Our Story
This started in my clinic. It grew into something bigger because the problem turned out to be everywhere.
Founder & Accredited Practising Dietitian
Ruby Marusic, APD
I'm an Accredited Practising Dietitian based in Newcastle, Australia, with a deep focus on weight management, GLP-1 therapies, and bariatric nutrition. By day I work as a Clinical Trial Coordinator and Dietitian at the Hunter Diabetes Centre — collaborating directly with pharmaceutical teams on GLP-1 medication trials to optimise patient outcomes. By evening I see private clients dealing with gut health, women's health, and chronic disease.
I've also been a Reformer Pilates instructor for over eight years — because for me, food and movement have always been two sides of the same coin. Wellness isn't a prescription, it's something you build into how you actually live.
Food Signals grew directly out of my clinical work. I kept seeing the same gap: patients on Ozempic, Wegovy, or Mounjaro receiving generic nutrition advice that didn't account for what it's actually like to eat on these medications. So I started fixing it myself — one patient at a time, then at scale.
Where this came from
The first version was a spreadsheet. I was manually scoring recipes for my patients — rating each one against five GLP-1 side effects — and sharing the scores during appointments. My clinical trial work gave me an unusually detailed view of how different patients responded to the same medications, and I started applying that knowledge to food. Patients began asking for copies of my scores. Then they shared them with family members on the same medications.
The idea of turning it into something bigger came from a conversation with a friend who works in machine learning. We were talking about what modern AI could actually do when applied carefully — not as a gimmick, but as a genuine tool for personalisation at scale. What clicked for me was how it could be done in a privacy-respecting way: learning your patterns without harvesting your data, improving suggestions without needing to know who you are.
That conversation turned the spreadsheet into a product. The scoring model is still entirely mine — built on the same clinical framework I use with patients, accounting for fat content and gastric emptying rate, soluble versus insoluble fibre, protein density, FODMAP load, and portion calibration for a reduced stomach. The AI layer learns how to surface it intelligently for each person.
Who I'm building this for
Anyone on a GLP-1 medication: Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, Rybelsus. The person who can't figure out why some foods work and others don't. The person who is barely eating enough to maintain muscle mass but doesn't know which foods will help. The person who needs to feed a family while barely able to eat themselves.
The goal isn't to replace your dietitian or your physician — it's to give you practical, specific, day-to-day guidance that general nutrition advice doesn't provide.
Where we're going
The app is in early alpha. Right now, you can browse 126+ recipes scored across five symptoms, filter by how you're feeling, and find meal ideas calibrated to injection day. On the roadmap: daily meal ideas based on your own logged patterns, weekly meal planning with family-mode recipes, protein tracking, and dose-stage personalisation.
Early access is free for the first 500 users, and I read every piece of feedback personally. What gets built next is shaped by what people on GLP-1 medications actually need — not what I assume they need.
Interested in early access? Join the first 500 users and help shape what I build next. Get free early access →
Medical disclaimer
Food Signals provides general dietary information only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your prescribing physician, endocrinologist, or registered dietitian before making dietary changes while on GLP-1 medication.