“Food is the good girl’s alcohol.”

We’re going somewhere in this episode that we’ve never gone before.

We’re confronting an addiction that is deeply embedded in the church, widely accepted among Christians, and often willfully ignored—not because it’s rare, but because so many of us are trapped in it.

We know how to talk about alcohol, pornography, drugs, and other destructive behaviors. But there is another substance Christians regularly use for comfort, escape, reward, and emotional relief. It’s present at nearly every church gathering, woven into our traditions, and rarely questioned.

The substance is food—especially sugar.

Kristy McCammon knows firsthand how something good and necessary can quietly take a place in the heart that belongs to Jesus. For years, food became her safety, comfort, and private escape. What looked like a problem with calories, weight, or willpower was actually rooted much deeper.

Kristy is the founder of Life Unbinged and the author of Life Unbinged: Faith-Filled Freedom from Food Obsession and Sugar Addiction. She shares how food became connected to safety in childhood, why moderation and dieting never brought freedom, and how even healthy boundaries can become another idol.

This conversation also became unexpectedly personal for me. I admitted things I’ve never discussed publicly and began confronting ways I may have transferred some of the same desires that once drove my drinking into my relationship with food.

We also talk about boredom eating, processed sugar and flour, parenting, conviction versus shame, whether Christinas should use GLP-1 medications and weight-loss shots, and how to approach someone whose relationship with food concerns you.

This isn’t about chasing a certain body type or treating every dessert as sinful. It’s about asking what we’re expecting food to do for us—and whether an addiction has been hiding in plain sight.

Kristy's website: lifeunbinged.com
The Living Life Unbinged podcast: Listen
Get the book: Life Unbinged: Faith-Filled Freedom from Food Obsession
Follow Kristy on Instagram: @lifeunbinged
Read Kristy's blog post on GLP-1s: "Should Christians Use Weight-Loss Shots?"
Get Gospel-centered addiction recovery resources and help: veritasrecovery.org
Follow me: @jonseidl
Order my new book, Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic
Watch this episode at The Vertias Daily

We explore:

— Why Kristy calls food “the good girl’s alcohol”
— How food became connected to safety, comfort, and escape
— Why the church often ignores food addiction
— The difference between moderation, abstinence, and healthy boundaries
— How recovery itself can become another idol
— What it means to put Jesus back in the highest place
— The emotional roots beneath boredom eating and food obsession
— My own uncomfortable realizations about food and transferred addiction
— How parents can model a healthier relationship with food
— Should Christians use GLP-1 medications and weight-loss shots?
— How to approach a loved one without shame
— Why food and substance addictions often share the same roots

