Well, hasn’t this been a drawn out process.
Exactly four years ago (like, almost to the day!) I announced I was closing the I Quit Sugar business. I sold some of the assets off, but kept the brand, IP, trademark, social community, ebook sales and the I Quit Sugar Recommends Tick income stream going, with all the funds going directly into a trust to be spent on charity projects. But I’m sharing with you here the final step in the process: I’ve now walked away from the whole lot.
You can read the rationale I wrote out four years ago here. It stands.
You can also read about my “wage manifesto” and how I calculate what I give to charity here. It works to principles of “effective altruism” which I’ll be chatting about in coming weeks on my Wild podcast. Woot!
OK. So I promised in the video to share some godawful Twitter food porn from 2011, you might recognise some of the “dishes”…
Finally, you can read the press release below for extra detail and some nice quotes from Matt Preston, movie producer Laurie David (Fed Up, The Inconvenient Truth) and my Blue Zones mate Dan Buettner.
Sarah Wilson hands over iconic wellness empire I Quit Sugar to focus on climate work
New York Times bestselling author and climate activist Sarah Wilson splits from I Quit Sugar brand and donates all proceeds to charity.
After first quitting sugar for health reasons 11 years ago and then building a wellness empire that put sugar on the global agenda and got millions off ‘the white stuff’, former journalist Sarah Wilson has sold the I Quit Sugar brand.
The brand, IP, e-books and social platforms have been sold to an Australian investment company founded by ex-PedestrianTV’s Chris Wirasinha and Corey Yung.
From today, Wilson is no longer involved with the company that she built from an army shed in the Byron hinterland and that went on to become Australia’s largest wellness site. She has announced she will be giving all proceeds of the sale to charity, as she has with all the company’s profits.
Wilson said, “I Quit Sugar brought me more than enough abundance. I only ever expected to educate and bring awareness to the issue and the politics of the sugar industry, and to help people wanting a science-based fix for their addiction. My preference is to give away what I don’t truly need.”
Wilson initially ceased the online program that employed 25 staff in early 2018 and sold some of the online recipe assets to ex-Bachelor Sam Wood’s fitness business to raise money for her charity projects.
“My focus is now squarely on the climate crisis, agitating for corporate and governmental change, and helping humans cope with the anxious, uncertain future ahead,” Wilson said. “I can’t wait to watch where the IQS movement will now head in new hands.”
Wilson will continue her work as an author, keynote speaker and influencer via her Wild with Sarah Wilson podcast (interviewing philosophers and creatives such as Sia, Rutger Bregman and Peter Singer) and her Substack newsletter.
Matt Preston, media personality and host, and Wilson’s former MasterChef colleague, says the movement was a global gamechanger:
“Sarah’s I Quit Sugar initiatives have had a huge impact on how so many Australians - and other food lovers around the world - now choose to eat. She is the elegantly carved thorn in the side of our collective conscious - relentlessly pricking it. And long may she be so. No matter what her next chapter may hold.”
Laurie David, producer of Fed Up and The Inconvenient Truth has written:
“Sarah and I Quit Sugar helped change the face of the western diet and saved countless lives in the process!
· Wilson’s first book, I Quit Sugar: Your Complete 8-week Detox Program and Cookbook began as an e-book and became an Amazon #1 bestseller.
· The print book edition published by Pan Macmillan won the 2014 ABIA publishing award.
· The US edition became a New York Times bestseller.
· Wilson published another 13 books under the I Quit Sugar banner, all of which worked to her zero food waste commitment.
· The online program launched in 2013. It became Australia’s largest wellness site and was in BRW’s list of fastest growing startups.
· Sarah and the IQS movement were featured on various TV shows, memes and comedy sketches, including NBC’s Today Show, Jimmy Little, TheKatering Show and ABC’s Back in Time For Dinner.
Wilson has also written two more books. First, We Make the Beast Beautiful also became a New York Times bestseller and author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson described it as “The best book about anxiety I’ve ever read”. Her most recent book, This One Wild and Precious Life tackles the climate crisis.
Says Dan Buettner, National Geographic explorer and fellow and author of the Blue Zones:
“Sarah Wilson’s writing and activism was largely the first large scale solution to help get this sweet menace out of our diet. She is a true pioneer.”
For more information or interviews with Sarah Wilson please contact media@sarahwilson.com.
For any inquiries regarding I Quit Sugar, please email: corey@wellnessco.cc
Instagram @_sarahwilson_
Facebook @sarah8wilson
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