Have you ever taken on a 10km run, or a half marathon - maybe pushed yourself just a little too much, without properly researching what you should be eating, to fuel your efforts? 

Many have. And it’s no wonder endurance activities are an increasingly popular coping mechanism for those of us struggling to deal with the mental load of everyday life.

But experts across the globe say they have been seeing athletes - and regular people - who have been under-eating and suffering from a little-known syndrome called REDs, or relative energy deficiency in sport.

Today, Good Weekend senior writer Katrina Strickland, on this contentious syndrome, which some experts say can be allied to eating disorders, and has led some sufferers to have “bones like dust” and - in one case - a woman in her late 20s to have, as her gynaecologist put it, the “uterus of a 60 year old”.  

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