psychedelic-assisted therapy training. SuperFeast supplies mushrooms to graduates specifically for integration, using Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, Chaga and Reishi to help the body and nervous system process and recover from deep psychedelic or shamanic work.• Jing for the Deep Dive: If you don't have the foundational Jing energy to undergo a deep dive, spiritual, psychedelic, or otherwise, Mason recommends getting on Jing herbs first to build the reserves you need to do that work without depleting yourself.The Underground & Emerging Mushrooms of 2026• Tiger Milk Mushroom: Not widely known outside Singapore, where most of the research has been conducted. Offers an interesting new pathway to immunity. Worth watching.• Cordyceps Gunnii (Australian Native): A native Australian cordyceps found in Tasmania and Victoria. Grows on the snow moth caterpillar and turns it inside out into a mushroom. Being wild-harvested by small Australian mycologists and appearing at specialist markets. Mason encourages supporting these producers.• Ganoderma Applanatum (Artist's Conch): Gaining serious attention in oncology research. Endemic in both Australia and China. Mason expects it to become a significant area of therapeutic focus.• Australian Adaptogens: Mason is enthusiastic about the growing attention to native Australian varieties, noting that while Australian indigenous medicine was not documented and systematised in the same way as Chinese medicine, the knowledge exists and deserves respect and support.Personalised Recommendations from Mason• For Everyone Starting Out: Begin with Jing to see whether you have a gap and leakage in that kidney-water foundational system. Take it for 2–3 months, especially going into winter.• For Irene (and women who have 'graduated' from Jing): I AM Gaia, SuperFeast's women's regulatory blend. Blood-building, blood-invigorating, uterine toning, and relevant across the whole female lifecycle from teen to post-menopause.• For Everyone (daily baseline): Mason's Mushrooms, eight mushrooms in one formula. Add to coffee, chai, smoothies, or soups. Heat-stable. Consistent daily intake is what matters. Do it for 2–3 months going into winter and watch what happens to immunity.• Tremella as Bonus: The 'dessert' mushroom. Yin-nourishing, lung and stomach tonic. Acts like hyaluronic acid, carries 500 times its molecular weight in hydration and delivers it through the lung to the skin. Radiance from the inside out. Irene will be eating it by the tablespoon again.• Schizandra Berry (Ancient Beauty Elixir): The five-flavour fruit, hits sweet, sour, astringent and more. A yin tonic, liver herb, and beauty elixir in one. Takes all the organs and brings them into song and harmony. A different kind of radiance from Tremella. Even more famous as a beauty herb.• Silica + Tremella Combo: Mason and Lee both flag the synergy between silica (which Lee and Irene have just launched) and Tremella for skin beautification from the inside.How to Take Mushroom Powders• They are heat-stable. You would have to hard boil them for a very long time to damage the therapeutics. You can add them to boiling water, stir into tea, blend into smoothies, mix into soups or savoury mince.• Schizandra is better in drinks than food. Mason's Mushrooms powder can go in the spag bol.• Stop thinking of these as supplements. Think of them as a herbal practice. Once they're integrated into your daily rhythm, in your coffee, in your chai, they become invisible and consistent.• Capsules are available for those who can't do powder. Consistency is everything.• The Tremella Raw Dog: Teaspoon straight from the jar, directly into the mouth. Mason's suggestion. A perfectly viable method.The Much Love Program• SuperFeast runs a program where anyone going through a serious diagnosis or extremely difficult circumstances can reach out to receive complimentary mushroom products. The pun in the name makes Mason roll his eyes, even though he came up with it.🥒 Womansplain: Justin & the Pickle Juice Question• The Question: Justin has been watching footy and noticing that athletes keep chugging pickle juice. His friend Bustin (of gut-girth fame from Episode 7) is reportedly at 43% adherence to Lee and Irene's previous recommendations. Bustin is walking, playing tennis, going to the gym, and people have 'remarked on his shred.' Justin has been told, firmly, not to say 'shred' again.• The Science of Pickle Juice for Cramps: There is a famous study in sports science where athletes were given pickle juice mid-cramp. The cramping stopped in approximately 85 seconds; significantly faster than water alone.• The Surprise Finding: It works too fast to be about electrolytes absorbing. Electrolyte absorption takes longer. What researchers now believe is happening: the vinegar triggers a neurological reflex in the throat and stomach that tells the misfiring nerves to calm down. It's a nerve reset, not just a salt top-up.• The Electrolytes Are Still There: Sodium and potassium. For people sweating heavily during physical exertion, it does replenish what's lost. The key phrase being: 'during physical exertion.'• Justin's Situation: As a sedentary sports viewer rather than sports doer, his electrolyte situation during the match is, in Lee's assessment, probably fine. A glass of water and some nuts will see him through.• The 2008 Jar: Justin has a jar of pickled onions from 2008 in his fridge. Pickling is a preservation method, so technically it may still be viable. The consensus is to retire it.• Night Cramps: Pickle juice is a legitimate remedy for that 2am cramp that makes you leap out of bed feeling tasered.• PMS Cramps: Irene raises the question of whether it may help with period cramps given its muscle relaxant properties. The science is not yet there but the curiosity is noted.• Irene's Pickle Love: She is enthusiastic about all pickles. Bread and butter. Sweet chilli. Sour. New York deli style. Large. Small. She will take the pickle from your burger if you don't want it. She has a cucumber salad and adds pickles. She is aware that pickles are cucumbers. She does not care.✨ Rant (and Rave): Irene on Forever Chemicals, France, and the Quiet Reformulation• The Rave: France has banned PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, 'forever chemicals', think Teflon and similar compounds) in cosmetic and beauty care products. This ban came into effect in January 2026.• What Are Forever Chemicals? PFAS are synthetic chemicals used in many long-lasting beauty formulations, particularly foundations and waterproof products for their durability, texture, and film-forming properties. They are called 'forever chemicals' because they do not break down in the environment or in the human body and accumulate over time.• The Quiet Reformulation: Estée Lauder Double Wear, one of the most beloved long-wear foundations in the world has been reformulated. TikTok and Instagram are currently flooded with side-by-side comparisons, with creators noting changes in finish, formula, and feel. Almost nobody is asking why it was reformulated. The answer, Irene argues, is the French ban.• The Waterproof Mascara Wave: Clinique and other brands with long-wear or waterproof formulas have also quietly reformulated. Waterproof products were among the highest-PFAS categories in beauty.• The Rant: These brands have had these chemicals in their products for years, in some cases, decades. They did not remove them out of passion for their customers' health. They removed them because they were legally required to. Irene is clear that this distinction matters, even if the outcome (cleaner products) is positive.• The Media Silence: There is no mainstream coverage of this on Channel 7, Channel 9, or the major news outlets. No equivalent of the TGA sunscreen saga. Nobody appears to want to upset Estée Lauder. Irene regrets nothing she has said.• The Silver Lining: Because these brands are global, the cleaner reformulation has rolled out worldwide including to Australian consumers, even though Australia has not banned PFAS in cosmetics. The French regulation has effectively improved products for everyone.• Still Worth Scrutinising: Even the reformulated products are not clean beauty. Silicones and other questionable ingredients remain. But the removal of PFAS is a meaningful step, even if it was reactionary rather than principled.📝 Lee's Nutritionist Nerd Notes: Episode 10 MentionsThe Three Treasures: TCM Framework• Jing: In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jing is considered the foundational essence stored in the kidneys. Pre-natal Jing (inherited) and post-natal Jing (replenished through food, herbs, rest, and lifestyle) govern constitutional vitality, reproductive health, bone density, hair, and the rate of ageing.• Chi (Qi): The vital energy that circulates through meridians and animates all physiological processes. Influenced by food, breath, movement, emotional state, and environment.• Shen: Often translated as spirit or mind. In Chinese medicine, the Shen resides in the Heart and governs mental clarity, emotional wellbeing, sleep quality, and presence. A calm, bright Shen is considered a sign of good health and cultivation.Adaptogenic Herbs & Medicinal Mushrooms• What Makes a Superior Herb? The Shen Nong Ben Xiao Jing (Divine Farmer's Materia Medica, ~200 CE) categorised herbs into three classes. Superior herbs; Reishi, Ginseng, Rehmannia, Schizandra, Astragalus, Goji Berry are tonic herbs taken long-term, non-toxic at any dose, and purported to restore balance across multiple body systems.• Adaptogens: A modern term (coined by Soviet pharmacologist Nikolai Lazarev in 1947) for compounds that help the body adapt to physical and psychological stress without disrupting normal physiology. Key adaptogenic mushrooms include Reishi, Lion's Mane, Chaga, Cordyceps, and Turkey Tail.• Beta-Glucans: The primary active immunomodulatory compounds in medicinal mushrooms. These polysaccharides bind to receptors on immune cells (NK cells, macrophages, dendritic cells) and help regulate immune response supporting it when suppressed, calming it when overactive.• Fruiting Body vs Mycelium: The fruiting body (the visible mushroom above ground) contains significantly higher concentrations of beta-glucans and other bioactive compounds than the mycelium grown on grain substrate. Whole-grain mycelium products have been shown to contain high levels of starch filler from the grain medium.• Extraction Matters: Many beneficial compounds in mushrooms (particularly beta-glucans and triterpenes) require hot water or dual extraction (hot water + alcohol) to become bioavailable. A whole dried and ground mushroom powder, while containing these compounds, is less bioavailable than a properly extracted product.Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus)• Neurotrophic Compounds: Lion's Mane contains hericenones (in the fruiting body) and erinacines (in the mycelium) compounds shown in research to stimulate the production of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). These proteins support the survival, growth, and maintenance of neurons.• Neuroregeneration Research: Preclinical studies have shown Lion's Mane may support remyelination, neuroplasticity, and protection against neurodegeneration. Human trials have shown improvements in mild cognitive impairment. Research is ongoing.• Neuroprotective Use Post-Stroke: Early and consistent use of neuroprotective compounds post-neurological event is an active area of clinical interest. Mason's anecdotal report of his mother's recovery aligns with the direction of current neuroprotective research.Tremella (Tremella fuciformis) The Snow Mushroom• Polysaccharide Hydration: Tremella contains highly bioavailable plant-based glucuronoxylomannans — polysaccharides that function similarly to hyaluronic acid in their ability to attract and hold water. Some research suggests Tremella polysaccharides may outperform hyaluronic acid in hydration retention due to their smaller particle size, allowing deeper tissue penetration.• Lung-Skin Axis: In TCM, the Lung organ system (which governs the skin and is responsible for distributing Wei Qi (protective energy to the body surface) is nourished by Tremella as a yin tonic. This is why Mason describes it as 'working on the lung' first and the skin as the downstream outcome.• Antioxidant & Anti-Ageing: Tremella polysaccharides have demonstrated antioxidant activity and some evidence of skin-protective effects in UV damage studies. It is one of the primary herbs used in traditional Taoist beauty formulations alongside Schizandra and Goji.Schizandra Berry (Schisandra chinensis) The Five Flavour Fruit• Five Tastes, Five Organs: Schizandra is unique in Chinese herbal medicine as a herb that simultaneously affects all five major organ systems (liver, kidneys, heart, lung, spleen) through its five flavours; sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and pungent. This makes it a powerful systemic tonic.• Liver Support: Schizandra has among the best evidence of any adaptogen for liver-protective effects, with research into lignans (schisandrin B in particular) showing hepatoprotective activity.• Skin Benefits: Historically used as a Taoist beauty herb. Modern research has looked at Schizandra's antioxidant and adaptogenic properties in the context of skin ageing, stress-related skin changes, and luminosity.• Yin Tonic: In TCM, Schizandra is used to consolidate and nourish yin, the cool, moist, receptive principle associated with hydration, tissue lubrication, and restorative rest.Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) The Mushroom of Immortality• Immune Modulation: Reishi contains beta-glucans, triterpenes (ganoderic acids), and polysaccharides that have been extensively researched for their effects on NK cells, T-cells, and macrophages. It is considered the most studied immunomodulatory mushroom.• Adaptogenic & Nervine: Reishi is also studied for its calming effects on the nervous system, with some research suggesting GABAergic activity and cortisol-modulating properties.• Exohormesis (Hormetic Stress): Mason references this concept: growing Reishi in stressful, wild-simulating conditions causes the mushroom to produce more complex secondary metabolites (including triterpenes) as a survival response. This mirrors the hormesis principle seen in exercise, cold exposure, and fasting — a mild biological stressor that produces a stronger adaptive response.Pickle Juice, The Sports Science• The 85-Second Study: A frequently cited 2010 study (Miller et al.) found that ingesting 1ml per kilogram of body weight of pickle juice stopped exercise-induced muscle cramping 37% faster than drinking the same volume of water, and 45% faster than no treatment. The cramping relief occurred too quickly to be explained by electrolyte absorption.• The Neurological Reflex Theory: The leading hypothesis (Schwellnus et al., 2009 and subsequent work) is that compounds in pickle juice — particularly acetic acid (vinegar) — activate transient receptor potential (TRP) channels in the oropharynx, oesophagus, and stomach. This triggers an inhibitory nerve reflex that suppresses the alpha motor neuron hyperactivity responsible for muscle cramps.• Electrolyte Content: Pickle juice does contain sodium (around 500mg per 100ml), potassium, and some magnesium. For heavy sweating during intense physical activity, this may offer meaningful electrolyte replacement. For watching the footy on the couch, it does not.• Night Cramps: The same neurological mechanism may explain anecdotal reports of pickle juice helping nocturnal leg cramps. Worth trialling if this is a regular issue. PFAS (Forever Chemicals) in Cosmetics• What Are PFAS? Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a class of over 10,000 synthetic chemicals characterised by extremely strong carbon-fluorine bonds, making them resistant to heat, water, oil, and microbial degradation. They do not break down in the environment or in the body, hence 'forever chemicals.'• Use in Cosmetics: PFAS have been widely used in long-wear foundations, waterproof mascaras, lip products, and sunscreens for their film-forming, water-resistance, and longevity properties. Research has identified PFAS in a significant proportion of tested cosmetics products across multiple global markets.• Health Concerns: PFAS are associated with disruption of hormone and immune function, increased risk of certain cancers (particularly kidney and testicular), thyroid disruption, and reproductive effects. They bioaccumulate in blood and tissue and are found in almost all tested human blood samples globally.• The French Ban: France's regulation restricting PFAS in cosmetics took effect in January 2026, making France one of the first nations to impose such a ban. It applies to products manufactured in or sold into France.• The Global Ripple Effect: Because major cosmetics brands manufacture globally and cannot easily maintain different formulations for different markets, the French regulation has effectively driven reformulation for global product lines, benefiting consumers in Australia and elsewhere who have no equivalent domestic PFAS cosmetics ban.• Ongoing Concerns: Removal of PFAS does not make a product 'clean beauty.' Other synthetic film-formers, silicones, and preservatives remain. The reformulation is meaningful but partial. 📌 Episode 10 Links Supercharged Food — Lee HolmesSupercharge Your Gut — Lee's ProductsClean Nectarine — Irene FalconeSuperFeast — Mason Taylor SuperFeast Products Mentioned:SuperFeast Jing BlendSuperFeast TremellaSuperFeast Mason's Mushrooms (8 Mushroom Blend)SuperFeast I AM Gaia (Women's Blend)SuperFeast Schizandra BerrySuperFeast Lion's ManeSuperFeast Reishi Lee's Products:Beef Liver Capsules — Supercharge Your GutLove Your Gut Diatomaceous Earth Powder Referenced:MIND Medicine Australia (Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy) The Mushrooms at a GlanceReishi: Immune powerhouse, adaptogen, nervine. Known as the Mushroom of Immortality. Requires wild-simulating stressful conditions to produce its full triterpene profile.Lion's Mane: Neuroprotective, stimulates NGF/BDNF, supports nerve health and cognitive function.Tremella: Snow mushroom. Yin tonic for lung and skin. Hydration from the inside out. Acts like hyaluronic acid through the lung-skin axis.Cordyceps: Energy, adrenal, and athletic performance adaptogen. Native Australian variant: Cordyceps Gunnii (Tassie/Victoria).Schizandra Berry: Five-flavour fruit. Liver protective, yin tonic, beauty herb. Takes all organs into harmony.Tiger Milk Mushroom: Emerging. Researched primarily in Singapore. Immunity focus.Ganoderma Applanatum (Artist's Conch): Gaining oncology research interest. Endemic in Australia and China.Sourcing: Look for fruiting body + wood-grown + extracted. Beyond organic. Heavy metals tested to standards exceeding both US and Australian organic certification requirements. 🎙 Listen & SubscribeApple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | SubstackFollow us on Instagram:@wellnessunfilteredleeirene | @leesupercharged | @cleannectarineJoin the conversation on Substack: wellnessunfilteredpod.comSponsor an episode? Email wellnessunfilteredleeirene@gmail.com Disclaimer: This show is for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional before incorporating new wellness solutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theleeandireneshow.substack.com

