Photo by Catherine Heath on Unsplash

I hosted a podcast called Health Matters where I interviewed leading health experts. Brenda Wood is an internationally known motivational speaker, a former TV hostess, and a recovered bulimic who has gained and lost thousands of pounds.

She’s actually fought the food fight and won the battle. You can learn more about Brenda at her website.

How would you define gluttony?

“Well, I think first of all we should talk about the definition of sin which is separation from God.

“The definition of gluttony, according to me, is eating more than my body needs. The dictionary says gluttony is an excess in eating. It’s extravagant indulgence in the appetite for food. Luxury of the table. Verosity of appetite. Filling beyond sufficiency. Plenty even to loathing. And just plain old greedy. And I think a lot of us, at one time or another, have fallen into one of those categories. So that is basically it.

“It’s eating more than our body needs. Some people will say — if you go to some fancy buffet and there are people there that are 475 pounds — and they’d say, ‘Look at them. They’re such a glutton.’ But then there’s a guy who’s 110 pounds and his plate is piled a foot and a half high and he goes back eight times. He, too, is a glutton. He’s eating more than his body needs. And that’s the basic thought for that.

Is a glutton always overweight or the overweight always gluttons?

“No, no they’re not. They’re hard to tell which is which until you see them at a table.

“I remember going to my Granny and Grandpa’s 60th wedding anniversary. Big dinner, big event. All kinds of goodies and sweets for the people who came after. Big event. And we came back to her house and I’d taken fancy tarts and they hadn’t been served so I asked, ‘Does anyone want a tart?’ And they all said no, and I ate three or four of them. That’s the difference.

“I think gluttony doesn’t have anything to do with how full you feel. I think we use gluttony like people use drugs or alcohol or whatever to deal with pain that we’re not ready to face.

What does gluttony have to do with the Bible?

“One of the verses that was key to me was Philippians 4:8, Finally brethren, whatever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, any praise, think on these things.”

“We say things like, ‘My arms wave for a week after I stop’ or ‘I have the biggest hips in the world.’ ‘Elephants are smaller than I am.’ ‘I can’t stick with a diet.’ ‘I’m hopeless.’ ‘I’m doomed to be fat for the rest of my life.’

“The Bible says that we have self-control. Second Timothy 1:7 says, God did not give us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and a common well balanced mind and discipline and self control.

“And I think we don’t understand how much God loves us either. I wrote this little poem that kind of explains that.

This is me speaking, “My body is blubber, my dieting weak. I’ll never be model thin like that size 3 I seek. Oh God how can you love me? I’m concerned about myself. I’m disgusting the way I gobble food off the shelf.”

And God says in return, “No, you don’t understand child. My son died for you. He demonstrated a love that is beyond self and true.”

Me speaking, “What’s that you say God? Jesus died for me? But you don’t understand I’m not up to much. I fail, and fall and falter and such. You surely don’t want me. I’m worthless. I sin. I’m human. I’m weak. I’m not even thin.”

And God says, “No, you don’t understand child. You’re not worthless to me. I’ll give you the reason to live and to be.”

Me, “Look up to you and know my own worth? You love me that much no matter my girth? Why God is it possible that you died for me but now I see. Now I see, now I see.”

“I used to have a cartoon on my desk and it was this lady and she was at the gates of heaven and St. Peter met her and he wouldn’t let her in. And she said, ‘It’s because I have fat thighs, isn’t it?

“Somehow we feel we’re not good when we’re fat. We feel we’re less than. And we act like it and then we eat worse than we did before.

What type of sin is gluttony?

“There is intentional and unintentional sin. For example, if you go to a restaurant and you’re trying to eat very well and you have cottage cheese and pineapple off the buffet. You’re doing your very best, right?

But a lot of chefs don’t like the look of cottage cheese so mix it with straight cream so that’s unintentional sin. You ate that food but you didn’t mean to.

“Intentional sin is buying yourself eight chocolate bars and sitting down and eating them all. It’s like that.”

I appreciated Brenda’s honest reflections on gluttony and sin.

Although the podcast is no longer available, if you’d like a copy of any of the full interview transcript, please send me an email.

This has been an excerpt from the Health Matters Podcast, believing that prayer & Bible study are to the spirit what exercise and healthy eating are to the body.

Blessings on your journey to health.

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