<blockquote>
&ldquo;Food is the good girl&rsquo;s alcohol.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
We&rsquo;re going somewhere in this episode that we&rsquo;ve never gone before.
We&rsquo;re confronting an addiction that is deeply embedded in the church, widely accepted among Christians, and often willfully ignored&mdash;not because it&rsquo;s rare, but because so many of us are trapped in it.
We know how to talk about alcohol, pornography, drugs, and other destructive behaviors. But there is another substance Christians regularly use for comfort, escape, reward, and emotional relief. It&rsquo;s present at nearly every church gathering, woven into our traditions, and rarely questioned.
The substance is food&mdash;especially sugar.
Kristy McCammon knows firsthand how something good and necessary can quietly take a place in the heart that belongs to Jesus. For years, food became her safety, comfort, and private escape. What looked like a problem with calories, weight, or willpower was actually rooted much deeper.
Kristy is the founder of Life Unbinged and the author of Life Unbinged: Faith-Filled Freedom from Food Obsession and Sugar Addiction. She shares how food became connected to safety in childhood, why moderation and dieting never brought freedom, and how even healthy boundaries can become another idol.
This conversation also became unexpectedly personal for me. I admitted things I&rsquo;ve never discussed publicly and began confronting ways I may have transferred some of the same desires that once drove my drinking into my relationship with food.
We also talk about boredom eating, processed sugar and flour, parenting, conviction versus shame, whether Christinas should use GLP-1 medications and weight-loss shots, and how to approach someone whose relationship with food concerns you.
This isn&rsquo;t about chasing a certain body type or treating every dessert as sinful. It&rsquo;s about asking what we&rsquo;re expecting food to do for us&mdash;and whether an addiction has been hiding in plain sight.
Kristy's website: <a href="https://lifeunbinged.com">lifeunbinged.com</a> The&nbsp;Living Life Unbinged podcast: <a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/2543027">Listen</a> Get the book:&nbsp;<a href="https://amzn.to/3TjkjwB">Life Unbinged: Faith-Filled Freedom from Food&nbsp;</a><a href="https://amzn.to/3TjkjwB">Obsession</a> Follow Kristy on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lifeunbinged/">@lifeunbinged</a> Read Kristy's blog post on GLP-1s: <a href="https://lifeunbinged.com/should-christians-use-weight-loss-shots/">"Should Christians Use Weight-Loss Shots?"</a> Get Gospel-centered addiction recovery resources and help: <a href="https://www.veritasrecovery.org">veritasrecovery.org</a> Follow me: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jonseidl/">@jonseidl</a> Order my new book,&nbsp;<a href="https://amzn.to/4opuOt">Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic</a> Watch this episode at <a href="https://jonseidl.substack.com/t/podcast">The Vertias Daily</a>
We explore:
&mdash; Why Kristy calls food &ldquo;the good girl&rsquo;s alcohol&rdquo; &mdash; How food became connected to safety, comfort, and escape &mdash; Why the church often ignores food addiction &mdash; The difference between moderation, abstinence, and healthy boundaries &mdash; How recovery itself can become another idol &mdash; What it means to put Jesus back in the highest place &mdash; The emotional roots beneath boredom eating and food obsession &mdash; My own uncomfortable realizations about food and transferred addiction &mdash; How parents can model a healthier relationship with food &mdash; Should Christians use GLP-1 medications and weight-loss shots? &mdash; How to approach a loved one without shame &mdash; Why food and substance addictions often share the same roots

Jon Seidl is the bestselling Christian author who became an alcoholic, not the other way around. It's usually the other way around. Or is it? "Confessions of a Christian alcoholic" (based on the book by the same title) is all about real stories, radical vulnerability, and remarkable comebacks of people who have struggled with alcoholism and addictions of all sorts. The show features interviews with fellow addicts and alcoholics as well as professionals in the fields of trauma, faith, and addiction recovery. Because let's be honest, we're all addicted to something. "Confessions" is a place for the desperate, the downtrodden, the destitute, and especially, the drunk. But it's also a place of hope and healing. Jon found sobriety after decades of struggling, but more importantly than finding sobriety, he found Jesus. In every episode, he gets radically vulnerable as he explores what it looks like to be on this journey of messy sanctification. Visit christianalcoholic.com for more resources.

Jon Seidl is the bestselling Christian author who became an alcoholic, not the other way around. It's usually the other way around. Or is it? "Confessions of a Christian alcoholic" (based on the book by the same title) is all about real stories, radical vulnerability, and remarkable comebacks of people who have struggled with alcoholism and addictions of all sorts. The show features interviews with fellow addicts and alcoholics as well as professionals in the fields of trauma, faith, and addiction recovery. Because let's be honest, we're all addicted to something. "Confessions" is a place for the desperate, the downtrodden, the destitute, and especially, the drunk. But it's also a place of hope and healing. Jon found sobriety after decades of struggling, but more importantly than finding sobriety, he found Jesus. In every episode, he gets radically vulnerable as he explores what it looks like to be on this journey of messy sanctification. Visit <a href="http://christianalcoholic.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://christianalcoholic.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1747239325727000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1G-752Q-1dyjq6GN5gt7xw">christianalcoholic.com</a> for more resources.

Jon Seidl is the bestselling Christian author who became an alcoholic, not the other way around. It's usually the other way around. Or is it? "Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic" is all about real stories, radical vulnerability, and remarkable comebacks of people who have struggled with alcoholism and addictions of all sorts.

Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic with Jon Seidl

The Addiction the Church Won’t Touch: Kristy McCammon Reveals Why Food and Sugar Can Be So Destructive and Addicting

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/clips/744812de-15e3-4bf4-ad43-b48701288fad/transcript