Show Notes: Episode 8 Wellness UnfilteredEpisode 8: Amelia Phillips on Energy, Weight Loss & the Science of Feeling Good. We Unpack Perimenopause Fatigue, the Calorie Conversation No One Wants to Have, and Why Sleep Might Be Your Missing Link. Plus Justin Gets Schooled on Friendships and Lee Rants About Green Powders. 🎙️This week we have Amelia, a nutritionist-slash-exercise-scientist with 29 years of hard-won wisdom. She drops a reformed cardio-queen confession, and a Venn diagram that actually makes sense. This episode might just change how you think about energy, weight, and why your body feels the way it does.Hosts Lee Holmes and Irene Falcone are joined by Amelia Phillips, co-founder of the Michelle Bridges 12WBT, host of the Healthy Her podcast, and all-round superstar in the women's health space. The conversation spans everything from the calorie deficit no one can avoid to the four biological pillars draining your energy, why meal delivery might be the smartest hack you haven't tried, and the one thing Irene needs to fix before anything else will work.Then Justin asks how men can deepen their friendships (spoiler: lead with the arms), and Lee delivers a rant on green powders that will have you reading labels with fresh suspicion.✨ In this episode we chat about:🍽️ What's Popping: Meet Amelia Phillips (00:00)29 Years in the Game: Amelia started in the fitness industry at 17, fell in love with exercise science, then realised nutrition was where the real challenge lay. A master's degree in human nutrition later, she's spent nearly three decades helping women understand the strawberries-and-cream magic of diet and exercise combined.The Low-Fat Cardio Queen Confession: In the 90s, Amelia was all about stripping fat, driving calories down, and burning 500 calories per workout. It worked short-term. It does not work long-term, especially once you hit perimenopause. She's completely flipped her approach.Sports Nutrition vs Lifestyle Nutrition: If you're an elite athlete, protein bars and ultra-processed quick-energy foods have a place. For everyone else, the middle aisles of the supermarket are a minefield marketed as health food.Energy Balance Is Non-Negotiable: If you want to lose weight, you must be in an energy deficit. 7700 calories in deficit equals one kilo lost. That's roughly 500 calories per day for modest half-kilo-per-week loss. There's no magic formula that bypasses this math.🔢 The Calorie Conversation (Without Counting)TDEE Calculators: Google "TDEE calculator" (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), plug in your stats, and you'll get a ballpark for maintenance calories. For most women, it's somewhere between 1500 and 2000 calories per day.The Meal Delivery Hack: Amelia recommends going on a calorie-controlled meal delivery service for one month as a form of portion-size education. She did it herself, dropped 3% body fat in four weeks, and learned what a 300–500 calorie meal actually looks like.Be Fit Food Recommendation: High protein (20–30g per meal), five serves of vegetables, lower sodium, lower carbohydrates. Not keto, not forever, just a stepping stone to understanding what your body needs.Lee's 4-3-2-1 Plate Approach: 40% protein, 30% vegetables, 20% good carbohydrates, 10% fats. Visualise a pie chart on your plate.⚡ The Energy Crisis: Why You're So TiredThe Three-Circle Venn Diagram: Optimal energy sits at the intersection of biology, physiology, and psychology.Biology (The Four Pillars):Metabolic health: Your ability to switch between glucose and fat for fuel. Think of it like a hybrid car, when it's working well, you can't tell when it switches. When it's not, you crash.Hormone health: Not just oestrogen and progesterone, but thyroid too. Get tested annually.Gut health: One to two bowel movements a day, no increasing food sensitivities. You know if something's off.Inflammatory response: Measurable via blood test. Chronic low-grade inflammation drains energy.Physiology (The Earth Suit): Body composition; bone, muscle, fat. Under-muscled and carrying extra body fat? That's zapping energy. You've got another 50 years in this body; it needs to hold up.Psychology (Behaviour Change): We all know what we should do. Actually doing it requires behaviour change techniques, and if you don't have them, that's another energy drain.😴 Irene's Fatigue Deep-DiveThe Real Conversation: Irene has seen countless specialists, taken all the supplements, gone gluten-free, vegan, back to meat. Nothing has shifted her chronic fatigue.Amelia's Assessment: Nutrient insufficiencies (iron, vitamin D), hormone fluctuations, and critically, chronic sleep deprivation. If you're only getting a few hours of sleep most nights, every other system underperforms.Sleep Is the Starting Point: If you were Amelia's client, sleep would be priority number one. Everything else builds on that foundation. Ideally, a 7 in front of the hours.Can't Sleep vs Won't Sleep: "Won't sleep" is choosing to stay up working or scrolling. "Can't sleep" is wanting to but being unable to fall or stay asleep. Exercise is a massive lever for the "can't sleep" group.🏃‍♀️ Exercise: The Inconvenient TruthVO2 Max Declines 10% Per Decade: From about age 30 onwards, your body's ability to use oxygen drops. By your 50s, you've lost 20–30% of your peak capacity. That directly impacts energy levels.The Fix: Increasing fitness even modestly can reverse this within a month. You don't need to become a marathon runner.Incidental Exercise Counts: Walking around a warehouse, chasing the Australia Post guy, it all adds up. But structured vigorous movement has an outsized return.The Research: Every minute in zone 2 or higher (a brisk walk where you can just get a sentence out) equals about 10 minutes of lower-intensity movement for the same mortality reduction.Lee's Fast Finish Hack: At the end of your walk, do three short sprints, 30 seconds each, even just jogging between two telegraph poles. That's hormesis: healthy stress with exponential benefits.Irene's Commitment: Running up the stairs. Starting small. Just starting.🍫 Nighttime Overeating: How Amelia Broke the CycleThe Confession: Dessert seven nights a week. The popcorn-and-chocolate "bomb" at the bottom of the bowl. Sweet-then-salty cycling.The Strategy: Three nights on, four nights off. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday no dessert. Thursday to Sunday go for it.Environment Change: On the "no dessert" nights, Amelia didn't go to the couch or turn on the TV. Straight to the bedroom for a bath, aromatherapy, and a book. Kitchen closed.The Outcome: After three weeks, she started to prefer the night-time ritual. It extended to Thursday. The habit broke.Healthy Swaps: Protein-rich snacks at night, cottage cheese, a scoop of protein powder, collagen hot chocolate. Satiating, nourishing, and working toward that 100g-per-day protein goal.💊 The Ozempic ConversationNo Judgement: Amelia has become more empathetic over the years. Significant weight issues are not a moral failing. We live in an obesogenic environment designed to make us move less and eat more.GLP-1s Have a Place: Ozempic, Mounjaro, and similar medications are life-altering for some people. The anti-inflammatory effects are real. For the right candidate, they're a legitimate tool.The Caveat: Don't start lightly. Once you stop, weight often returns, and the medication's effects can be diminished if you restart. Work with a specialist. Find the right dose.🧠 The Woo-Woo ConversationAmelia's Evolution: She started as evidence-based-or-nothing. She's become more open to the unexplainable.The Sound Bath Experience: At Billabong Retreats, Amelia had a chakra-unlocking meditation that left her crying, glowing, and in a honeymoon period with her husband for weeks. No research paper can quantify that.Lee's Mantra: "I'm healthy, wealthy, safe and wise." Five times a day. Every day. Part of her long COVID recovery. She's never felt better.The DAS-21: A validated depression, anxiety, and stress assessment. Separates the three so you can see which is actually elevated. Amelia will send it to anyone who asks.📞 Womansplain: Justin on Deepening Male Friendships (approx. 00:32:53)Justin's Observation: Men have adopted "female-inspired" friendship behaviours, hugging, saying "I love you," sharing vulnerabilities but haven't acknowledged where it came from.The File Never Closes: Women are archivists of each other's lives. We remember the childhood wound, the mother's name, what "I'm tired" actually means. Men tend to close the file when the hangout ends.Practical Advice:Follow up: If a friend shares something real, text them the next day. Not weeks later.Stop waiting for a reason: Women reach out because they heard a song or saw a dog. The reaching out is the reason.Celebrate publicly and specifically: Not "she's great" but "this man talked me through something really hard last year."Organise something: Women make 100 plans, keep half. The planning is part of the friendship.The Arms: Women greet each other like the person is the best thing that happened all day. Arms up, full-body yes. Lead with the arms, gentlemen.✨ Rant: Lee on Green Powders (approx. 00:55:52)The Problem: Overpriced, underdosed, proprietary blends with zero transparency. Premium prices for powdered convenience and marketing spin.Pyramid Scheme Vibes: Influencers, referral codes, commissions everywhere. Looks more like a distribution hustle than health.The Contradiction: Claims of gut health support while packed with emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, and artificial sweeteners that mess with the microbiome.Powdered Greens Are Not Real Food: Little fibre, no biological signals from whole plants, unless you're finding verified, efficacious formulations.What to Look For: Short ingredient lists where each ingredient can actually deliver effective doses. Spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass, algae. A prebiotic or digestive enzyme if gut health is the goal. No stimulants, no artificial sweeteners, no fillers.Formulation Matters: Look for products created by formulation experts, not white-labelled private label products with celebrity names slapped on.Lee's Green Powder: Combines alkalising greens, medicinal mushrooms, protein, and adaptogens. Supports gut health, immunity, and sustained energy. And it tastes good.📝 Lee's Nutritionist Nerd Notes: Episode 8 MentionsWeight Management FundamentalsEnergy Deficit Required: 7700 calories deficit = 1kg lost. For half a kilo per week, aim for 500 calories daily deficit.TDEE Calculator: Google "TDEE calculator" to find your maintenance calories. Most women: 1500–2000 calories per day.Meal Delivery as Education: Calorie-controlled services like Be Fit Food teach portion sizes. Use for 4–8 weeks as a stepping stone.The 4-3-2-1 Plate: 40% protein, 30% vegetables, 20% good carbohydrates, 10% fats.Energy OptimisationAnnual Blood Testing: Check metabolic markers, inflammation, thyroid, and hormone levels. Ask for optimal ranges, not just normal.The Four Biological Pillars: Metabolic health, hormone health, gut health, inflammatory response. If any are sub-performing, energy suffers.Body Composition: Muscle mass supports energy. Under-muscled = energy drain. Resistance training is non-negotiable as we age.SleepMinimum 7 Hours: Chronic sleep deprivation affects all four biological pillars.Can't Sleep Solutions: Exercise, cooler room, no blue light before bed, consistent routine.Won't Sleep Reality Check: You're an athlete of life. Athletes prioritise recovery. So should you.ExerciseVO2 Max: Declines 10% per decade from age 30. Reversible with consistent training.Zone 2 Training: Brisk walk or slow jog where you can just get a sentence out. 1 minute of zone 2+ equals 10 minutes of lower intensity for mortality benefits.The Fast Finish: Add three 30-second sprints at the end of your walk. Hormesis: healthy stress with exponential returns.Night-time EatingThree Nights On, Four Nights Off: Break the cycle gradually. Cold turkey rarely works.Change Your Environment: If the couch triggers snacking, don't sit on the couch.Protein-Rich Swaps: Cottage cheese, protein powder, collagen hot chocolate. Satiating and working toward 100g protein per day.Supplements & Green PowdersRed Flags: Proprietary blends, 100+ ingredients, artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, MLM-style marketing.Green Flags: Short ingredient lists, verified sourcing, formulated by experts, prebiotic or enzyme support for gut health.Key Greens: Spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass, algae. No stimulants or fillers.Mental HealthDAS-21: Depression, Anxiety, Stress assessment. Separates the three for targeted intervention. Contact Amelia for a copy.Mantras Work: "I'm healthy, wealthy, safe and wise." Repetition rewires neural pathways.📌 Episode 8 LinksSupercharged Food — Lee HolmesSupercharge Your Gut Lee’s productsClean Nectarine — Irene FalconeAmelia Phillips — InstagramHealthy Her PodcastVitality 360 MembershipBe Fit FoodTDEE CalculatorListen & SubscribeApple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | SubstackFollow us on Instagram:@wellnessunfilteredleeirene | @leesupercharged | @cleannectarineJoin the conversation on Substack: wellnessunfilteredpod.comSponsor an episode? Email wellnessunfilteredleeirene@gmail.comDisclaimer: This show is for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional before incorporating new wellness solutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theleeandireneshow.substack.com

Episode 6: Healthy, Wealthy & Wise in the Cost of Living Crisis. Freezer Hacks, Gut Basics, Kitchen Beauty, Why Your Nespresso Is Quietly Robbing You and Fighting the Man Flu🎙️How do you stay healthy when every trip to the supermarket feels like a financial mugging? In this episode, Lee Holmes and Irene Falcone ditch the expensive wellness theatre and get back to the brass tacks of genuine, affordable health. From Lee's legendary freezer-stocked "renewable table" and Wednesday-night supermarket markdown raids, to Irene's single-magnificent-purple-suit philosophy on spending, they cover food, beauty, bills, business, and the one organ that outperforms every overpriced supplement on the market. Plus: Man Flu season is upon us, paramedic-in-training Kaya joins the show, and Lee lights a righteous fire under the wellness industrial complex.Get ready to raid the freezer, ditch the gym membership, negotiate every bill, and prove that looking after your gut is the cheapest wellness investment you'll ever make.✨ FREE GIFT: The Renewable Table E-BookLee is giving away her signature e-book to help you cook once and eat four times. Learn how a single roast chicken can transform into a stir-fry and then a broth, or how a pot of lentils becomes a soup, a side, and then a fritter. [Download Your FREE Renewable Table E-Book Here]In this episode we chat about:🛒 What's Popping: Living Healthy & Wealthy in the Cost of Living Crisis (01:00)• The Harbour Bridge Confession: Lee's origin story; a broken boom gate, police sirens, a 55-dollar fine, and the moment she decided to make every dollar stretch. Every word of it is true.• The Purple Suit Principle: Irene's philosophy in a single garment, spend once on something extraordinary, keep it forever, and never look at fast fashion twice.• Two Frugal Schools of Thought: Lee finds the free or nearly-free version of everything; Irene buys one brilliant thing and makes it last a decade. Different roads, same destination.Business Wisdom: Irene’s "PhD in failure" advice: Ditch the expensive ad agencies and subscriptions, pay suppliers early to build energetic cash flow, and use AI to do your own marketing.🥦 Food: The Freezer Is Your Best Friend• The Wednesday Night Supermarket Raid: When markdowns happen, how to load up, portion, freeze, and carry yourself through the whole week on one smart shop.• The Renewable Table: Cook once, eat four times. A roast chicken becomes a stir-fry, then a broth. A pot of lentils becomes soup, a side, and a fritter. Lee is giving away the e-book — link in the show notes.• Protein at Breakfast: Why eggs are still one of the most affordable complete proteins going, and how starting the day with protein stops those expensive 10 o'clock impulse decisions.• The Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen: Which fruit and veg absolutely must be organic (strawberries, blueberries, spinach, celery) and which ones you genuinely don't need to splurge on (avocado, bananas). Full list in the show notes.• Grow Your Own Herbs: Microgreens, coriander, and basil on a windowsill the return on investment is remarkable, and coriander is a brilliant chelator for the gut.• The Cheap Luxurious Dip: Cannellini beans, lemon, a little garlic, a splash of olive oil hummus that tastes like a treat and costs almost nothing. 🧴 Luxe Beauty: Less Is More (and the Kitchen Has Everything You Need) (33:00)• The Skincare Budget Hierarchy: Spend almost nothing on cleanser and exfoliator (you're washing it down the sink), put your money into one good serum, and seal it in with something affordable like Egyptian Magic Cream or Weleda Skin Food.• Kitchen Beauty: Crushed lentils as a face scrub (Lee learned this in India), mashed banana as a hair mask, coconut oil as a makeup remover, cleanser, and full-body moisturiser. Free, and genuinely effective.• The Overripe Strawberry Trick: Those manky strawberries past their best? Do not throw them away. Natural AHAs and fruit acids make them a brilliant chemical exfoliator for your skin.• The Face Razor Secret: A dermablade removes layers of dead skin so efficiently that your serum penetrates at a fraction of the usual dose. You'll use a quarter of the amount — and it shows.• The Free Beauty Product: Water. Chronically dehydrated skin looks dull and tired. Drinking more of it plumps the skin, supports the gut, and costs nothing at all.• The Home Spa: Magnesium salt foot soak with a few drops of pure essential oil, a frangipani from your walk in a glass on the table, and an organic candle — a day spa experience for the price of a bus ticket.🦠 Health: The Gut Is the Best Organ Since Sliced Bread (approx. 30:00)• Why the Gut Comes First: Nearly 80% of your immune system lives there. Skin, hair, nails, energy, mood — the gut has a role in every system of your body. Look after it and almost everything else follows.• Irene's Testimony: Years of adrenal fatigue, chronic tiredness, and skin issues — resolved when she finally focused on her gut. Her hair has never looked better.🏠 Household: Bills, Petrol & the Art of Asking (approx. 50:00)• Phantom Energy: Every appliance on standby is quietly adding to your bill. Turn it off at the wall. Takes 30 seconds.• The Quarterly Direct Debit Audit: Go through every subscription every three months. Free trials rolled into paid plans, streaming services you barely use, apps you've forgotten about entirely. I'm looking at you, Amazon Prime.• The Irene Alarm Hack: Set an alarm three to four days before any free trial ends. Ask yourself whether you actually want it. The answer is usually no.• The Art of Asking: Call your electricity provider, internet, insurance company, and bank. "I'm reviewing my expenses — is there a better rate available?" The worst they can say is no. They rarely do.• Petrol at Night: Petrol is cooler and denser after dark, so you genuinely get more for your money filling up at night. Also: buy midweek (Tuesday or Wednesday) when prices are at the low point of the pricing cycle.• The Coasting Habit: Foot off the accelerator on the downhill, tyres properly inflated, window instead of air-con. Every small thing adds up.💼 Business Hacks from the Hard School of Experience• Subscriptions: If you're on Shopify, audit every app you're paying for. Most of them are doing less than you think.• Ditch the Agencies: One weekend is genuinely all you need to learn Facebook ads, Google ads, and email marketing yourself. AI has automated most of what agencies were charging a premium for.• Pay on Time (Better Yet, Early): Your suppliers will love you, give you first access to deals, and actually want to work with you. There is also, Irene firmly believes, an energetic benefit to telling the universe your cash flow is in good order. 🥤 Womansplain Fighting the Man Flu (57:00)Golden Gut Breakfasts: Justin shares how a "protein-forward breaky" involving turmeric and eggs has saved him coin on mid-morning snacks.The "Man Flu" Debate: The team tackles the age-old question of whether men truly suffer more or just have a flair for the dramatic.Dinner to the Rescue: Justin sets the scene for the discussion by recounting how Lee saved his evening with a last-minute freezer soup, the ultimate remedy for a man on the brink.🔊 You’re On Speaker: Paramedics & Neonatal Kittens & Influencer Skepticism (1:01)• Unflappable Superpowers: Meet Kaya: Career-changer, former fashion industry veteran, trainee paramedic, and — most importantly — a foster carer for RSPCA neonatal kittens. She is currently raising a six-day-old kitten on a syringe every two hours. An actual angel.• The Influencer Question: How to tell a genuine product recommendation from a paid advertisement. Irene's rule: if they're being paid, don't buy the product. Lee's red flag: a hero ingredient listed at the very bottom — less than 1% of the formulation — while 90% of the budget went on the glass bottle and the celebrity photoshoot.• The Simple Test: "They're not selling you a product. They're selling you their lifestyle with a beauty filter on. 😤 Frisky Finale Rant: The Wellness Industrial Complex (1:13)• 80-dollar jade rollers. 50-dollar detox teas. Gym gear loaded with microplastics that shed into your skin every time you sweat. Himalayan salt lamps collecting dust and pooling water. Wireless earbuds marketed as focus enhancers. Real wellness is free and dirt cheap. Lee is fired up and she is not wrong.