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

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. 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. The substance is food—especially sugar. “Food is the good girl’s alcohol.” 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.comThe Living Life Unbinged podcast: ListenGet the book: Life Unbinged: Faith-Filled Freedom from Food ObsessionFollow Kristy on Instagram: @lifeunbingedRead Kristy's blog post on GLP-1s: "Should Christians Use Weight-Loss Shots?"Get Gospel-centered addiction recovery resources and help: veritasrecovery.orgFollow me: @jonseidlOrder my new book, Confessions of a Christian AlcoholicWatch 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 rootsSupport the Show: https://www.jonseidl.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.