OUR STORY · HADI MAANNA, FOUNDER
I built Releaf because I lost my health while building my life.
I never planned to build a wellness brand. I planned a life in medicine. Life had other plans, but one belief never left me: your health is your most valuable asset.
From my mother's table to 3:30am alarms
I grew up in Lebanon on a Mediterranean diet: fresh, simple food shaped by my mother's cooking and a naturally active life. Health wasn't a project. It was just how we lived.
At 27, I moved to the UK alone. New country, new chapter, and a complete disruption of everything familiar. I worked in food production, waking at 3:30am for 10-hour shifts, and my diet became whatever was fastest: processed sandwiches in the morning, coffee to keep functioning, ready meals at night.
My body answered back. Bloating. Low energy. Brain fog. A tiredness that never lifted. I had gone from someone who lived healthy to someone struggling just to feel normal, and that was my turning point.
I stopped searching and started studying
I tried what the market offered: greens powders, supplements, stacks of vitamins. Every product was missing something. Greens without probiotics. Probiotics without a nutritional base. Formulas that weren't transparent, weren't organic, or weren't made to a standard I could trust. I didn't want a shelf of products; I wanted one complete daily habit.
So I went back to education and studied nutrition seriously here in the UK: the RSPH Level 4 Award in Nutrition, then Level 5 Advanced Nutrient Metabolism, then Level 5 Nutrition & Immunity. It was never theory for me. It was personal. And the more I learned, the clearer the gap became between what people need and what the industry sells.
Qualified. Not just passionate.
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RSPH Level 4 Award in Nutrition
Royal Society for Public Health. Ofqual-regulated, awarded to founder Hadi Maanna.
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Level 5 Advanced Nutrient Metabolism
How nutrients are actually processed and used by the body. Ofqual-regulated qualification.
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Level 5 Nutrition & Immunity
The science connecting diet and the immune system, the thinking behind Releaf's gut-first design.
8 months. 7 formulas. One standard.
Releaf took 8 months of development before anything reached production, and it started with trust: finding a UK manufacturer that met the food safety and quality standards I demanded, because nothing comes before safety.
I worked closely with product development teams, dietitians and food scientists, and we adjusted the formula 7 times before I signed it off. I was involved in every step, from ingredient selection to sourcing to the recyclable, eco-friendly packaging.
The test was simple: would I confidently give this to my own family? Until the answer was yes, it didn't ship.
What we believe
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Real food first
Whole organic superfoods over isolated compounds, every time.
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Gut-first formulation
Absorption is the whole point, so it gets its own blend.
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Made in the UK
Blended in Kent, accountable at every step.
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Responsible packaging
Eco-friendly, recyclable materials, because health includes the world we live in.
“Because I experienced what it feels like to lose your health in the middle of building your life, and I wanted to create something that helps people find their way back to it.”
HADI MAANNA · FOUNDER, RELEAF