• What You Actually Need: Second-hand cotton clothing, a daily walk, plenty of water, garlic when something is coming on, and the gut-health basics you've already heard about in this episode. 🛡️ Lee’s Nutritionist Nerd Notes: The "Man Flu" DefenceThe Sleep Shield: People sleeping less than seven hours are significantly more likely to get sick.Zinc is King: It directly inhibits viral replication. Source it from pumpkin seeds, red meat, and chickpeas.Zinc Food Sources· Pumpkin seeds — a small handful is a clinically relevant dose.· Red meat (grass-fed where possible).· Chickpeas and legumes.· Hemp seeds.· Oysters — if it's a special occasion. The richest food source of zinc going. Garlic & Vitamin C: Use food as medicine, air-fry whole bulbs of garlic for antiviral properties and get Vitamin C from capsicum, broccoli, and Kakadu plum.📝 Lee’s Nutritionist Nerd Notes: Episode 6 MentionsRecipe: Turmeric & Golden Gut Scrambled Eggs: A protein-forward breakfast to stop mid-morning snacking. Combine eggs with Lee’s Golden Gut Powder (for the diatomaceous earth "double whammy"), cumin, and a pinch of turmeric. [Link to Recipe] and Lee’s Golden Gut powder.Recipe: Lee’s Best Sticky Chai: A homemade ritual that beats the local cafe price every time. [Link to Recipe]Recipe: Affordable Cannellini Bean Hummus: Mix beans, lemon, garlic, and olive oil for a luxurious, cheap dip.The Clean 15 vs. Dirty Dozen (Quick Guide)· Buy organic: strawberries, blueberries, spinach, kale, celery, capsicum, peaches, nectarines, cherries, pears, tomatoes, grapes.Don't need to splash out: avocados, pineapples, onions, sweetcorn, frozen peas, mangoes, asparagus, kiwi fruit, cabbage, cauliflower, rock melon, broccoli, mushrooms, bananas, honeydew melon. Guide: The Clean 15 & Dirty Dozen: Your cheat sheet for when to buy organic. [Link to Guide]o Vanessa Megan skincareo Egyptian Magic Creamo Weleda Skin Foodo Sanctum certified organic range (from $12)o Natural deodorants for women and men· RSPCA foster care program: rspca.org.auPesticide Removal on a Budget· Soak fruit and vegetables in a bowl of water with a splash of apple cider vinegar (or plain white vinegar, the cheap stuff works just as well) for 10 to 15 minutes.· Peel where practical.· Rinse thoroughly. Simple, free, and genuinely removes a meaningful proportion of surface pesticide residue. Pro-Bono Work: Learn more about Lee's work helping those exhausted by the medical system.The Home Spa Checklist• Warm bath or foot soak: magnesium salts + two drops of pure essential oil.• Face: dermablade first, then a small amount of your best serum straight onto fresh skin.• Hair: coconut oil mask, left on for 20 minutes before washing.• Body: straight coconut oil from shoulder to heel.• Flowers from your walk in a glass on the windowsill. The experience of abundance is in the detail.Affordable Gut-Health Foundations• Fermented foods (sauerkraut, kefir, plain Greek yoghurt) — all affordable, all effective at supporting microbial diversity.• Legumes — chickpeas, lentils, cannellini beans — prebiotic fibre that feeds the good bacteria. Also the cheapest protein on the shelf.• Coriander — chelating agent, gut-supportive, and grows on a windowsill for practically nothing.• Bone broth — gelatine and collagen support the gut lining directly. Make it from the carcass of your roast chicken, which you were going to throw away anyway.• Garlic — prebiotic and antiviral. The double act your immune system and your microbiome both need.Five Frugal Supermarket Rules• Shop on Wednesday evening, end-of-week markdowns.• Buy frozen organic blueberries instead of fresh. Nutritionally identical, a fraction of the price.• Read the ingredients list, not the front of the pack. More than five ingredients or a number in front of something? Put it back.• Use the fruit and veggie bags for school bags. (Yes, Lee did this. No, she is not embarrassed.)• Take your own tea bags everywhere and ask for hot water. The savings are real and the habit sticks. Top 10 Cost-Effective Coffee Machines (Australia 2026): Skip the expensive pods and invest in a manual machine (Justin’s $250 steamer find). Here are the "pod-free" manual and semi-auto machines currently leading the Australian market for value:1. Bialetti Moka Pot ($50) – The cheapest way to get real coffee.2. Anko (Kmart) Espresso Machine ($99). The absolute lowest price for a motorised machine.3. Wacaco Nanopresso ($120). Best for travel and portability.4. Casabrews 3700 Essential ($130). Great budget tech features.5. Sunbeam Compact Barista ($180). Highly reliable entry-level brand.6. De'Longhi Dedica ($249). (The "Justin" Find): Slim, popular, and frequently on sale at JB Hi-Fi and Amazon.7. Flair Classic ($250)Fo. r coffee purists who want a manual lever.8. Sunbeam Mini Barista ($270). Uses a professional-sized 58mm group head.9. Breville Bambino ($340). The best overall compact manual machine.10. Gaggia Classic (Refurbished) ($450). Commercial-grade durability for a mid-range price. Listen & Subscribe on [Substack], [Apple Podcasts], [Spotify, [YouTube)Follow us on Instagram:[@wellnessunfilteredleeirene] | [@leesupercharged] | [@cleannectarine]Join the conversation on Substack: [wellnessunfilteredpod.com] P.S. Sponsor an episode? Email [wellnessunfilteredleeirene@gmail.com]. Disclaimer: This show is for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional before incorporating new wellness solutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theleeandireneshow.substack.com

Show NotesWellness Unfiltered Episode 4: From Tree-Hugging to Biohacking Bros, 40 Year Friendships and the Truth About Living Forever 🎙️How do friendships evolve over 40 years, and how do you maintain a "Bo Derek" glow in your 60s? In this episode, we’re joined by the vibrant duo behind the Over the Back Fence podcast to discuss the power of letting go, the reality of "wellness bros," and practical self-care for everyone.In our fourth episode, , Lee Holmes and Irene Falcone welcome Nicola Dale and Di Edwards. With decades of experience in high-flying careers and media, they share their secrets for staying grounded, vibrant, and connected in mid-life.We also tackle the dehydrating effects of air travel, explore simple rituals like "tree hugging," and stage a self-care intervention for the men in our lives.In this episode we chat about:● ✨ Mid-Life Redefined with Nicola and Di (02:00):o The Power of Attitude: Di shares how letting go of things she cannot control has made her feel younger in her mid-60s than ever before.o Flying Beauty Secrets: Nicola, a flight attendant for over 30 years, breaks down the "hydrate, hydrate, hydrate" rule and her post-flight glow-up tips, including skin needling and LED therapy.o The Quick Fix: How flight attendants look put-together in five minutes using bright lipstick and simple grooming hacks.● 🌿 Daily Rituals & Connection (11:23):o Nature as Therapy: From ocean plunges for magnesium to the grounding energy of hugging a 300-year-old tree.o Walking & Vulnerability: Why the best conversations happen on solitary walks or side-by-side with friends in nature.o Evolution of Friendship: How conversations shift from babies and careers to bowel health and mutual respect over a 40-year bond.● 🥤 Womansplain: Self-Care for Dudes (28:22):o Setting Boundaries: Why "no" is a complete sentence and a vital form of self-care.o The Social Connection: Encouraging men to build bonds and talk through life's problems over a (non-alcoholic) beer or a game of golf.o Hydration & Cooking: The importance of carrying a water bottle and the simple act of cooking one real meal a week for yourself.● 🔊 You’re On Speaker: Pilates & Inflammation with Lexie (38:43):o The Power of Pilates: Lexie explains how Pilates serves as a core exercise that Mindfully improves control and avoids injuries.o Breathe Like a Pro: A quick guide to the Pilates "ribcage breathing" technique you can do even at your desk.o Inflammation Fighting: Lee and Irene share easy food swaps like berries, oily fish, and the "turmeric plus black pepper" hack to reduce pockets of inflammation.● 😤 Epic Rant: The Bro-Longevity Chokehold (49:54):o Living vs. Optimising:: Lee’s take on the "immortality complex" and the shift from sterile biohacking chambers to joyful, analogue living.o Quality over Quantity: Why obsessing over biomarkers and sleep windows can lead to "social hermit" status and health anxiety.Lee’s Nutritionist Nerd NotesThe Mid-Life Skin & Gut Connection● Feeling vs. Thinking: Di emphasises moving from "living in your head" to "feeling in your gut" to manage stress and its impact on health. Understanding your gut brain axis.● Inflammation & Exercise: High-energy exercise should be balanced with grounding practices like Yin yoga, meditation or nature walks to regulate the nervous system.Natural Beauty & Dental Hacks● Salt Toothpaste: A natural alternative that uses your own saliva to clean teeth; Nicola and Irene highlight its effectiveness and unique "salted caramel" taste.● Hydroxyapatite: A NASA-invented mineral that re-mineralises teeth and fills small holes, serving as a non-toxic alternative to fluoride.Self-care for Dudes Tips● Savoury Mince Recipe: A "guy-guy" recipe packed with hidden veggies for an easy, nutrient-dense meal. See the recipe here.● Hydration Tip: Using a volume-marked water bottle to "gamify" daily water intake.Inflammation-Fighting Mediterranean Diet Swap-outs: Lee shares easy food swaps to reduce pockets of inflammation:● Switch Processed Fats for Real Fats: Replace margarine with real Mediterranean-style fats like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and avocado.● Protein Swap: Opt for salmon, sardines, or other oily fish a couple of times a week instead of other proteins.● Plant-Based Power: Incorporate more beans, lentils, tofu, and tempeh into meals.● Daily Add-ins: Boost your intake of berries, leafy greens, and cruciferous vegetables.● Debunking Popular Diets + a Prebiotic Tray Bake with Garlic TahiniThe Spice Hack: Use turmeric with a pinch of black pepper in meals (or in scrambled eggs and soups) to maximise its anti-inflammatory effects. Super Potent Curcumin with Black Pepper.🛡️ Fact-Check: Self-Care Myths● The "Wellness Bro" Scam: Spending thousands on cold plunges and blood work while sacrificing the joy of daily living.● Orthorexia Awareness: The danger of being so "squeaky clean" with diet that it creates anxiety and removes the enjoyment of food. Talked about in Supercharge Your Life by Lee Holmes.Listen & Subscribe on Substack, Substack Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTubeGuest Info:● Follow Nicola & Di: Over the Back Fence Podcast● Over the Back Fence InstagramFollow us on Instagram:@wellnessunfilteredleeirene | @leesupercharged | @cleannectarineJoin the conversation on Substack: wellnessunfilteredpod.comP.S. If you’re keen to sponsor an episode and connect with our wellness audience? Reach out to: wellnessunfilteredleeirene@gmail.com for collab details.Disclaimer: This show is for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional before incorporating new wellness solutions.READ MORE HERE:Do you prefer to read the transcript? Podcast Transcript: Wellness Unfiltered Episode 4Friendship, Flying Beauty, and Mid-Life Wisdom 🎙️(00:00) [Intro Music - Upbeat, rhythmic]Lee: Well, hello out there! You're Lee...Irene: And you're Irene!Lee & Irene: And this is Wellness Unfiltered! Yay!(00:10) [Sound of cicadas in the background]Irene: Well, we are back in the cabin, waiting on those cicadas to provide the soundtrack to our pod, and I’m feeling very serene.Lee: Mmm, "Serene Irene." I’ll take a kilo and a half of that! For anyone joining us in the cabin for the first time, this pod is where we strip back the marketing hoo-ha and get real in our worlds of beauty, health, and wellness. Hey, Lee... sorry, just... who are these people? They look really gorgeous.Lee: Yeah, they’re actually two absolutely lovely ladies and they’re my neighbors in Palm Beach.Irene: Of course they are!Lee: They’ve squished in the cabin with us and they’ve very elegantly jumped over the back fence to join us for What’s Popping.Irene: Wow! Okay, that is so exciting. Please introduce me!Lee: Absolutely. By the way, our regular—in every sense of the word—dude, Justin, is back with another health question for us to gently 'splain today.Irene: Now, not forgetting our delightful listener who will be on speaker with us a little later on, and a Rant or Rave to bring us home. So let’s get into it! Let’s take a look at What’s Popping with my soon-to-be besties.Segment: What’s Popping?(01:30) [Transition Jingle]Irene: All right Lee, the tea is hot and I’m fit to pop! Ha! That’s going to be my new catchphrase. All right, anyway, onto What’s Popping. We are delving into friendships, the magic of laughter, and how to look like Bo Derek in your mid-life.Lee: Yes, we are. So allow me to introduce my favorite duo from the very, very popular Over the Back Fence podcast: Nicola Dale and Di Edwards.Nicola & Di: Yay! Thank you! Wow, who are we, Di? Thanks for that lovely warm welcome.Lee: All right ladies, so let’s get into it. We’re all in the 50-plus bracket, and I’ve noticed that we’ve kind of been rethinking our sense of ourselves, especially in these middle years. And I know for me, I’ve taken up more Vedic meditation and walking and a lot more internal healing. So when it comes to wellness, how have you guys found or redefined your sense of self? I might start with you, Di.Di: Oh, it’s such a big question to unpack. Mmm. I think, particularly now because I'm actually in my 60s—I'm in my mid-60s—I'm actually feeling younger than I've ever felt in my whole entire life. Because of attitude. And we talk about mind-body-spirit, and attitude to me is the mind. And the mind is—can take over your very being, it can take over your family, it can take over your friends, it can take over your life. But I think for me, it’s been letting go of the things that I can’t change.Lee: Mmm-hmm, that you can't control.Di: And how empowering that has become for me.Lee: Yeah, and you've noticed it in your day-to-day life?Di: Hugely. I have the potential now to let go of things where I used to hold onto things before, and so therefore every cell in my body would carry it, sadly. And I now believe what we hold onto that's negative, a consequence of that can be your health. And that’s why we talk to people like Lee. But yeah, and I think being aware of that, I now—I’ll feel it, because I’m very much into feeling rather than before I used to work from my head more. And when I feel it, I go, "Oh, okay, the consequence of that will be: let it go." And it’s like a little click in my brain. And I didn't even know that existed before. Then that from my head will wash into my body. That’s been very powerful for me in my 60s to notice that.Lee: And you're certainly glowing! I mean externally, but also just your beautiful calm and vibrant nature.Di: I had a rush to get here, I was running late guys! Naughty girl.Lee: And Nicola, you have been a flight attendant for 30 years!Nicola: Come fly with me!Irene: Oh, I don't think so. I'm actually scared of flying, so that’s... yeah, it’s really interesting actually. When I’m on the plane, when I have to fly, I always keep a really strong eye on the flight attendants and I always think to myself, "Okay, well if they’re not panicking, I don’t need to panic." And that’s sort of how I fly everywhere. That’s something I’m really going to need to work on actually. Maybe I’ll do the mind over...Nicola: Let’s do some alignment together.Irene: That’s right. You’re not alone in feeling that. I'm sure I'm not the only one. That’s right. But one thing I notice when I do travel is, of course, I love everything to do with beauty, and your skin is so beautiful and hydrated. How do we keep it like that when it gets so dehydrated in the sky?Nicola: Well, it does. And I think the main thing is: hydrate, hydrate, hydrate is the number one key. You know, eye drops—I've always sort of suffered a bit from dry eyes—so eye drops, lip balm, not only that, you know I’ll have a thick moisturiser on as well. Sometimes those spritz, those sprays, are really good and you feel great. I like it on the plane too when you’ve got a silk eye mask, and I love the ones that go round your ears. And that way then you can cocoon in it and it’s sort of soft on your eyes and that sort of then you don’t get so much like the crinkly eye look. But hydration is like really one of the biggest tips for actually flying.But post that as well, too, there are other things, you know, like with facials—and I’ve only just started to have—I’ve had my very first skin needling that I’ve ever had, and that was just done locally at Beach's Beauty and that was just highly recommended. And the LED medical-grade with the light...Irene: Oh, the OmniLux after the needling!Nicola: Yeah! They prepped that for me before and then I had the skin needling. So I’ve had a couple of sessions and since then I have had comments—I’ve got a glow about my skin. So that’s sort of something. But when I was flying—I'm not sort of flying working as doing that anymore—don't forget just to drink more and more. And have, say, Liquid IV.Irene: But doesn't alcohol affect you worse?Nicola: It does! You know, yeah, you just sort of say—I mean the things that people do up in the sky... you know, like...Di: What happens in the sky stays in the sky!Nicola: Exactly. Oh, the stories you must have! Can you tell us? You've got some stories.Nicola: Well, it's true, with the Mile High Club, Di’s brought it up, the good old... I looked it up! No, but I think it is quite funny, and it is sometimes when people have sleeping pills and then they’ll have too much champagne, and that is always sort of a thing that never ends up well. And, but it is quite funny, as flight attendants too, we have seen people go in—because you’ve sort of got the bird’s eye view—and you’ll go, "Oh, check out this couple." And this is sort of back before the mobile phones, but you’d see it in the middle of the night, and one would walk up to the front toilets, and then next minute someone else would go in, the door would shut, and there’s two people in there. And it was just so funny because as crew we were kind of onto it. So we’d make like an anonymous call, alert all the crew, and sort of come up to right one, and it was just so funny. All of a sudden you’d hear these noises and so all the crew would be round there and all of a sudden the door would open and then close again, and it was just like, busted! You know, so those things...Irene: I always thought that was a myth!Nicola: No, it happens! I know many a person. Well, I think it's something people want to tick the box, it’s sort of something they want to do. And probably doesn't... you know.Irene: It wouldn't work for me because I’m scared of flying, so I don’t think I’d be very relaxed.Di: Maybe it might relax you! See you in the hotel!Irene: Answer me this beauty question then about flying that I have. Why is it that I always look so much worse after a flight? Tell me how—and then I look at the flight attendants and they always look so beautiful and put together.Nicola: No, do you know what it is sometimes too? No, we all do. You know, like as I used to do the long-haul flights and you’d have like a little crew rest, two hours off, and you’d get the tap on the shoulder and it’s 3:00 AM and you’re about to serve breakfast. And so you quickly—and your hair’s like this—and you run into the bathroom and you go, "Oh my god." So it’s quick cleaning the teeth, pulling your hair back—bright lipstick always does the trick. So really it’s a simple thing that if you just brush your hair and put a bit of lipstick on, you know, it’s fine. Sprayer—like hydrate your skin.Irene: How about dark circles?Nicola: Well, I think then, you know, that’s—I mean look, a little bit of touch-up, a little bit of makeup is always helpful, which is what we all wear. And I think also as flight attendants too, part of our thing was always grooming and we’ve always had, you know, you try and keep sort of fairly high standards. But naturally! You know, so it was just sort of like a simple thing. Di could see me—I could get ready in five minutes. I’d have the uniform there, I’d be prepped, it wouldn't take me that long, but I’d have the pearl earrings on, pull the hair back, the lipstick on, and it wouldn't take that long to do.Irene: You can just look at you now, you can just tell that you’ve been a flight attendant because you're so put together. So another question then: you've been a flight attendant, was it—has it been 30 years? Over 30 years. Wow. So how then from when you started doing the job to now has your beauty routine changed? Because it’s harder, I think, to