I went from doctor to doctor on the NHS. Many had never heard of RED-S. My family and friends had never heard of RED-S. I was told my bloods looked “fine,” but I wasn’t fine. I tried FODMAP, gluten-free, plant-based, and everything in between — nothing worked.

I was mentally and physically depleted. Standing in front of the supermarket, staring at the shelves or at my fridge at home, thinking, “What can I eat?”, I felt overwhelmed. Being told to “just eat more and train less” felt impossible when my mind and body were running on autopilot.

What actually helped was working with a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor, someone who looked at the root cause of energy depletion (Qi Deficiency), not just the symptoms. They helped me understand that my body was under-fuelled, stressed, and in survival mode. That insight became the foundation for RED-Scue.

I made the RED-SCUE bar in my kitchen to help myself recover from RED-S — something easy on the gut, plant-based, gluten-free, with no synthetics, built from someone who truly understood how RED-S affects you physically, mentally, and emotionally. It wasn’t just convenient — it made fuelling enjoyable again, without endless pills, supplements, diet trends, or complicated meals.

While training in Southern Spain, I had witnessed how African endurance cultures in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya fuelled for performance and volume: simple, carb-first, whole foods like teff, cassava fufu, grains, and legumes. No gels. No synthetic supplements. No high-protein, low-carb hacks.

And that became the base principles for our bars.