((Apologies for this massive essay lol....))
Crazy isn't it? I was brought up Catholic...and ended up needing counselling in my 20s to undo some of the psychological damage it caused!! It makes me so angry to think of the utter crap we were fed and the associated unnecessary guilt we felt about being bloody human!
Religion is so clearly outdated and ignorant....and has no place in today's society (imho). Don't get me wrong, I actually believe in God, just not man-made outdated religious dogma.
Gluttony, I believe, is physiologically driven. Physiological traits can be inherited as well as being altered by trauma (trauma literally alters the neurochemistry of the brain). The fabulous Kathleen DesMaisons and her book 'Potatoes Not Prozac and website: www.radiantrecovery.com helped me to understand that more clearly and help shed any guilt surrounding my (at times) overwhelming sugar consumption. It also gave me strategies to quieten that urge. DesMaisons explains sugar (and other) addictions . Her philosophy is that we are not only at the mercy of our physiology but that trauma also shatters our serotonin system which can lead to us (understandably) searching for comfort to quieten emotional pain (even if that's subconscious pain). I'm sure many of us can relate to pain being (temporarily) soothed in the form of food and/or sugar and/or alcohol it can also be gained in the form of gambling, sex, shopping, or even over-cleaning. Basic anything that is 'extreme'. I now (happily) have zero guilt around 'gluttony'/'greed' if I lapse....and tend to be much kinder to myself rather than internally beating myself up. Some people have extremes. Some of us are 'greedy' if you want to call it that. Some aren't. Some of us have a high sex drive. Some of us don't. Some of us are alcoholics. Some of us aren't. It's not a bloody moral failing....and it's not about willpower. It's about genetic predisposition in form of our physiology and/or experience of trauma...(whether that be in the form of adverse childhood experiences or adult trauma)
The introduction of Ozempic/Mounjaro/Wegovy has just made me feel even less guilty about my overeating, in that it's clear to me that slim people may also have won the genetic lottery in that they produce sufficient GLP-1 in their brains (or guts) or wherever it is produced in the body not to feel as overwhelmingly hungry and therefore do not overeat compared to those of us who do not have sufficient supplies produce within our bodies. I finally feel vindicated. My skinny friends have never dieted and simply don't have the obsession around food that I do...because their physologiy is more genetically blessed and they naturally produce sufficient GLP-1 so they just aren't drivne to eat to the same extent.
So for a God to 'punish' you for actually taking positive steps to support your body/brain with something that it is lacking in, is akin to punishing a diabetic for taking insulin. That's a crazy religious take on 'God'
Don't get me wrong, I do think you have to take responsiblity for trying to fix as much as is possible within your capabilities. I think it's vitally important to adopt healthy eating as much as possible - I was brought up with plenty of veg and salad and fruit and wholegrains (my parents are/were Polish) and I don't understand this aversion to veg that I see amongst a lot of English kids (my daughters seem to be the only ones in their class that like salad), but by the same token, we also liked and like to eat lots of white carbs, cake, chocolate, sweets and biscuits. My saving Grace is that I'm not bothered about alcohol....but sweets are my alcohol in a different form, so absolutely no judgement here.....