look better quicker as we get after 50.Nicola: Absolutely. Well, you know, there’s been different things too. I like now—with your skin I guess it gets—it does dry. The other thing really would be, I’m a body oil freak. I love oil from head to toe on my body. And then I’ll put sort of like moisturiser on. So I think, and hydration. So I think those things there, and as I sort of was mentioning before with now, you know, trying skin needling and doing things like that, that there are extra things as we get into our 50s and 60s that you can actually do. So, you know, so that’s sort of really... and just going out, a little bit of sunlight without too much. We have to be—we always sort of be aware of that. So I just think it's like kind of looking after yourself simply.Di: Just the basics.Nicola: Basics. Hydration, sleep, you know, really getting the balance of life. And also having fun! You know, I think sometimes too people forget it. You know, and I think you look happy and you look better when you’ve got a positive attitude. And we know life is not always good, everyone gets knocked around and gets different things, but as Di was saying, you learn as you get older too to let things go. And we’re loving this chapter of our life! It’s really great and we feel grateful being here. And we’ve got a lot more to go, but it’s like we say we’re just getting started. It’s just... we’re so grateful. Life’s for living and it’s like now now or ever, so let’s make the most of it.Segment: Daily Rituals & Connection(08:15) [Transition Music]Lee: I do my daily walk to Palmie and I often see both of you. You with your big spread the Coton de Tulear dog walking along the beach. I’d love to know: what is one other simple daily ritual that instantly makes you feel more "you"?Nicola: Oh wow! Well, you nailed it with walking the dog because that really is. And I do like my morning coffee, so it’s sort of kind of like my favorite thing to start the day is to get up, walking the dog, having my coffee. And lucky it’s like living around here at the beaches. The other thing too, if I can in a week, say planning a week, I’d like to at least once or twice do a Yin yoga class. For me, that’s my grounding, being a high-energy "go go" Aries woman. Yin yoga is really good. But walking in nature is my thing. That’s my thing.Di: I think for me it’s gratitude. I wake up instantly look in the sky and I am grateful for breathing. Full stop. You know, are you lucky enough to breathe? You’re the most fortunate person in the world. There are so many people dying as we’re talking right now from illnesses that they can’t escape from. So gratitude I think is a great, as you used the word "ritual." And I think for me, as Nic always says, Di is the plunger! I go into the ocean and I squeal like a child, literally. I literally do squeal. I have seen you! Yeah, and I go, "Wow!" like that and I go in sometimes when—and we all have moments when we feel low or sad, we’re human. And I will go into the ocean and I’ll come out a different human. If you’re not near—you don’t live, listeners, near the ocean, get into a bath or even under with the, you know, focus your mind on the water from the shower dropping onto your body. It’s incredible. But if you can get to the ocean, full of the magnesium, all the yummy stuff...Lee: And the salt water!Di: The salt water! It’s healing. Nature’s gift.Nicola: And we also like, you know, when you have like solitary walks as well, as much because we’re very social. So I think being by myself and so when I’m walking with the dog, we have the best conversations. But that’s sort of something good, but then saying that I love hiking so with other women and you know we’re involved with Wild Women On Top and Coastrek. And you can go to places and in nature, like is just the best mother’s gift. It’s just healing and fun and connection.Di: Remember how daggy it was when someone would say to you, like you’d go, "What a hippie, I’m going to hug a tree." Remember those days you’d go, "Oh, seriously?" Now, I don’t care who’s around, I literally—well you’ve been with me and I hug those trees in the forest.Nicola: She does! She has! I've got photos of Di!Di: And honestly, if you switch your mind off and connect, you’ll feel the energy of the tree that’s two or three hundred years old. And then you start reflecting on, well, I die with—we die without trees. You know, the goodness that they put into our world absorb...Irene: And think about that tree as well, just now I’m thinking about it, they’ve seen so much. They’ve seen so much more than us.Nicola: Irene, that’s so true. And you know the other thing too Di when you’re sort of saying that with the tree, I think sometimes the best connections that we get—and as anyone listening—is when you’re walking in nature with say with a girlfriend or with a boyfriend or someone else there, is the true connections and stories. If you're out in nature for a period of time, it’s different than if you’re talking across there, different if you’re on the phone or in the car. The conversations and the things that we have, say we’ve as besties of over 40 years, we’ve discussed and that we’ve never even heard that...Di: And do you remember last Friday? Nicola and I MC’d a really, really big Coastrek, 2,100 people. But Nicola and I were interviewing various people and our question was—well, many questions—but one was in particular with a group of girls: "What did you talk about? Did you get emotional? Did you share things that you would not normally?" And they all went, "Yeah! Oh my god what came out!" So exercise, as Nic said, mothers, daughters, talking, fathers, sons, husband and wife were coming across anyway. So it’s a really healthy thing.Nicola: So that was a long-winded way of ritual, sorry.Lee: No, I think that’s—it’s definitely meditative and it gets you into a state where you feel safe to be vulnerable I think when you’re walking, especially when you’re with a friend.Segment: Friendship Evolution & Mid-Life Health(12:30) [Transition Music]Lee: Speaking of friendship with you guys, I’ve noticed that with Irene and I, our friendship conversations are... well, they've turned from career and babies to bowel health and glass air fryers we were talking about last week. How do you feel about that evolution and are you happy and content with where you guys are at now?Di: Oh, I honestly think that I’m a little bit older than Nicola, but not that much. But I do know that in my 20s and 30s I was a busy girl, I was living in New York, I was doing unbelievable careers, whatever, hosting TV programs and...Lee: You were doing the Today Show, weren't you?Di: I was doing everything! You name it. Those were the days. But you know, everyone saw me as this incredibly confident amazing woman. Like, "Wow, I’d come off air and they’d go 'That was incredible, you’re incredible.'" And I—I was crumbling inside. Oh! I never felt that I was great and brilliant, always needed reassurance. And to—okay that’s a tiny little window to what went on inside me then. And now I look at me and I’m—I look in the morning at my mirror and I used to think this was vanity: "I see you beautiful. Inside and out, you’re beautiful." And that’s not ego! You're beautiful, it's true!Nicola: Uh-oh, a warning! A warning! Like on a podcast too, you can't get us singing because Di loves to sing!Di: But authentic I feel very centered and very, you know, what do they say? Self-love. Self-love is key.Nicola: But it's interesting when you’re sort of saying back to even like some of the conversations that we’d have from beforehand to now. I don’t think we’ve changed that much and I don’t think they’ve changed all radically. And we have been friends for over 40 years. Except for now, as you age, you know there’s a real depth and that’s what’s so great about our friendship. It’s a true love and respect for one another that we’ve got and I feel so grateful to have Di in my life. And other great friends as well but that’s... you don’t take it for granted. We’ve both lost our parents, you know, we’ve gone through divorces, we’ve gone through—you’ve gone through a lot of highs and lows and you’ve shared them together. We had our babies together! We had—we get the now the joys of: you’re a grandma and I’m loving seeing you in that new role as well. But you know there’s a real depth to it and so we don’t stop laughing. We laugh from when we first met each other, you know, 40-plus years ago and we still do. We keep that but there’s a respect from one another and we know one another so well that if I need some time out or Di does—absolutely! And it’s okay! It’s totally okay.Di: Nicola only has to look at me and I’m like [sighs] or something, she’ll know. And it’s not like "Oh she’s a b***h," it’s now "Okay what’s going on? Have I gone too far? Have I pulled back? Do I need to step forward?" It’s a beautiful thing.Lee: You're very in sync.Di: Very much so. It’s honoring rather than, you know when you’re young she’s such a b***h, you know.Nicola: Well that’s the other thing too and we’re on the same thing too. I’ve never—not been a fan of that. No. But also, we’re not into people if they’re gossiping about other people or stuff like that. We really are sort of like...Di: Maybe a little bit, not in general!Nicola: She can be a b***h but you know! No, but she’s right, we in general we won't—we’ll close it down because it is people uplifting one another. You know, so...Lee: See, she gives you a giggle! You guys are always super positive.Segment: Rants, Raves & Biohacking(15:45) [Transition Music]Lee: I want to talk about—you mentioned plot twists and things like that and we, you know, we all have them thrown our way. You know, whether it’s Irene and her business pivots and things like that or me and my long COVID journey. How do you keep your energy vibrant and your mindset healthy when life throws you a few curly situations?Di: I guess it’s very much centered on what I said previously. It’s—a lot of people live in their heads, literally. It’s like they’re disconnected here at the neck, right? Disconnect, this is the head, oh yeah that’s my body. And I think nowadays, because thank god there’s so much more information out there that you can—and I’m not talking about Instagram—people are even talking about it. Like, it’s about—and I say it again, I’ll say it to the day I die—it’s about feeling. Where’s the feeling? For women in particular because of our uterus and we were born with those whether you’ve had children or not, it’s that soul-gut feeling. I used to override—I didn't even know what that word meant, didn't know how to spell it! And now I feel it and it’s like "Okay."Lee: Well, there is the gut-brain connection!Di: Thank you! Thank you! Well you are the queen of the gut! Which is true.Nicola: And I think the other thing too is, you know you have to—we all do go through and I don’t think there’s a human being on planet earth who isn't going to go through hard times. And I think it’s sitting in it. I think sometimes you gotta sort of sit in it as they say, go through it. No one likes it! But normally there is, without being corny, like a gift at the other side of it. So there’s growth. You know, that’s sort of really what it is. So I think you know they’re the gifts really as we get age. So I think that’s sort of like for or there’s times if you need a counselor, I’ll put my hand up. So there’s been times in my life when I’ve gone, "I can’t do this on my own" and I—I don’t actually need the opinions of girlfriends or even family, I need an external one for a period of time to tap into. So there’s no shame in that. I actually think I’m pro-get as much support. So I think that’s what’s really good and that’s more available now.Di: Yes thank god, because I said to you recently "I might go and talk to someone about that," which is—we both talk like that. And I said, "I think that’s a good idea."Lee: Because I’m a great believer: rumination leads to stagnation. That’s to me a bit of my mantra. Hence I’ll tune into it and and help it move on. Because a lot of people are sitting in stagnation and that’s when you become unhappy.Lee: And it's your letting go attitude! You know, you're just not holding onto things too much that's really serving you.Di: I might when I want to pee too much! Holding on! Ahhh! That’s in my 60s, no. No! But... yeah. Just respect yourself more, honor yourself more.Lee: Yeah. Well every time I see you Di, you just naturally glow. I mean last time I remember being down at Palmie, your hair was tied up in a pony, shimmering skin from your Palmie swims, you were actually just walking out of the water and I was looking at you—it was at dusk, remember that night?Di: I do remember that night! Was that last year?Lee: Yeah. And you looked like Bo Derek from the movie 10. You being Bo and Justin definitely Mo! You walked out and I—you were a vision and your energy was just absolutely beautiful. So I wanted to ask: what beauty or wellness habit did you swear by in your 20s that you would now—it would now make you laugh and you’d go, "I could never do that"? Like remember the permed hair or whatever it is?Di: Oh yeah! I always wanted to be Farrah Fawcett! You know, with the hair out here.Lee: Well you look like Farrah Fawcett!Di: Oh god, I’m never leaving! I'm moving in! Is there a bed over there? I think I’ll come back to—it’s a funny thing, but I used to drink more because of my confidence—lack of confidence. And I’d go, "If I have a few more wines, you know, I’ll be able to be and say and do." And now I’m confident and I’ll just drink a few. Is that—did that rhyme?Lee: I love it! I love a rhyme and a wine!Di: But don't you find too with alcohol Di when you’re sort of saying that as we have aged too as we’re similar? We just—we don’t drink as much and we still love a champagne, love a glass of wine, absolutely. But it’s—our bodies actually can’t take it anymore. And we don’t need it. But it’s sort of something when I was younger and it used to be—and we’re from the days before you know then it used to get smashed and you know blind and all these things you go how terrible now really but you know that was what we’d do! You know this is you know going back in the 80s.Di: Remember the high hair? Oh god everything was high! People were high, hair was high, heels were high, skirts were high! The world was high! Exactly. Oh my gosh. Yes. So lots, lots.Segment: Soundtracks & Self-Care(20:10) [Transition Music]Lee: Di, whenever I come to your beautiful house, you know I always end up—we end up jumping up and down on the couch and then we get the musical instruments out and we start—we’re happy and we’re dancing around. And every morning when I’m in the shower, I’ve got like this thing called "shower mix" so on Spotify, so I’ve got my favorite songs. I’d like to ask you: if your self-care had a soundtrack, what song would be playing in your morning ritual? Do you have a favorite song and why? To both of you.Di: Oh, to be honest with you, I—I am a music fiend. Like I play it 24 hours a day and I sing really loud all the time. Poor Nicola. But the thing is, so I have to—so the answer in that question because I know we’re running out of time is just—every single day it’s a different song.Lee: Yeah.Di: But if you want to get me going mental with you on the couch, it’ll be something like... Abeja Sin Club or... I’m sorry I’m such a dag: Dancing Queen. You just can't go wrong! But I’m into Snow Patrol at the moment for like sort of cruisy. Yeah good vibe.Lee: What about you Nicola?Nicola: Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Absolutely. Because it gets you going and it’s fun. And you know what it depends on the mood but I think like more of an upbeat sort of song like that is good.Di: And Lee, that’s one of the reasons I love you. Irene—I’ve obviously only just met Irene today...Irene: And you love me too! You only just met me but surely right?Di: We do! We’ve got mutual friends! That’s what I love about life: just your energy, your vibrancy...Lee: Daphne James David the meeting!Di: And your love of life!Irene: And she attracts beautiful people! There’s something about Lee’s products actually that I’ve found—I've noticed having sold a lot of products, and this is not a sales pitch for your products, but what I noticed is she’s a real purist. So everything that she does is the product but in its purest form. And that’s really rare and and it’s really interesting because the packaging isn't fancy. So it’s really the product inside that is the product as opposed to the outside of it and it’s just you see so much fluff and beautiful packaging these days but it’s what’s inside. A little bit like you!Lee: Oh! Isn't that the see with all of us with friendship connection and we feel really honored being on your podcast here. It's just so good.Irene: And we've loved every minute of it.Lee: And we’re students of life, that’s the other thing too is you never come to a destination of going you know everything. So we want to learn more and more and more. So more about you know what you’re doing with your wellness podcast here. It’s so good and you know we want to learn things every day.Irene: I think we’ve learned today: it’s not just about clean beauty and clean living and supplements, it’s about connection and friendship as well.Lee: It is. About friendship, about women, falling on back on women. Thank you so much for coming on. That was amazing!Irene: Beautiful. We have to have you back! I’d love to. We've gotta get you back on the back fence too. You worth angels. Thanks Irene.Segment: Woman-Splaining & Self-Care for Men(23:05) [Transition Music]Irene: Guess what time it is Lee?Lee: What time is it?Irene: "Woman-Splaining" o'clock! That time we set aside for the men in our lives who need a little bit of help whether they know it or not. Usually not. And Justin’s back in the cabin—actually, did he ever leave? So, okay Justin, what ails you today, dear boy?Justin: Hello all. Irene and Lee. Just a quick bit of feedback on your ideas for my daily smoothie. I thought I’d may have to muscle it down, but no. It’s not as milkshakey but it’s pretty delicious and I feel good about it. So thanks. Using water and actual oats instead of oat milk is a thing. I always felt a bit, you know, buying oat milk was a bit dumb. And cacao powder and Greek yogurt—okay! So I couldn't cop the coriander though.Irene: Yeah, that’s an acquired taste. Who said to put coriander in there with cacao powder?Justin: That might be me.Irene: Lee! Can tell you’re a nutritionist! Let’s just get all the nutrition in, don’t worry about what it tastes like.Justin: Yeah, I think she works for Big Coriander. So my question is—and I can’t believe I’m saying this but—self-care. It’s generally not something my mates and I talk about, but I know it’s important and I want to better myself. My darling sister says "You gotta put the oxygen mask on yourself before others." Can you give me some womanly ways to self-care for men that don’t care?Lee: Yeah, absolutely! Bring it on. Well self-care really is everyone care. And the principles of self-care aren't womanly, they’re just more human I would say. But a lot of the language around it can feel foreign for dudes, well maybe not the wellness bros that we talk about often. So I think it's really good to freshen up the language a little. So what you could do is say "no" to one thing this week. This is what women call—we call it setting boundaries, don’t we Irene?Irene: I say no way more than I say yes.Lee: Protecting your time and energy is self-care as well, and you don’t really have to explain yourself to anyone and "no" is a complete sentence and it's quite poetic.Irene: Yeah I think so too. Actually, we spoke so much on the podcast about friendships as well and building bonds with people and leaning on friends and I think that’s even more important for men than it is for women. And I think men tend to go through things on their own but I think having a group of mates that you can just have a beer with—a non-alcoholic beer of course—and just talk through you know life’s problems. And sometimes it’s not even about talking, sometimes it’s just about being in the company but I think that’s a man’s way of self-care or even just playing golf or something with some mates or watching the football. And sometimes it’s not even about talking, sometimes it’s just about being in the company. But I think that’s really important especially if you’re working a nine-to-five, you’ve got kids and you know you’ve got—I know like me, I’m definitely a needy wife.Lee: Are you?Irene: Yeah I am. I lean on my husband a lot actually. I’m very... what’s the word... high maintenance.Lee: That's so funny. Actually, I