Us vs sugar
A Killa story

It’s a sneak. A cheat. It wants to get inside your body by getting inside your head. Making you crave that dopamine-rush it provides, while it wanders round your body to do untold harm.

And it’s not just the sugar you need to watch. Those pushing the white stuff know every trick in the book to get people hooked. Walk down a cartoon-themed cereal aisle and you’ll get the idea. That’s why we have a shocking global health crisis to show for it.

How are we supposed to fight back? Public policy is too slow and ineffective. Public education is too boring. And the diet industry is financially dependent on you never achieving real change.

Everything is designed to make you fail.

It’s old-fashioned thinking. We now have the science and ideas to make habit change easier. Let’s bloody use them.

Every sniff of Killa Vanilla is a raised middle finger to every big wig in a suit who wants you craving more sugar to fatten their wallet.

Why should you feel guilty about not having the perfect Instagram body (whatever that is), Jennifer Aniston’s eating habits or Mark Wahlberg’s fitness regime?

The freedom to choose. To make long-term habit changes that fit your life, not someone else’s idea of what your life should be.

The founders and inventors of Killa Vanilla. Think: less mad scientists; more seriously determined anti-sugar blokes.

Like a lot of great ideas, they didn’t actually set out to develop Killa Vanilla. But fate/their nostrils had different ideas.

Chris and Dom were working together within another start-up: building olfactory devices for the medical industry; honing their understanding of neuroscience.

They uncovered some research that hinted at the viability of using vanilla-based scents to suppress sugar cravings. A cool concept, but with only anecdotal and incomplete accounts, it remained just that: a concept.

Like lots of foolhardy researchers, they engaged in some self-experimentation with prototypes of what would become Killa Vanilla.

Plot twist: at the same time, Chris and Dom were both training to compete in the British Rowing Indoor Championships as heavyweights.

Chris was also struggling with sugar binges. A crap day at work, a cold and dark evening, or a hint of boredom and the treat cupboard beckoned. So much hard work in the gym undone in a mountain of sweet wrappers.

Three years later and the pair’s cravings are still under effortless control. They eat sugar in moderation (Ben & Jerrys for Dom; Jaffa Cakes for Chris), but those days of uncontrolled indulgence are long gone.

Scientific proof is found. Using breakthroughs in neuroimaging technology, the catchily-named Cross-Modal Sensory Compensation Effect is identified by researchers at the University of Florida.

Chris and Dom had the credible, scientific grounding on which to build Killa Vanilla.

Chris and Dom started sharing their newfound knowledge beyond close friends and family.

After tireless prototyping, testing, and experimenting on themselves (and some very understanding friends and family) Chris and Dom were almost ready. Now they just needed to make sure their approach would work for everyone.

They spent months reviewing their own past experiences, interviewing self-confessed sugar junkies and consulting industry experts (and more research papers) to develop their unique guide to kicking the habit.

Killa Vanilla has helped tens of thousands overcome their sugar cravings. The plan is to help millions more.