What is SUGAR®?

  • SUGAR® is a comprehensive, diagnostic assessment tool (administered as a structured interview) that examines a client’s relationship with sugar, flour, carbohydrates, processed and ultra-processed food, and its related consequences.
  • Prior to the development of SUGAR®, there was no comprehensive diagnostic evaluation instrument available for sugar/food addiction, although a number of screening tools do exist such as UNCOPE/S, Yale scale, different self-assessment questionnaires, etc.
  • SUGAR® is based on the diagnostic criteria for harmful use, pathological use, and addiction to mind-altering (psychoactive) drugs as described in the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) from WHO, and DSM-5 from APA and is currently being upgraded to ICD-11.
  • SUGAR® is a tool that accurately distinguishes between pathological (addictive) use and harmful use (such as stress-eating or emotional eating by a person who is experiencing damaging consequences but isn’t chemically addicted). This distinction is vital in identifying appropriate treatment. Those two very different conditions have very different treatment protocols. Addiction to sugar, flour, and/or processed food is a chronic, complex, and serious disease requiring a treatment model of abstinence. Harmful use, on the other hand, can sometimes be remedied with a treatment model of moderation.
  • Each SUGAR® assessment includes an addiction development curve that shows the client’s relationship with sugar/flour/food from the beginning of the harmful use to the present. This is the best motivational tool available for addicted people today. It has proven to be quite successful in increasing client motivation and compliance with recovery treatment protocols. Moreover, professionals report that using this approach helps prevent burnout and treatment fatigue. There’s no arguing with clients about the nature of the illness.

Why diagnose sugar and carb addiction?
I work with high-performing executives — in media and broadcast, but not only there — who never miss a deadline, never let their team down, and never neglect their kids and family. At work, at home, everywhere it’s visible, they hold it together. What nobody sees is how they hold themselves together: alone, late at night, with flour, sugar and fat.

For 25+ years I built and led commercial organizations across the media-tech industry — as Chief Commercial Officer, Managing Director and board member, launching Eurosport across the Nordics, scaling B2B SaaS platforms, and negotiating with the world’s largest broadcasters. I know what it takes to run a company, a P&L, and a team. I also know what it takes to hide a sugar addiction behind all of it.

My own struggle with sugar led me to SUGAR® — the first assessment that gave my confusion a name and a shape. I have been abstinent and following a carnivore way of eating for 3.5 years. Within three months, I was free of pain from debilitating arthritis I had lived with for years. Flour, sugar and fat together remain my kryptonite — the combination my brain cannot handle in moderation. I will carry this disease for the rest of my life. Abstinence is what gives me my freedom.

The SUGAR® diagnostic brings clarity to confusion. It replaces shame and self-blame with a clear picture of what has actually happened in your brain and body — and it opens the door to abstinence, and to the freedom that comes with it. If you are a high performer who has never let anyone down except yourself, I’d be glad to talk.