was going to say just from a nutrition point of view: men I find don’t drink enough water. They get severely dehydrated. So having a bottle of water, a liter bottle of water in the car or wherever they are, taking it with them, I think that’s a good idea for self-care.Justin: Yeah, I reckon both those ideas are good. Just being more social and talking it out with your friends. I think guys—I'm 59—and guys are a lot more in my group in my experience start to open up a bit more and we hug each other and we tell each other we love each other.Irene: But think about the 80s! Like I don’t ever remember my dad ever having like you know friends.Justin: No, yeah exactly. So I hope that’s where we’re going and hope we’re getting better at that. And I love the water bottle idea as well and just to gamify it a bit is to you know have a water bottle I think with with markers on it, like a volume marker, so you can work out how much you’ve drunk today and then you can bang on about it to everybody else.Lee: I might have a rant coming up on that soon! Or maybe a rave.Irene: I’ve noticed that with guys: they want to make it easy in terms of food and sometimes they just order you know Uber Eats and go "I’m going to nourish myself with some Uber Eats." But I think if you can just once a week cook a meal for yourself. It doesn't have to be fancy. The act of making food for yourself is a form of respect I think it’s really worth the effort. So get into the kitchen, cook a little meal for yourself and that really is an act of self-care.Justin: Oh that’s a great idea!Irene: It is. I love the idea of cooking for someone else too. Does your husband do the cooking at home Irene?Irene: Yep, he does all the cooking.Lee: Does he? Oh I’ve got a really good savory mince recipe I might pop in the show notes. It’s a real guy-guy recipe! It’s got so many veggies in it though but it’s savory mince but I pile in the veggies and you feel so good afterwards. I’m going to pop that in the show notes.Justin: Yeah thank you! I’ve got three boys and they would love that. Like mince is our thing. And I love cooking too. I love cooking for them.Lee: Lee loves cooking for other people!Irene: I love it! Every time you come over I always cook. It's my love language! It is, it’s the best part of this podcast—I thought the Rant and Rave was the best part of the podcast but it is actually what Lee cooks me when we’re finished.Lee: And I’m so sad because you have to leave early today to go to the orthodontist for your son and I bought salmon for us but anyway, next time!Irene: I’m gearing myself—well you know why I’m going don’t you to the orthodontist? Because my husband usually takes him but he’s going to want to talk about all things fluoride and all those things and I just need to be there to make sure that we don’t go down the fluoride because my husband’s like all about the dentist said use the fluoride toothpaste, use the fluoride toothpaste. So I need to be there to make sure ain’t nobody passing him the Colgate from the orthodontist.Lee: Oh actually I tried a new toothpaste the other day just speaking of that. It was a salt toothpaste from Weleda. I think you must have given it to me! I loved it!Irene: That is the best! Yes. So that salt toothpaste—so doesn't it taste like—so that was the original sort of natural toothpaste and I love it also in metal. I love the tube. That toothpaste tastes like a salted kind of caramel lolly! It is the most delicious thing and when I had my first business it was actually my best-selling product. It was crazy! It doesn't sell as much now everyone’s all about the hydroxyapatite toothpaste now which everyone’s into. Well firstly before I talk about the hydroxyapatite which is the next big thing, the thing about the salt toothpaste is it actually works by using your own saliva. So how it works is it makes your own saliva form in your mouth and that is what is used to clean your teeth.Lee: Oh!Irene: So there’s actually some science behind that Weleda salt toothpaste, it is a fantastic product. But nowadays they’re using hydroxyapatite instead of fluoride. It is a mineral that is found in the ground and you can also manufacture it as well in a lab. It was actually invented by the NASA scientists actually and it fills the little holes in your teeth and can help stop cavities and also remineralise as well your teeth. And Grants do a great one and so do Moogoo. One thing to be mindful of with hydroxyapatite is there are nano and non-nano forms and of course the jury’s out still on anything that is a nano. But if you’re looking for a hydroxyapatite toothpaste that is non-nano, both Grants and Moogoo do a great form as well. And they’re both vegan as well! You can also get hydroxyapatite from calcium which comes from animal as well. So there’s a few different types.Lee: Interesting! And speaking of remineralisation I know you do this Justin: you are into the fulvic humic minerals aren't you? That’s a good self-care little tip.Justin: Yeah, I just add two or three or three or four drops twice a day in my water. Some timing—I didn't do much of the science but I know there’s heaps of science behind it. A really good friend of mine, kind of a natural health kind of mentor of mine told me about it. And yeah and I’ve just been convinced and and my mum has a lot of negative ions and that’s something my mum taught me when—this is like you know 40 years ago 50 years ago. And I just been fascinated by negative ions but that’s a different story.Lee: We should do a whole podcast on that because negative ions—things that attach themselves to negative ions like fulvic humic does with water to help purify it—and you can do the same thing you know in the air with a beeswax candles.Justin: Yeah! It’s fantastic. I’m a big believer and a big advocate of it for myself. I don’t really espouse it.Lee: Wow, and thank you so much for all that advice. There’s plenty there. I mean I zoned out a bit about the toothpaste but I got back in when you talked about NASA, then I got back out of it.Irene: I’m going to guess you’re a Colgate guy aren't you?Justin: No! Actually... yes. But thank you very much and I’m going to start setting boundaries and one of the first one I’m going to do: is it okay if I set a boundary around having not having to pack away the equipment each week?Lee: Nope! You’re not going to get away with that with Lee. Not this Virgo.You’re On Speaker (Pilates & Inflammation)(38:15) [Transition Music]Irene: All right Lee, I can see our switchboard is lighting up—not really—but it is time for my favorite segment: You’re On Speaker. And this is where we stop talking to each other and start talking with you. And I love this segment because we get to meet people, and we’ve got Lexie on the line today. Hello Lexie, you’re on speaker!Lexie: Hi ladies, how you going?Lee: Yeah good thank you! And we love having you on and I wish we had hours to get to know you, but we’re going to have to settle for just asking you: what’s the thing you were clearly put on this earth to do?Lexie: I believe my superpower is to help others through the gift of Pilates.Lee: Oh Pilates! So are you a Pilates teacher?Lexie: Yes! I am.Irene: I love that! Can I actually just say off-script for a minute: Pilates is my absolute favorite and only exercise that I will ever do, but it is probably for the reason that I shouldn't admit and that is it’s one of the only exercises that I can do laying down. I just lay there and the machine stretches me! I can't think of a better way to get a workout in.Lexie: Absolutely I agree!Lee: So Lexie do you teach what type? Do you teach reformer or is it mat Pilates? What sort of type do you teach?Lexie: All types of Pilates, I’d say probably my favorite would be mat and reformer of all of them here. Except for the benefits of what you get—especially mat Pilates—I don’t think it gets enough credit because we have all these apparatus now and machines that can assist us but I think it’s definitely probably on the more challenging end of Pilates because it’s just using your own body.Irene: I love mat Pilates actually because it’s something you can do at home and you don’t need an actual machine and you don’t necessarily go have to go to a class. So you’re a teacher, so do you have a studio? Is that how it works?Lexie: Yes, so I subcontract to studios, so basically I’ve just been in the industry for 17 years now so I’m sure you can imagine I’ve worked all over the place in lots in many many different studios and it’s just been a really amazing experience to be able to move around and meet people and help different types of people in different parts of Australia.Lee: Oh I love that! Can you tell me if I was to compare Pilates—which again is my favorite exercise in the world—to for example my husband who might do an hour run on on a treadmill? Can you tell me what the benefits would be over that sort of traditional exercising?Lexie: They say if you are Pilates fit you’re fit for any sport. So this is the only one thing, so if you’re a runner you can’t be a swimmer, you know you know what I mean? So and if you train for shot put it doesn't mean that you’ll be good at doing ballet. But if you have Pilates as the one core exercise it brings all of the other ones together and that’s because it’s fundamentally all about using control and your body and being mindful in your body with the exercises that you do and the way that you move. So there’s definitely a lot of benefits, it’s if you have injuries it’s easy for you to be able to work around those injuries. I think it’s just really coming back to your body and just like learning to know yourself from the inside out and once you know that then you know how to move then you can help yourself avoid injuries. When you go for a run are you thinking about what your feet are doing? Are you thinking about what your legs are doing? Are you thinking about holding your core in or you’re just running? You know what I mean? So even though you might get that outside sort of yeah meditative state when you run and in nature it’s beautiful but you’re not checking in with what’s going on in the inside and I think that’s where people are missing it now, you know, with all the exercises that we’re doing. It’s great that we’re looking good on the outside...Lee: Where do you breathe into when you’re doing Pilates instead of breathing into your belly like you do in yoga? Where do you breathe into?Lexie: If you ladies are sitting there now, I want you to when you inhale pull your stomach in and take a nice inhale breath and as you exhale instead of breathing out into the stomach I want you to tighten up your abs imagine someone’s about to punch you in the stomach and then exhale from there.Irene: Oh you look so straight! Lee looks so straight!Lexie: So is that a way to incorporate Pilates into our everyday life without having to lay down? Like just when we’re walking around we just want to sit up stand up straight or sit up straight even at our desk and then breathe. So we’re breathing through we’re breathing through our mouth or our nose? Inhale through the nose, exhale out the mouth. And if you think about where you’re shifting that air to as well, you know, when you inhale if you pull the tummy in and you’re breathing up that’s filling the lungs with air, then as you’re exhaling instead of pushing the air down into the stomach you’re pushing it up through the mouth because that’s where it’s supposed to come out of.Irene: I’m going to do that every time I get an order! Every time that Shopify bell rings I’m going to stop and do that and then breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth, and then manifest the next one! I love that. Lexie you’ve been so helpful answering all of our questions. You have any questions for us? Any gut health questions, nutrition questions or any questions on your beauty routine?Lexie: No yeah I was actually I’m really intrigued by inflammation in the body at the moment, just because I feel like as I’ve hit 44 now and all of a sudden I’m noticing things don’t function like they used to. But a lot of like sort of joints, more of my joints aren't feeling as lubricated as they were before and I feel like my body’s carrying pockets of inflammation. So what would you recommend for inflammation in the body? The best way to reduce...Lee: Yeah if you are exercising a lot it can lead to inflammation in the body. Diet as well is something that can lead to inflammation and and even stress and anxiety. If you’ve had a lot of change and different changes going on. I would—the first thing that I would recommend is a Mediterranean-style diet or an anti-inflammatory style diet. So you’re having your good fats like your avocado, your salmon, those kinds of things. They can really really help with inflammation. So I’d look at I’d probably look at, you know you’re doing your Pilates so you’re doing a good form of exercise. I would look at diet as well and hydration and sleep. All all the simple things we always talk about but definitely increasing the amount of good fats in the diet can really help with inflammation.Lexie: Oh that’s great because I could have been Greek I promise you I love their food! So good.Lee: Yeah love the Mediterranean diet! I’ve got a question about inflammation actually: you talked about a Mediterranean diet, but I thought we needed to have more turmeric and isn't that more of an Indian diet? So how do you—I have never heard of turmeric in like Greek salad!Lee: Well they’re both really an anti-inflammatory approach. So both of them are good whether you know you’re going on an Indian style diet or a Mediterranean style diet. The reason turmeric is so good as a spice is that it’s got an active compound in it called curcumin and that is very very anti-inflammatory. So that’s why it’s really good for inflammation. But the little trick with curcumin is having black pepper with it.Irene: Why? What does pepper do?Lee: Pepper contains piperine which can really improve how well your body is actually going to absorb that curcumin because curcumin is a poorly absorbed unless you have the black pepper with it. So that can really help.Irene: Okay and to does it matter if I have fresh? Because I also heard with turmeric you can add it as a powder to your food to help with inflammation but then you can also have like it fresh as well or a turmeric latte or like what’s yeah?Lee: Yeah so both are good! Both are good. Sometimes for people they don’t particularly like the taste of turmeric, so it really depends on the person. But you know if you are going with a supplement you want to get a really potent version with black pepper in it.Irene: Are we getting enough in our diet with having turmeric in there as a spice? Like if I have a turmeric latte every day is that enough if I’ve got inflammation in the body or do I also need to maybe top up with a turmeric supplement?Lee: I think it depends on the person and how much inflammation you do have, your age, there are a lot of different things with that. Obviously I know with my clients and the ones that take curcumin they have really benefited from it. Obviously if you don’t like taking supplements, having it supplemented within your diet is also really good as well but you are going to get bigger and better results if you’re taking a potent source.Irene: You’ve just inspired me as we are about to get into those colder months. I miss my turmeric latte.Lee: Yeah! And you can put it in so many things! Like I put it into my scrambled eggs.Irene: So do I! Yeah I actually have your Love Your Gut "Golden Gut" in my scrambled eggs and it’s actually bloody delicious.Lee: Yeah! And you can put it in smoothies, you can put it into soups, you can put it into so many forms of food. So yeah I love it! It’s really good.Irene: We’ll have to do a whole episode on inflammation I think! But we do! And back to the Mediterranean style diet I think I’d love to give Lexie, I’d love to give you some easy food swaps that you can incorporate. So adding things like berries, leafy greens, and cruciferous veggies—that’s going to really help as well. Some of the other things as I mentioned before good fats are good and by that I mean things like olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado is really good. And instead of those more processed fats like margarine and things like that you want to get the real kind of Mediterranean style fats. Eating salmon, sardines are really good, oily fish is really good. Even just a couple of times a week just adding more fish into your diet is good. And then choosing things like beans and lentils and tofu and tempeh, they can actually be quite good in some forms for inflammation. And then obviously as we mentioned before flavoring up your meals with a bit of turmeric plus a pinch of black pepper, putting it onto things. Yeah they’re all really good tips for inflammation.Irene: Oh I’m so hungry now! Thank you so much Lexie for for calling in and being on speaker today.Lexie: Thank you so much for having me! I appreciate it!Lee: Oh thank you so much Lexie you’re a legend! And thank you for bringing some core strength into the cabin today. Segment: Rant & Rave (Bro-Longevity)(31:45) [Transition Music]Irene: All right Lee, I can see Lee is edging closer and closer to the microphone. Lee, are you doing a Rant or a Rave?Lee: I’ve got a Rant and a Rave today. It’s actually a reverse Rant.Irene: Okay. Well it’s a Rant because it’s something super annoying that’s happening and it’s a Rave because I feel like we’re really wising up to this and we’re moving away to something much better. Much, much better. So I would love to talk about today the absolute chokehold that "bro-longevity" has had on our Instagram feeds for the last three years, right?Irene: You talk about that all the time but I don’t see it because I just don’t think I’m interested and I don’t get that algorithm. So tell me: what give me an example.Lee: Well we’ve been in the era of like the ten-thousand-dollar cold plunge and the tech bros spending two million dollars a year on their blood work. Dude, spend a fraction of that blood money on a degree in hematology and then you’ll discover it’s a scam. Honestly! And wellness don’t you think? It’s become this real elitist competitive sport and honestly its rules are so confusing, the goalposts keep moving and I have more but I think I’ve used up my two sporting analogies there.We’ve traded genuine community—and we were talking about that earlier—for sterile biohacking chambers. We’ve swapped a simple joyful walk with a friend to a zone two cardio session monitored by wearables and a chest strap. And some of us are so obsessed with the quantity of our years that we’ve completely sacrificed the quality of our days. And we’re obsessing over not dying, but are we actually living?Irene: Are you talking about the guys that want to live forever? I actually really like them! They are on my feed. I actually love the idea of biohacking! I don’t ever want to die. I’m actually want to be frozen before I—yeah I want to get frozen when I die and come back to life.Lee: Really? For me it’s like you know they’re trying to optimise everything. You know, their biomarkers. But are they actually having fun at a dinner party or are they those guys that just you know have anxiety about seed oils and the perfect sleep window and all of these protocols? You can actually turn yourself into a social hermit.Irene: That’s exactly what I want to do! Oh you do? Yeah I’m right into it. I would prefer to have no life and live like a thousand years.Lee: Do you know what I call it? I call it the "immortality complex."Irene: That’s what I have! I think I have it.Lee: You have that? But I feel like there’s a much-needed shift happening and it’s more to do with putting our life into our lifespan and we’re waking up to the fact that longevity—longevity isn't actually even a medical thing. It’s not a part of medicine, longevity. It’s just this thing that these people have made up and it’s trying to be immortal. It’s never ever ever going to happen. And I wrote a lot about it in my book Supercharge Your Life, I wrote about the immortality complex. Because I think it takes a lot of energy to think about those things all the time. I believe having a good kind of lifestyle and lifespan is having the energy and mobility and mental clarity to I don’t know outlast your grandkids at the park, to pick up a game of pickleball, to keep your brain active. You know that messy human connection that we were talking about earlier? I think real health, honestly real health is about moving, playing, socialising. We’re simple folk, we’re human. And it’s more analog than digital, more crayon than keyboard. I