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 You Meet 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