want to ignore those hackers trying to biohack their way to immortality and create this life that’s... I want to have a mortal real simple life. You know I want to go for a dip in the ocean, I want to play game, I want to smile at a dog, I want to touch the grass. I feel like that connection is the real miracle drug that no algorithm can replicate. I want a wonderful life full of wonder, not wearables and the Oura rings and... sorry I know I’m passionate about this but I’m done with those wellness bros.Irene: Yes so I mean I—everything you’re saying is really inspirational. I think that having the obsession with the biohacking and the sleep tracking and all of those things—which I’m going to admit I have, can you tell I’m an e-commerce girl? But there’s such a huge part of me and I think a lot of us that are obsessed with that that wish we could just be happy with touching the ground and the grass and going for a walk. But instead I will find myself spending hours and hours instead of going for a walk and touching nature, literally being in bed staring at the results of my Oura ring and trying to understand what I can do to biohack or can I get a full body—where can I get a full body scan? When really I could just spend that time going for a walk on the beach—I live right on the beach! Why don’t I just put my feet in the sand instead of spending hours and hours obsessing over is it David Asprey and all of those guys? And I wonder where Brian—Brian is that who it is I don’t know there’s a Brian guy there’s a guy in his—he says something about he I think he’s invented a coffee, a healthy coffee so I think I want to get into that because I love coffee and I thought how can I get coffee with biohacking? So I am into that but I really do wonder if there’s a happy medium.Lee: I think so. I mean for me I’m as you know I’m a minimalist. So as simple as the better. I don’t want to have to have anxiety and worry about my health like 24/7. And by having all these wearables and things like that it just draws your attention to it too much. I would rather be meditating or walking along the beach or doing something that that regulates my nervous system rather than hypes me up and tells me that I have to be a certain number, you know?Irene: Yeah see that’s very inspirational for somebody like me and I think maybe it’s just the way we’re built but I definitely have health anxiety. I definitely want to get those full body scans and I definitely want to know how much sleep I’ve had and how much sleep I need.Lee: And I have a lot of clients with orthorexia, which is like the third eating disorder and they’re just so worried about eating so squeaky clean that they spend their whole lives obsessing about their diet and they’re not relaxed and they’re not enjoying food, you know? and I find that sad.Irene: That’s a true thing. No that’s a true thing. So I think one of my issues and is I won't drink anything. Like I’ll drink I’ll go all day and not have a drink of water because I will want to avoid drinking tap water because I don’t want the fluoride or the chlorine in the tap water, so I’ll just not drink any. I’ll just be happy just to go thirsty and I know that that is not healthy.Lee: Well I would drink the water and throw in my fulvic humic concentrate!Irene: Yeah I know but if I that’s a really good hack actually! So we like some hacks. We do like some hacks.Closing(48:40) [Transition Music]Irene: Oh I can see Lee is edging closer and closer to the microphone. Lee you doing a Rant or a Rave? I know I could talk to you forever. How fun was that? How inspiring was Di and Nicola?Lee: Loved their energy!Irene: I know they’ve got a whole podcast Over the Back Fence and you know they just live up the road from here as well which is so cool.Lee: Neighbours! So great.Irene: I love how growing older is getting the respect that it deserves! And we had Lexie too!Lee: And Lexie the Pilates master asking about inflammation. That was interesting.Irene: Well if you dug today’s episode make sure you check out Over the Back Fence with Di and Nicola, they are full of heart, humour, and such wonderful guests. Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode of Wellness Unfiltered and share this chat with a buddy. Also why don’t you drop into our DMs and check out my "nutritionist nerd notes" on whatever platform you’re using now. But until next time: keep smiling and bye!Lee: Bye! Mwah!(50:15) [Outro Music - Upbeat, fades out][End of Transcript] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theleeandireneshow.substack.com

Wellness Unfiltered Episode 2: Chocolate Scandals, Gut Hacks & Dickensian Dudes! 🎙️Listen & Subscribe on Substack Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTubeShow NotesWe’ve all been there: it’s 3 p.m., the slump is hitting hard, and you’re reaching for that "healthy" dark chocolate bar. But is your afternoon treat a superfood or a chemical cocktail? Between headlines about heavy metals and labels filled with mysterious E-numbers, even the simplest indulgence has become a wellness minefield. If you’re tired of "health-washed" snacks leaving you bloated and confused, this episode is your golden ticket to the truth.In our second episode, Lee Holmes and Irene Falcone (Founder of Clean Nectarine) dive deep into the dark side of the $100 billion chocolate industry . From lead and cadmium lawsuits rocking major brands to the "Dutch processing" that strips away antioxidants, we’re uncovering what’s really in your pantry . Plus, we "womansplain" how to fix broken capillaries for the men in your life and deliver a fiery rant on big retailers crushing small, passionate businesses.In this episode we chat about: 🍫 The Dark Side of Chocolate (02:30)Cacao vs. Cocoa: Why the spelling determines the health benefitsThe "Factory Fake" Scandal: Lead and cadmium lawsuits and heavy metals in soilEmulsifiers (E475 & Soy Lecithin) and why they might be shredding your gut lining👅 The Ultimate Blind Taste Test (14:40)Ranking the top 10 cleanest blocks available in AustraliaThe "Blackout" 100% Cacao challengeLee’s "Gold Standard" pick for functional medicine disguised as a treat🧔 Womansplain: The "Dickensian" Face Fix (31:03)Treating broken capillaries and redness (the "gin blossom" look)Simple swaps: Natural zinc, Vitamin C serums, and cooling face washes📢 You’re on Speaker (Live with Margaret from Canberra!) (37:27)Deciphering the "10-gram rule" for sugar on packagingThe "Bodyguard" Trick: Using raw veggies to create a physical mesh in your gutSkincare at 68: Why serums do the heavy lifting over expensive creams😤 Epic Rant: Big Retailers & "Marketplace" Lies (47:57)Why big players are becoming the "Temu" of small businessThe death of the niche health store and the rise of drop-shipping giantsLee’s Nutritionist Nerd NotesCacao vs. Cocoa: The Antioxidant SuperchargerCacao: Raw and cold-processed, keeping enzymes and antioxidants alive . It contains 40 times more antioxidants than blueberries and can help lower inflammation and improve heart healthCocoa: Heated to high temperatures during processing, which strips away many of its original beauty and health benefitsThe Chocolate "E-Number" WatchlistSoy Lecithin (E322): Often used for texture but can lead to significant bloatingPolyglycerol Esters (E475): These can erode the gut lining and create inflammation throughout the bodyThe Rising Tide of Bowel CancerBowel and colorectal cancers are no longer just "old person's diseases," with rates rising alarmingly among younger AustraliansAlmost 12% of cases now occur in people under 50, and it is the deadliest cancer for those aged 25 to 54The decision to lower the screening age from 50 to 45 followed updated clinical guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). These updates address the increasing prevalence of early-onset bowel cancer in individuals under 50, even as rates in older groups have declinedImportant Note: If you are experiencing symptoms (such as blood in your stool or changes in bowel habits) or have a significant family history of bowel cancer, you should see a doctor regardless of your age, as you may require different types of testingLee's Rules of Engagement for ChocolateTiming: The "sweet spot" for consumption is between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to help with energy slumps . Avoid eating it after 4 p.m. if you are caffeine sensitiveThe Bodyguard: Pair chocolate with fibre-rich foods like nuts or berries to slow sugar absorption and prevent glucose spikesThe 10g Rule: When reading labels, look at the "100g column" and aim for products with less than 10g of sugarTop 10 Chocolate RankingsFor the full breakdown of my top 10 cleanest, gut-friendly chocolate bars, including the rationale behind every rank, check out my latest blog post: www.superchargedfood.com/blogMansplaining: Non-alcohol drinks recommendations from Irene: Sans DrinksThank you so much for tuning into Wellness Unfiltered!We're beyond grateful you're here with us in the cabin and would love a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It helps us cut through the greenwashing and reach more truth-seekers like you.Follow us on Instagram:@wellnessunfilteredleeirene | @leesupercharged | @cleannectarine | @superchargeyourgutJoin the conversation on Substack: https://substack.com/@wellnessunfilteredpodDisclaimer: This show is for educational purposes only. Please consult your qualified health professional before incorporating new wellness solutions.READ MORE HEREDo you prefer to read the transcript?Wellness Unfiltered Episode 2 TranscriptIrene Falcone: Well, hello out there! You’re Irene...Lee Holmes: ...and you’re Lee!Irene: And this is Wellness Unfiltered! Yay!Lee: (Laughs) I was on such a high from our first episode, Irene, and I learned a few things, especially around sunscreens as well. I’ve been boosting Google’s business by searching the TGA website and all the numbers on the packs to find out what’s in them. You’re welcome, whoever owns Google!Irene: Well, yeah, that first episode was so electric. And whilst you were Googling on Google about the things I was saying about sunscreens, I was lying in bed at 3 o'clock in the morning hoping I don't get any letters from the TGA over anything that I said.Lee: Oh no!Irene: How nice is it out here? It’s raining today in the Cabin, and it is so beautiful overlooking that garden and the smell... there’s something about the smell of the rain on the Northern Beaches, isn't there?Lee: It’s so beautiful and I’m actually really loving my garden at the moment because it, well... it’s the first thing I look at as soon as I get out of bed. I run downstairs and have a look at the garden and it just makes me so happy. So anyway, this episode is going to be a really big one. In our "What’s Popping" segment, we are going to the dark side—literally. And we’re going to do a deep dive into the chocolate industry, from heavy metal scandals to a blind taste test, which you’re going to be doing, of the cleanest blocks widely available. And I’ve also put together a top ten ranking of the best chocolates.Irene: I’m so looking forward to that, Lee, I have to say. Please don't say anything negative about chocolate. It is my one thing that I love. At least I'm going to have a list of things I can eat, right?Lee: Yeah, you sure will.Irene: Okay, good. I do feel guilty eating chocolate sometimes. And then we’re heading into "Womansplaining" to help Justin, our producer, deal with whatever issue he’s got going on this week.Lee: And he’s had a few.Irene: I bet! Plus, we’ve got a listener joining us in a discussion in the Cabin. We’ve got Margaret from Canberra on speaker.Lee: And as always, we are going to be finishing with a rant or rave.Irene: Oh pick me! Pick me! I have a rant and I was rehearsing the rant in my car on the way here and I was getting so mad.Lee: Really? I cannot wait to hear it. I’m super excited. I can already see the sparks coming out of your headphones, Irene.Irene: (Laughs) Yeah, you can... can you see the steam is going to start coming out of my ears on this one? Alright Lee, let's get into the big one for the week. It’s the topic that dominates everyone's WhatsApp group, every office kitchen, and definitely every woman’s 3 PM slump. We are talking about chocolate and the dark side of it.Lee: It sure does, doesn't it? And we talk about it a lot, and I feel like it's kind of like the universal love language, you know? But it’s also become one of the most confusing topics in wellness, I find. One day we're told it's a superfood, it protects our hearts and minds, and then the next day there’s a headline that you read and it says it's got heavy metals in it and it’s going to shred your gut and it’s got emulsifiers and it’s all so confusing.Irene: You know what? I know those things and I just eat them anyway. And I do try and get the one that looks the most healthy, but I am always looking for that Goldilocks sort of unicorn bar. The one that tastes really good but it doesn't give me that sugar crash. And I am trying to avoid sugar, but then of course I don't want to be having any fake sugar. I don't really like the taste of stevia. But I really love that indulgence. I really do have that sweet tooth and I have been seeing all of that stuff on the news lately. So I don't know if I'm eating a bunch of chemicals or lead or God knows. Can't wait to find out.Lee: Yeah, you’re going to find out today. And did you know, talking about the chocolate and the industry, it’s literally a 100-billion-dollar industry. And it’s really mastered health-washing. So it kind of gives us all these messages that are super confusing for people. And even the word cacao—we think we’re doing our bodies a favour getting all these feel-good, real ingredients. But actually, did you know that the spelling matters more than people realise?Irene: It’s really interesting you should say that. I didn't originally know that. I know because as I was writing many, many product descriptions in my time, I was always spelling cacao as c-o-c-a-o... I don't even know how to pronounce them actually, but I do know that I always get them muddled up in my head still.Lee: Yeah, so there’s cacao and there’s cocoa. And they’re two completely different things.Irene: Yes, so I’m going to guess one is good and one is bad?Lee: Yeah, so this is the massive difference, right? So you’ve got cacao, which is yummy, but it’s generally raw and cold-pressed. And it keeps the enzymes and the antioxidants and all the good stuff alive. It’s actually got 40 times more antioxidants than blueberries, can you believe it? And there’s flavanols in there as well which can help you lower inflammation, help your heart health, and even wrangle your gut bugs into better behaviour. There’s recent research too that backs this up, that dark chocolate is linked to a 21% lower risk of type 2 diabetes if you have five-plus serves weekly. I love the sound of that. And there are so many other benefits to it as well. Cocoa, on the other hand, is roasted and processed because they heat it to this high temperature and you lose a lot of those beauty and health benefits along with it. And most of the time along with cocoa, manufacturers they dump in sugar, dairy or soy to make it more palatable. And so you know the chocolates that you find in the supermarket aisles, a lot of them have processed the life out of them and they’re just a bunch of empty calories and additives, believe it or not.Irene: Well, I never shop in that aisle. I always buy my chocolate in the health food aisle in the supermarket. So I’m assuming that they're better, right? Tell me they are.Lee: The jury is out on those. Really, we’re going to learn more today about that.Irene: I do still see numbers like I’ve seen E475 and soy... how do you pronounce that? Soy... there’s always a soy leth-ith-in... what is that?Lee: Lecithin.Irene: Lecithin. I see soy lecithin. I always try and avoid gluten and I always try and avoid dairy and of course a lot of sugar, so I always find that that soy thing is the only thing that’s left in the allergens.Lee: Yeah, that’s true. You know what too? Because I have autoimmune issues, I’ve always tried to pinpoint the kind of foods that were affecting me and I realised it was a lot of the E numbers in just simple little ingredients but they’re chemically laden and chemically produced. So something like soy lecithin—it’s called E322 if you’re having a look at the back of your chocolate. It helps with the texture of chocolate but it’s really... it’s really bloating. I find when I have it I get super bloated. I don't know if you do as well.Irene: Well, I just thought... okay, so this is really interesting. I just thought it was the dairy in the milk chocolate. I wouldn't have thought in a... I mean, I know I can't have gluten and I know I can't have dairy, so I don't know why I’m still bloating. That would explain it.Lee: Yeah, because I’m like super fine with dairy. I’m completely fine but it’s these additives... highly processed foods that really get to me. And what they do is... and there’s another one called E475 which is polyglycerol esters, and what they do—the polyglycerol ones—is they really erode the lining of your gut and they create inflammation in your gut lining and in your body. And because of that, it can contribute to a lot of inflammation, tiredness after eating, bloating after eating. That’s kind of why you feel like that. And then of course there’s refined sugar that feeds the bad bacteria in your gut. So you’re creating imbalances whether you’re having the additives or whether you’re having sugar as well. I know it kind of sounds a bit negative, doesn't it?Irene: It sounds super negative and I really want to ask you about sugar. So firstly, I know saying zero sugar means nothing because zero sugar can mean it literally has no sweetener or it means it could have fake sugar and there's a whole bunch of fake sugars that obviously I would never put in my body ever. I also did see something recently about raw sugar not being... raw unrefined sugar not being that bad for us. And then there’s other things like maple syrup or... what's the other one? There’s another one... rice bran...Lee: Oh, rice malt syrup?Irene: That one! So, okay... can we have those? Tell me all about sugar and zero sugar.Lee: Yeah, so the sugar... zero sugar bars that you see in the supermarket, they are the ones that have ingredients like erythritol which is good for your blood sugar, but then there’s also a lot of them, probably 90% of them, that have these E numbers in them. And they are the ones that are very irritating to your microbiome’s finickiness, you know? What I would do personally, and what I do, is I go for coconut sugar. And I go for ones that don't spike your blood sugar too much and more unrefined kind of sugar. So I think they’re a lot better personally. And you can also get ones, say for example if you’re having one with coconut sugar and nuts in it, the fibre actually feeds your good bugs in the gut, so no drama there.Irene: I’ve got a nut allergy in my family so I’ve got to avoid nuts in chocolate. So, yeah, I tend to get things with some dried sort of fruit in it for sweetener. Is that okay?Lee: I mean, sometimes they’re okay if they're natural. However, a lot of dried fruit have sulphites in them. And if you’re sensitive with your gut, because you know how you get the bloating like I do, if you’re sensitive you might react to those as well.Irene: Yeah, right. Actually, speaking of sulphites, I’ve seen all this stuff in the news recently about hams being carcinogenic.Lee: Oh my goodness, we’re doing an episode on that.Irene: Are we? Okay, I can't wait for that because that scares the crap out of me. But speaking of carcinogenic, are any of these other E things related to carcinogens as well?Lee: Yeah, well, believe it or not, obviously these ingredients do tie into bigger issues and there are trends that are happening at the moment like bowel cancer trends in young people. So by the way, I just did my home test last week for the... you know the free one that you get?Irene: Good on you. You’ve got to do it every two years.Lee: Yeah, that’s super important.Irene: It seems to be on the news all the time.Lee: Yeah, you see it a lot, huh? So it was, you know, it used to be thought of as an old person’s disease—bowel cancer and colorectal cancers—but now it’s hitting younger Australians at really alarming rates. It’s actually quite scary when you look at it. When you look at the rates of bowel cancer, almost 12% of cases are Australians under 50. And it’s the deadliest cancer for ages from 25 to 54. And you know those tests I was just talking about? They’ve actually changed the age of the screening test now and it’s down to 45. So you used to have it over 50 or 55. Now it’s 45. So that’s one screen we should be doing more of, right?Irene: Wow, that’s super scary. And so what are the risks? Like, do we know why? Has there been any research coming out to say what’s causing this?Lee: We know established risks like low-fibre diets, lots of processed meats that you were talking about before with the sulphites in them, a lot of red meat, obesity, alcohol, smoking, family history, those kinds of things. But with gut health under pressure from these ultra-processed foods creating the inflammation, I truly believe, and the research that I’ve done, that they definitely play a role in these rising rates too because if you look at the ingredients like emulsifiers and additives, they’re in all your plant-based milks, they’re in your protein bars. We totally have to do that episode on UPFs, ultra-processed foods, I just cannot wait for that one.Irene: I know, can I just... I know we’re going to have a whole episode on that. But you know what makes me mad? Actually, I should just save this for another rant, but I’m just going to give you a little teaser rant here. It’s very public knowledge now and all over the news, it’s not a conspiracy theory, that these processed meats are carcinogenic. Why are we still advertising ham on the back of buses for children’s lunches? Why?Lee: I don't understand that. Like why would they still be doing it when the research is out there?Irene: It’s out there. It’s not like it’s hidden... if it’s as bad as it is, it’s as bad as advertising cigarettes on the back of a bus still.Lee: I agree.Irene: Alright, that’s a rant for another day. Alright, back to chocolate. So let’s talk about the chocolate scandal and all of this stuff that I’ve been reading about dark chocolate all of a sudden being bad for us—does it have lead in it or something? Is that what it's about?Lee: Well, yeah, well this is the "Fine Ingredients" lie they call it. So it’s the Lindt... you know Lindt chocolate? You know you get the 85% one and you’ve got all the different versions of it?Irene: I get the highest percentage. Surely that’s the best one... I get the highest one.Lee: And you would think that, right? However, they’re now saying that the soil is dodgy, the chocolate is dodgy, and also that they have lead in them. The lead is in the soil and now the chocolate has lead in it. Lead and cadmium was found from the dodgy soil, it sparked this massive lawsuit, and Lindt are facing this lawsuit over their finest ingredients claims. So 2026 is all about calling out these factory fakes versus the artisan. So we need to keep it organic or at least cleaner, I would say. But this is pure marketing sadly because a lot of the time you get cacao butter which is just fat, not the flavanol-rich part, and then the real actives actually might be half of that. So there’s this processing method called the Dutch processing method and that kind of wipes out a lot of the goodness too. So if you see anything in terms of chocolate with fake flavourings, that’s a chemical pretend chocolate and it’s got zero health benefits.Irene: I know you just said all that about Lindt, but I’m going to just pretend I didn't hear it.Lee: (Laughs) Well, it’s in America and they haven't actually come out with this research in Australia, I will say yet.Irene: Yeah, but is it the same chocolate? Out of the same factory?Lee: Well, it’s localised here I’m assuming. Need to do a bit more research on that. I will let you know in our episode about ultra-processed foods.Irene: I want to know. I really do need to know more about that. Wow. Alright, so I’m going to stop being depressed now, just tell me what I can eat. I know our producer's brought in a list. You had a... this episode was inspired... I really wanted to do this episode because I was so inspired by your Instagram post where you went into the supermarket—I think you went into Woolies or something—and you came out with a list of chocolates that we can eat.Lee: Yes, I did.Irene: Okay, so is that what I’m going to taste?Lee: Yeah. You are. I’m so excited. You are going to taste them. So I’ve tested them all and I’m just going to let you know my results first and then I’m going to give you the taste test. Does that sound alright?Irene: Yes. Okay.Lee: So I’ve picked ten of the healthiest ranked by purest cacao, gut support, how they taste. All of them apart from number ten at the very end have no emulsifiers. The one at the very end is suspect. It may or may not... it’s not on the label but I've got a feeling it does have emulsifiers in it. Anyway, for all the purists out there, number one was the Alter Eco Total Blackout chocolate because it’s 100% cacao. It’s pure, it’s got no sugar, it’s got a really intense flavour. You’re going to try that one today. I also tried one called Ombar which I’ve tried before whenever I go to the US or the UK, I always get that one. It’s really tasty. And there’s another brand called Gutsii that I looked at as well which has got probiotic perks in it too.Irene: Are they available in Australia, that UK one?Lee: Yeah, the Ombar is now... yeah, yeah, the Ombar is now. You can buy it here now which is super exciting because I remember five years ago I tasted it over there when I went to America. I was like, this honestly tastes good and it’s super healthy and it’s now available in Australia.Irene: This is my dream list. I can't even think of a better dream list.Lee: Yeah, absolutely. Now, one I know that we both love is the Loco Love. That is far and away the tastiest. I love the brand and I also love their ethos as well. I love their philosophy and their ethos, a great company. I also looked at Pana Organic and this thing called Chow Cacao Truffalos. You’re going to try those today. Woo! And one called Noia. And another one too called Spencer's, and Spencer's does have a little bit of sugar. It’s got a bit of Bundaberg raw sugar in it. However, they use really quality ingredients so I really want you to try that one.Irene: Yeah, that’s that raw sugar that I was telling you about—like, how bad can raw unrefined sugar be? It’s grown out of the ground, right?Lee: Yeah, exactly. A little bit of, you know, a few squares of that, I think it’s totally fine. I also put another one from the supermarket in called Old Gold 70%.Irene: Oh, I actually, my husband hates that one.Lee: Yeah, I know. It’s high in refined sugar actually but there’s nothing else really in it, but like I said, it’s made by Cadbury, so you never know. The jury is out with that one because sometimes they don't say what emulsifiers are in the ingredients list and also I wonder about the lead contamination in that one. However, they were kind of my picks but I really want to get tasting, Irene. So you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to actually blindfold you. Alright, where’s your mouth? Come on.Irene: I can't wait to do this.Lee: So we have tasting sample number one coming over. Where’s your mouth? Here you go.Irene: Okay, so Lee, these are your top ten healthy chocolate list, right? And now I’m going to try them and I’m going to give you my ranking on how they taste.Lee: Yep. Okay. That’s number one.Irene: Oh, that’s really good.Lee: You like it?Irene: Yes, it’s really good. It’s sweet but the sweetness goes away in a second, like, and then it’s not sweet. It’s really good, yeah. Yum.Lee: So that’s the Pana Organic. I’ve got it at number nine on my list. It’s organic, which is really good. It’s plant-based with prebiotic fibre, smooth and salty profile—but watch creamy flavours for gums; plain dark is best at 43% cacao and sweetened with coconut sugar.Irene: Well, interestingly with Pana in general, I don't really love their chocolate because I don't think it’s sweet enough. But this was... usually I find it doesn't have enough sweetness but that... that was nice. I like this one. Which flavour is it?Lee: Yeah, so that’s the sea salt one and it’s sweetened with coconut sugar and it’s 43% cacao.Irene: Alright, oh that’s delicious.Lee: That’s a Tasmanian sea salt one. Okay, ready for number two?Irene: I’m ready.Lee: Alright, so this one you have to take a bite out of. I haven't kind of got you a square, I’m popping it into your hand. Take a bite. Let me know what you think.Irene: Oh my god. Oh my god.Lee: I’m sensing you know this one.Irene: Oh, that’s the love chocolate. Yeah, like it’s Loco Love?Lee: That’s the Loco Love. And it’s my favourite one, the hazelnut butter praline with maca.Irene: Oh, actually my favourite is their peanut butter one, it’s like a Snickers.Lee: Yes, it is.Irene: That’s my favourite chocolate, that’s pretty much the only chocolate that I’ll eat now. And yeah, I like buy them from Flannerys. I just take about ten of them and then I have to mortgage my house to buy them but god they're so worth it.Lee: It is gold standard for taste, right? You get the prebiotic fibre from whole ingredients, it’s got zero emulsifiers and basically it’s functional medicine disguised as a treat. You like it, don't you?Irene: Yes, so I can tell you without trying anything else this is going to be my number one. But let’s keep going because...Lee: Alright, so this is tasting sample number three. Are you ready for it? I’m passing it over to you now.Irene: Okay, I’ve got to find my mouth. Oh, I don't like that one.Lee: You don't?Irene: No.Lee: What don't you like about it?Irene: It tastes bitter. That’s really bitter. I am a sweet tooth. And this tastes like it’s got no sugar and no sweetness.Lee: Yeah, it doesn't have any sweetness. This is the one that’s the Alter Eco Total Blackout, it’s 100% cacao. It is a bit stubborn to chew, don't you think?Irene: It’s not for me. I don't like it. No.Lee: But it’s probably the most... I’m sure it’s the healthiest.Irene: (Laughs) Yeah, but why does the healthiest have to taste the worst?Lee: Yeah, but I’ve got a couple of friends who are real purists and they love it. Cause you can almost feel like after you’ve eaten it you get all that magnesium from it. However, sometimes I don't actually eat this one at night because I get jumpy from it. I feel like I get a lot of caffeine or something from the cacao. But yeah, not your favourite.Irene: No, I will never eat that, I will tell you now. No.Lee: Alright, well let’s move on to number four.Irene: Actually I’ve got some left over, I’m not even going to eat that. Snap... someone take that? Yeah.Lee: I’m going to snap number four for you, it’s coming into your hand now. This is number four. Let me know what you think.Irene: Anything tastes better than that last one. Um, I don't like this one that much either. It just to me tastes like it’s got some sort of healthy sweetener like a syrup or something. It’s okay but it doesn't taste like chocolate, it tastes like something... oh, hang on! It tastes like when you go to those cafes, those really healthy cafes and they make you like a healthy hot chocolate and it just doesn't taste good.Lee: Yeah, I hear you. Well, this one is the Noia, I think that’s how you pronounce it, plain milk with coconut milk version. I’ve got it at number seven on the rankings. It probably went down a bit because it’s quite clean but because of the taste. Um, it’s single-origin cacao, it’s soy and dairy free, it’s pretty clean, which is really good, but it does have some rice fillers in it as well. Maybe that’s why you’re getting that kind of thickness when you, you know?Irene: Is that... does it have rice bran syrup in it?Lee: No, it’s got coconut sugar in it actually, which is obviously good for your microbiome, it’s better than refined sugar though. But yeah, it is all about the taste at the end.Irene: It wasn't great, it wasn't the worst but it wasn't like the first two.Lee: Yeah. I’ve got a really good one for you now. I think you’re going to like it. Number five coming over.Irene: Oh, it’s a ball! It’s like a gobstopper. Oh my gosh. Um, that’s really good.Lee: Yeah, you like that?Irene: Yeah, I love that. Is that caramel? That tastes good. I really like this. This is yummy. This is the third best.Lee: Really? Well, this is number six on my list and I only recently discovered this at my health food store in Avalon. Um, it’s the Chow Cacao Truffalos. And it’s really organic, clean ingredients, it’s vegan, low coconut sugar, no junk, high cacao, really good for you. Love it, love it.Irene: That’s my Loco Love health food store too and I love that so I’ll definitely buy this. This is great to have in the fridge because I have such a sweet tooth. That was really good.Lee: Now, for the last one I wanted to throw in a supermarket version. Just one you can get at the supermarket. And I was going to do Lindt but then because of the whole lead thing I was like, no, let’s try something else.Irene: So you didn't want to give me lead poisoning, thank you very much.Lee: A supermarket one, let me know what you think coming over now.Irene: That’s the Old Gold, isn't it?Lee: Yeah.Irene: I know that because let me tell you, my husband buys this one and I don't like it but I will tell you this: when there’s nothing in the house and I need something sweet, I’ll eat this because it’s all that’s there and it will do... it will do the trick.Lee: It does, doesn't it? Yeah. It satisfies. So I’ve put it as a number ten just for a couple of reasons, because you can get it in the supermarket, it’s kind of easy to find, it’s got decent cacao but it is high in refined sugar and I think it’s got the emulsifiers because it’s made by Cadbury, they don't say it on the label but I really think it might. It’s not as pure as the rest, but if you’re really desperate you might want to try it. I don't know, the jury is out to be honest.Irene: This is what I eat when I am desperate. Yeah. But if it... let’s play devil’s advocate on that last one then because it’s a pretty good choice and you get it from the supermarket and it’s probably about quarter the price of the others. Um, if it did have that emulsifier in it that we don't know about, does that make it still... like, does that still make the list or does that mean we have to avoid it because we just talked about how bad emulsifiers are?Lee: I put it on the list because if you’re having it like, you know, once or twice a week a couple of squares, it’s okay. But I personally avoid emulsifiers because of the autoimmune stuff and the issues that I have with them. Some people are able to eat them and they’re totally fine, but I don't recommend it personally.Irene: It is very... that one little square that you gave me was very satisfying. That definitely hits the spot. But how do you know if it’s got those emulsifiers? Doesn't it need to be on the label?Lee: It needs to be on the label. It really does. However, because it’s made by Cadbury and all of theirs have emulsifiers, I just can't understand why this one wouldn't, so this is just my personal opinion, I think it does.Irene: Right, in my opinion, if I can contradict you, if it doesn't have it on the label—because legally you have to have it on the label, I’m sure, unless it’s under a really small amount—then I think we’re pretty safe with it.Lee: Do you know what I am going to do? (Sorry, got a mouthful of chocolate). Which one are you eating?Irene: Loco Love.Lee: Oh yeah, yeah, that’s the best one. I’m actually going to reach out to Cadbury and I’m going to email them and I’m going to ask them about the Old Gold.Irene: Yeah, let’s just find out and then we’ll add that to the end of the episode when we find out. I just don't know how, if it’s not... like, labelling laws in Australia are really strict, so... let’s see. Okay Lee, that was all super interesting, but let's get some really strong takeaways because I think people are going to want to get their pen and paper out for this and take notes. So, assume it's 3 PM and we need, want, have to have a chocolate hit. Yeah. So how do we lessen that sugar hangover?Lee: Well, first, let’s wind the clock back a few hours. Say it’s 10 o'clock, right? In the morning, 10 to 11 and that’s kind of the sweet spot for chocolate, a good time to eat it. And also in the afternoon around 2 to 3, it does help with the afternoon slump but definitely you would want to avoid it after 4 o'clock, especially if you’re caffeine sensitive, which I’m one of those people. So I have three kind of takeaways around chocolate consumption. I’ll call them my "Wellness Unfiltered Rules of Engagement." So firstly, I would avoid having it on an empty stomach because if you do you’ll get that massive glucose spike that kind of leads to the sugar sag that you get in your skin. Number two is the bodyguard. I would pair chocolate with nuts or berries because the fibre and the protein can slow down that sugar absorption.Irene: Okay, or I can pair it with some raw vegetables.Lee: (Laughs) If you want.Irene: Does it actually make a difference as long as it’s fibre?Lee: Yeah, yeah, it does slow down that sugar.Irene: Okay, but it doesn't matter if it’s a fibre from a nut or a fibre from a broccoli?Lee: No, it doesn't matter. If you want to pair your chocolate with broccoli, you go right ahead. And also coated is better than biscuits. So if you’re going to have something like... this is what I love to have, like the chocolate-coated almonds or hazelnuts, they’re really good. But if you’re having chocolate biscuits, it’s kind of like a double carb nightmare so I’d kind of stay away.Irene: Oh, I wouldn't eat a chocolate biscuit. Yeah.Lee: And then just when to have them for max benefits, I’d say a few squares of dark chocolate three to five times a week, you’re going to get all of those gut health perks, you’re going to get the polyphenols, the flavanols, and all of those good things. And it can actually improve your blood pressure and insulin sensitivity, believe it or not. And for people who are into their microbiome, which I really am, pairing them as I said with berries and nuts can really boost your polyphenol absorption too.Irene: Well Lee, I’m going to admit something to you, I’m a little bit embarrassed about but I’ve been doing it all wrong. Do you know when I have my chocolate? At night. In bed at about after... definitely after 11 o'clock.Lee: Really?Irene: Yeah, while I’m doing my TikTok doom scrolling.Lee: Well anyway, at least we’ve got that full ranked list with my rationale as well and my nerd... that’ll be in the nerd notes so anyone can kind of look at what chocolates they love as well and what’s good for you. Do you want another row of that Pana Organic or should we go with the Loco Love?Irene: That, yeah, the Loco Love... I mean, I’ve got to stop talking about it. I actually, you know... I actually dream about that chocolate in my sleep.Lee: Really?Irene: Not that particular one, the Snickers version of it. I think it’s because I have so many gut issues and there’s so much I can't have. But that... the one I like’s got tremella in it. And tremella—you would know this—but that’s known as the beauty ingredient and I think it’s been used through for centuries for beauty. Do you know tremella itself is really delicious? You can just get a teaspoon and eat pure tremella out of the jar as a treat. Yeah, so having the tremella in that chocolate I think of it as a bit of a beauty treat.Lee: Yeah. Does that mean I can have it at 11 o'clock at night still or not? I have to have it at... does it keep you awake? Because I can't have it after like...Irene: Well, I don't sleep anyway, so I wouldn't know what keeps me awake. But I have my coffee when I wake up in the morning, I have an espresso in the morning and I don't have any more coffee during the day, but I think I’m just up thinking about... you know it’s like when you run a business, I’m just thinking about like stock bins and barcodes at 3 o'clock in the morning.Lee: Your mind's ticking over.Irene: On TikTok. Doom scrolling. Yeah, I know, it’s all very, I know. We all have our vices.Lee: We sure do.Irene: Alright Lee, it is time for that segment that I think is going to become a fast favourite. We’re calling it "Womansplaining."Lee: (Laughs) I love it. Because let’s be real, many men are—how can I put this politely?—notoriously avoidant of their own health and beauty, don't you think?Irene: They’re really avoidant. They’ll ignore a strange mole or a red face for a decade before they even consider getting it checked out. I know my husband is the same actually, I keep telling him he needs to get his moles checked and he keeps... you know what? He keeps going to Bunnings and getting more... deciding he needs to hang something on the wall.Lee: Really? Yeah, that’s what they’re like.Irene: Yeah. Well to help us out, we’ve got our very own Cabin Man representative. Justin, you are on the mic.Justin Smidmore: Hi Lee, hi Irene.Irene: Hi Justin.Justin: Firstly, "Bustin" thanks you for last week’s advice on his gut girth. I’ve passed on the notes to him and he’s been having protein breakfasts and I’ve asked him to report back in a few weeks with the measurements.Irene: We look forward to hearing from Bustin. So is this Justin or Bustin this week?Justin: I don't know what you're talking about, Irene, it’s all... I’m Justin. This might not be a great topic for an audio medium, but can you please explain to me what I can do about these weird red lines on my face? Check ‘em out. They’re mainly around my nose and cheeks. You see ‘em?Lee: Yeah, they look like broken capillaries, Justin.Justin: Are they alcohol-related? Or is it just an age thing? Because the more I’m looking at myself in the mirror today, I’m beginning to look like a magistrate from a Dickens novel. Honestly, I don't like it.Lee: A Dickensian magistrate! I love it. I can see it now actually. The ruddy look. You know that kind of gin blossom look?Irene: Yeah, that’s a long... have you come in from advertising or marketing? Because we used to call that back in the day the long advertising lunch at Machiavelli's. They all used to come out looking like that.Justin: Um, I plead the fifth. Whatever that is.Irene: It’s definitely alcohol... I mean, no, you know... I don't drink alcohol. I am sober. But I do know from a previous business where I was selling non-alcoholic drinks that, yeah, definitely one of the causes of that redness is definitely alcohol. Alcohol is not good for us in any... it’s not good for our bodies, it’s not good for the ageing process and I think it accelerates the ageing process. It does make our skin red.Justin: Sorry to cut you off but I like beer. And I don't drink tons of it, but you know, I’m going to do it. As much as I listen to you and value your opinion, so...Irene: The thing with beer is, actually... I know a lot of non-alcoholic drinks just taste like grape juice, but with beer, beer actually you can't tell the difference in the taste. You should try non-alcoholic beer. I actually tried one the other day, it was a gluten-free one and it was really good. It tasted like beer, you wouldn't know the difference.Lee: But it’s not just beer, is it? Because it can also be like sun damage, spicy foods, extreme temperature changes that gives you those kind of red lines on your nose. And you know if you’re a guy that loves a hot shower, your face is doing a workout it wasn't kind of really built for, right? And also rosacea, it could be that too.Irene: Well I’ve got broken capillaries and I’ve got them definitely from hot showers on my face. And I always try and wash my face with cool water, that’s a really important trick actually.Justin: Okay, so there’s that one. So how do I fix it? Like now and into the long term? Or do I just kind of buy a wig and start grumping?Irene: Well I think you want to tackle it from both ends, Lee. From an internal eating perspective, health perspective, what would you suggest?Lee: Yeah, definitely I would suggest an anti-inflammatory style diet and lots of colour in the diet, lots of antioxidants and Vitamin C-rich foods. And try and cut back on that alcohol.Justin: Okay, is there any kind of medical thing?Irene: Yeah, I actually haven't looked really into this that much yet, but I want to look into it more for myself and I believe you can get some sort of laser. It would definitely be worth talking to a dermatologist to see if there’s something that they can do cosmically that’s not invasive for that. But from a topical perspective as well, you’ve got to use sunscreen. So a really good natural zinc oxide-based sunscreen would be great. And then I’m a big... if you haven't noticed in this episode, I’m a huge fan of serums. If a man only does one thing for their skin other than sunscreen, just slap on a serum—a nice clean Vitamin C serum or something with niacinamide in it, which is a Vitamin B3, and even just a simple nut oil or a jojoba oil would be great. So you do want to add a little bit of moisture into your skin and then the sunscreen for a little bit of protection. But cosmically they are going to do a really great job maintaining your skin if you can get that sorted.Justin: Yeah, that’s good advice because I literally would probably just do one thing, I’m not going to be doing a whole lots of different things. So that serum idea and the cold water face wash... two good things.Irene: Cool water, yeah, cool water, a really simple face wash that’s, you know, in the shower already. There’s a lot of actually... I think that the natural industry has caught on to men and their simplicity because there’s a couple of really great natural skincare brands. Weleda... I love the Weleda brand, you can get Weleda from anywhere. Their men's range are all two-in-ones and three-in-ones. So they’ve got like a three-in-one cleanser, so you just wash your body, your face and your hair with the one thing. So just grab one of those.Justin: Yeah, or any men’s range in beauty is probably known by women and none... no male knows them.Irene: For me, skincare for men is one of my biggest selling categories but I have zero male customers, so obviously my customers are women-splaining their baskets. (Laughs)Justin: Thanks Irene and thanks Lee.Lee: Well there you go, ladies. If your man’s looking a bit Dickensian, sneak some Vitamin C serum onto his side of the vanity, hey? Let me tell you, my husband has been using the same blue Rexona roll-on for like 20 years. And I swapped that out for that Weleda men's deodorant, roll-on deodorant, and it’s the same colour and he has not noticed.Irene: He’s not tweaked?Lee: He’s not tweaked at all. He just smells good. Yeah, he hasn't even noticed the difference.Irene: Love it. I hadn't ever really thought about that but you’ve really opened my eyes. Yeah, thanks. Alright Lee, we now have our first caller of the week. Margaret from our nation’s capital, Canberra. Hello, welcome to the show!Margaret: Hello Lee, hello Irene! Such a pleasure to chat with you. I’m a long-time Supercharged follower, first-time listener. I think I’ve read almost all of Lee's books and I just love the informative mixed with the personal. It’s the first time I read a book that had both, so yeah, shout out to you, Lee.Lee: Oh, thanks Margaret, that really makes my day and you know, the pleasure is all mine, of course. So, before we get to the nitty-gritty, we will ask all of our guests this: What is the one thing that you’d like the world to know about you? So what’s your lane, your Margaret superpower?Margaret: I have a few, (laughs) but my super-superpower is that I’m a child whisperer. Because I spent 38 years as a primary school teacher, mostly in Steiner education here in Canberra. I feel like I truly understand the culture of childhood and I just love being around that energy. It keeps me young!Lee: Oh, I love that. We need more child whisperers in the world. And I’ve heard that Steiner education is so much more about like rhythms and natural foundations, which kind of fits in perfectly with what we do here. But I know that you’ve been following my work for a long time as you mentioned, and I suspect you’re really discerning and maybe slightly wary when it comes to the wellness industry. So I’d love to know what has been on your mind lately now that you’re on speaker.Margaret: Oh wow, thank you, this is a dream come true. Well Lee, with diabetes in the family—my sister’s diabetic—I’m hyper-aware of sugar. I’m trying to manage it without feeling deprived, especially around 3 o'clock. I’m finding the health-washing on labels is getting worse. Firstly, how do I actually decipher the sugar content on packaging? I’m forever getting out my glasses to look at the tiny print when everything claims to be natural. And secondly, I read about eating raw veggies before a meal to slow down sugar absorption. Is that a real thing or just internet nonsense? It seems to work! I don't know.Lee: Yeah, and I know, yeah, I know I’ve heard from a lot of people that they do that as well and it is absolutely real, Margaret. It’s one of your most powerful kind of tools that you can have and bring out of your toolbox. So let’s just have a look—you did mention the labels. I want to have a look at the filler on the labels first. What I do is I have a 10-gram rule when it comes to sugar. So what I do is when you’re at the shops, ignore the per-serve column because the industry really manipulates serve sizes to make the numbers look small. So when you’re looking at labels, look at the 100-gram column and aim for less than 10 grams of sugar. So if it’s over 15, it’s basically quite sweet and it’s a dessert, even if it’s a protein bar, I would stay away from it. And then secondly, the sugar aliases. I’d look out for things like rice malt syrup, agave, maple syrup because the industry uses these to sound really healthy but they metabolise just like sucrose with high fructose loads—they can really tax the liver and spike your insulin very similar to what white sugar does to you. So despite the natural branding, I would definitely look at those sugar aliases. And then when it comes to glucose sequencing—which is your second point—the veggies is 100% clinical science! You are so right about that. If you eat the fibre like, you know, a green salad or raw carrots before you eat your starch or sugar, it creates a physical mesh in your intestine. And the result from that is that this mesh acts like a filter and it physically actually slows down how fast the sugar hits your bloodstream. So it turns what might have been a sugar spike into a sugar gentle wave.Irene: Wow, Margaret, thank you so much for asking that question. I had never heard of it and I’ve just learned something myself. That is absolutely amazing. So are you saying that we can eat some raw veggies before our meal and then we can have a little bit of something naughty for dessert?Lee: Yeah, I mean, yeah exactly. I mean the rule is kind of never eat your carbs naked. Always give them something to protect them like a bodyguard, like fibre or protein. So even for you Margaret, like if you were to take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in water before that meal, it will really double down on that protection as well.Irene: Wow, that is literally... I can't believe what I’ve just learned. That’s absolutely amazing, I’m as blown away as you are, Margaret. So Margaret, let's talk skincare. You just said you were 68 and you’ve probably seen every anti-ageing miracle cream under the sun. I’m 51 and I have. So what are you looking for at the moment for your skincare? What are you using?Margaret: I use a moisturiser. But honestly Irene, I just want to know what I’m actually looking for on the label, just the same as the sugar. Are there cheap ones that aren't just a tub of chemicals? My skin feels like it just drinks whatever I put on it and stays dry and gets dry about five minutes later. It’s really frustrating.Irene: Yeah, my biggest advice is to avoid anything really at the supermarket, maybe half of the stuff at your David Jones and most of the things in those sort of big cosmetic department stores. The thing is, so many of these creams, whilst they do have some really great anti-ageing benefits like peptides and like lots of lovely, you know, anti-ageing ingredients, they’re usually housed in a base of petroleum. So you want to be looking for things like mineral oil, petrolatum which is like petroleum—I don't know why they don't just say petroleum. You want to look at those things. I also have to say you do still need to look for parabens. I can't believe in 2026 that there are still brands out there using parabens in their formulations, so that’s a really important one. But one also to look out for is something called phenoxyethanol, and that’s an interesting one because that’s been added to many, many formulations that say paraben-free. So they took the parabens out and then they replaced it with phenoxyethanol. That’s also in a lot of so-called natural products as well, but interestingly banned by all of the natural and organic certification boards. So it’s a preservative, so you want to be looking for preservatives that are approved by these certification boards, that’s a really good way to know whether or not it’s sort of a healthy preservative or not. But that’s a whole long list. I think my biggest anti-ageing tip is you don't necessarily need an expensive cream. I find that serums do all the work. So you can just pick a pretty affordable cleanser, something really simple from a health food store even, you can get a pretty good cleanser for maybe 15 or 20 dollars, a nice cream cleanser, definitely look for something on the front that says 100% natural and it has a natural or organic certification logo on it. And then after you’ve done your cleanser, pop on a serum and use a serum that tackles an area that you want to address. So for example, I know for me it’s pigmentation and fine lines, so you know a Vitamin C serum for example. But if you’ve got really dry skin, then pick something with a hyaluronic acid or some beautiful nut oils to make your skin really nourished and hydrated. Or you know if it’s something else like fine lines then look for something with maybe fruit plant stem cells or some natural peptides, plant peptides. So I think serums do all the work and I think you can spend a lot more money on your serums because they really do last for months. So I would say you could spend between 50 to 100 dollars on a serum and then if you still need some moisturiser, then again just get a cheap moisturiser to lock it all in and again just keep an eye out for those nasties.Margaret: Oh wow, thank you, that’s amazing. Wow, I can do that, that’s doable.Irene: Just get a Vitamin C serum and you’re good to go.Lee: Well thank you so much Margaret, I’d love for you to stay lovely and stay curious and it’s been wonderful chatting with you today.Margaret: Oh thank you, it’s been great hearing you live for the first time. So that’s just great. Well done, you’re doing a really great service the two of you.Irene: Thank you, Margaret! What a delight and Steiner! Oh I know I want to send my kids to Steiner but my husband is so the opposite of me and I had to give in and send them to a regular old school.Lee: I was at this thing the other night down in Avalon. It was a shop that was closing down and they had sort of a farewell party and they had a band there and it was super fun. We were all dancing and there was one lady and she was very kind of Byron Bay, you know what I mean by that? And she was like flowing and she was really in the moment and all of that and I found out she was the local Steiner teacher. And she was just flowing, she was in the moment, it was so fun to watch her.Irene: Oh I love that. Yeah, if only, if only. Alright, well I think my tea has gone a bit cold but my brain is buzzing so let’s get to the next segment: Rant or Rave!Lee: Oh pick me! Pick me!Irene: She’s been waiting all episode for this.Lee: I have!Irene: Okay, so this is my rant, okay? Have you noticed whenever you have wanted to go shopping for whatever product it might be, just some like a health and wellness product for example or a beauty product and you’ve gone to look for it and you’re just flooded with ads from Big W and Woolworths and I think even Kmart. Every man and their dog when it comes to those big like big retailers and big players have got these marketplaces where they don't even actually stock the product. They just list the product and then they just get it drop-shipped from somewhere.Lee: No!Irene: Yeah, Bunnings is a really good example but I find it a lot with, yeah, your Big Ws and your Kmarts and those stores as well. And so I think the issue with that is it is really annoying as a consumer or a customer because when you are buying something online and you buy two or three things, you’re getting them sent in multiple deliveries by multiple retailers. I think it’s really ungenuine. But from a small business perspective, like from a retailer, we’ve got all these beautiful health food stores and you know lots of really wonderful niche businesses that have been selling these products for like forever. And it’s just these big boys crushing the little guy. The little guys that have got their own warehouses and they’re picking and packing their own orders, they’ve got everything in stock, everything gets shipped beautifully to you only to be overshadowed by, you know, these Google ads. I’m telling you, I’m telling you now, these big players and their big budgets just dominate Google. They are in my opinion the Temu to small retailers. Yeah, that’s my rant.Lee: I mean, have you ever bought anything from a store and had three different deliveries and something from a brand direct that you thought you bought from Bunnings? Has that ever happened to you?Irene: It happens to me all the time! Yeah, they come separately and then you get all these different notifications on your phone as well so your phone's tied up with all this sort of "coming this day" and then you get an email and then you yeah.Lee: It’s so overwhelming.Irene: Actually probably you know and there’s a whole other thing about privacy, isn't there? Oh, I signed up for Kmart or I signed up for Bunnings but now I’m on an email list for Woolworths. I don't know that those two are connected, that’s just my example but I find... you know what I do notice too? Like when I look for something on a health food store or on your Clean Nectarine website and then I’ll get distracted and then I’ll go back to it and then I’m retargeted with all of these ads from the big players with the same item.Lee: Oh I think that yeah I think that might be the Facebook algorithm doing that. But those big players have got huge budgets. I could rant on about Woolworths and Endeavour and oh I could rant on about them for ages. And it’s hard because like a lot of the small businesses are family-operated businesses, you know? Family-operated businesses, entrepreneurs with passion, you know products that they have curated out of love and then you’ve just got these big boys in it and I again it comes back to sticking to your lane. You know last week you talked about sticking to your lane. Stick to your lane! Like I’m all about if you want to go to Woolies and get some apples and some cereal and what you need, your groceries, then just stick to groceries Woolworths! You don't need to all of a sudden now be a niche health food store or a non-alcoholic bottle shop. Rant over.Lee: That’s a good one. I hadn't ever really thought about that but you’ve really opened my eyes. Yeah, thanks.Irene: Let me tell you one quick story. When I had my non-alcoholic bottle shop, Dan Murphy's sold almost no non-alcoholic drinks at all. As soon as I opened my bottle shop, you know what they did? They called themselves Dan Zero and opened up non-alcoholic bottle shops. I swear half the store turned into a non-alcoholic bottle shop. Dan everything was Dan Zero. Did you know that? Billboards and everything.Lee: Really? Really? They love to jump on what’s, yeah, and capitalise on what’s trending.Irene: Oh I don't know about capitalising on what’s trending rather than trying to squash and kill small business. Oh big rant, but anyway. They won't get me this time. No.Lee: (Laughs) No.Irene: So that’s a wrap for episode 2. We’ve covered the dark side of chocolate, Justin's red lines, met the lovely and intelligent Margaret the child whisperer. Not to mention my hot, hot, hot rant! Ahhhh, I’m now at peace with the world again.Lee: Yeah, you came in really hot for that one which is good. I love your passion. And if you love this session, please do us a massive favour. If you don't mind, can you please hit the follow button and leave us a five-star review or six if they’ll let you. That’ll really help us.And follow us on our Instagram. It’s @wellnessunfilteredleeirene. And drop us a line or a question.And if you'd like to come and talk to us on here, let us know. Yeah. And if you want today's Nutritionist Nerd Notes, just head over to your favourite podcast platform. Love you guys. Love you, Lee. Love you too.Wellness Unfiltered is a production of Clean Nectarine and Supercharged Food. Produced by Lee Holmes, Irene Falcone, and Justin Smidmore. Listen & Subscribe on Substack Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube. Information is for editorial and educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult a qualified health professional before changes to your routine. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theleeandireneshow.substack.com