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Vice # 3 Gluttony: Not Just Overeating - October 25, 2006
OK, we all know overeating is bad. We hear just how bad it is every time we turn around. We worry about overweight kids, babies, senior citizens, and college kids (girls now, too) with beer guts. Since we're approaching the end of the year where we have almost three months of holidays, perhaps now would be a good time to explore the vice of gluttony. In our current national obsession with the topic of being overweight, it is interesting that in some societies, being very overweight is a symbol of prestige and great wealth. It means you have plenty of food to eat and you don't have to work.
The reason that this vice is so difficult for many of us is that you can't just quit eating "cold turkey," so to speak, like you can cigarettes, alcohol, or even coffee. You have to have some food to live.
My worst time is the hour before dinner, when I get home from work. I've got the munchies, I'm cooking, I'm around food, everything looks good. If I'm not careful, I've actually satisfied my hunger before I ever sit down to dinner and then proceed to eat a full meal.
But gluttony is really about more than just an inability to resist crackers and chips in late afternoon. It is a mindset, really a lifestyle in our North American culture. It makes no sense to have competing headlines screaming from the cover of a single magazine at the grocery store check out: 10 ways to lose weight, accompanied by 10 scrumptious desserts. Yet you see it all the time. These headlines sell magazines. Economics in this day is what drives the wheels of gluttony: advertisers, marketers and retailers all compete to win the consumer and offer more choices, bigger sizes, better tasting. There has always been gluttony, but I think the temptations are more diverse in 2006 than in 1006.
Have you noticed there is no "small" at many modern eateries: you can't order a small or regular coffee at most coffee chains? Something like "grande" is the smallest they have. You can't really order a small serving of fries, either, at the fast food joints. Maybe they call it medium, but it is the smallest they have.
Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, in his work Summa Theologia, said of gluttony: "Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire ... leaving the order of reason " Gluttony can be not only the food itself, but a gourmet's insistence on expensive, intricately prepared (time consuming) delicacies. Gluttony can be over-exercise, believe it or not. One man said he had become addicted to the runner's high and ran obsessively 2-3 hours a day.
Environmentalists say that the consumption of the earth's resources is gluttony. "Human consumption of energy, forests, and land now far exceeds the rate at which the planet can replenish itself," says John D. Spalding at Beliefnet.com. Spalding prompts another line of thinking about gluttony when he asks, "How many pairs of shoes do you own? How many hours of TV do you watch a week?" I would add, how many hours of video or computer games? How many gallons of gas per mile does your car consume?
Gluttony is the overlooked sin in religion; we are more likely to hear a sermon or public pronouncement on pride, envy or even lust, before overeating. It is too common and too impolite, it might hurt someone's feelings. Some medical conditions and some medications, unfortunately, are often part of the problem. Sedentary jobs are part of the problem. Aging is part of the problem, needing to eat less but not changing our lifestyle.
Which brings us to the only long term cure for gluttony: there is no diet that will work once someone goes off of it. The only thing that works is to change our lifestyles, our ways of eating and dealing with food, developing habits that use less of the earth's resources, striving for balance in exercise, media use, purchases.
The RX for gluttony is plain old self-control, something you can't buy at the store. It comes with hard work. I know these are hard words in a satisfy-me-now culture. But the rewards-the good feelings of self-control, restraint, saving money, saving fuel are like steak instead of cotton candy: they stick with you a long time. Even eternity.
Contributed by Melodie Davis: [email protected] Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way
OK, we all know overeating is bad. We hear just how bad it is every time we turn around. We worry about overweight kids, babies, senior citizens, and college kids (girls now, too) with beer guts. Since we're approaching the end of the year where we have almost three months of holidays, perhaps now would be a good time to explore the vice of gluttony. In our current national obsession with the topic of being overweight, it is interesting that in some societies, being very overweight is a symbol of prestige and great wealth. It means you have plenty of food to eat and you don't have to work.
The reason that this vice is so difficult for many of us is that you can't just quit eating "cold turkey," so to speak, like you can cigarettes, alcohol, or even coffee. You have to have some food to live.
My worst time is the hour before dinner, when I get home from work. I've got the munchies, I'm cooking, I'm around food, everything looks good. If I'm not careful, I've actually satisfied my hunger before I ever sit down to dinner and then proceed to eat a full meal.
But gluttony is really about more than just an inability to resist crackers and chips in late afternoon. It is a mindset, really a lifestyle in our North American culture. It makes no sense to have competing headlines screaming from the cover of a single magazine at the grocery store check out: 10 ways to lose weight, accompanied by 10 scrumptious desserts. Yet you see it all the time. These headlines sell magazines. Economics in this day is what drives the wheels of gluttony: advertisers, marketers and retailers all compete to win the consumer and offer more choices, bigger sizes, better tasting. There has always been gluttony, but I think the temptations are more diverse in 2006 than in 1006.
Have you noticed there is no "small" at many modern eateries: you can't order a small or regular coffee at most coffee chains? Something like "grande" is the smallest they have. You can't really order a small serving of fries, either, at the fast food joints. Maybe they call it medium, but it is the smallest they have.
Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, in his work Summa Theologia, said of gluttony: "Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire ... leaving the order of reason " Gluttony can be not only the food itself, but a gourmet's insistence on expensive, intricately prepared (time consuming) delicacies. Gluttony can be over-exercise, believe it or not. One man said he had become addicted to the runner's high and ran obsessively 2-3 hours a day.
Environmentalists say that the consumption of the earth's resources is gluttony. "Human consumption of energy, forests, and land now far exceeds the rate at which the planet can replenish itself," says John D. Spalding at Beliefnet.com. Spalding prompts another line of thinking about gluttony when he asks, "How many pairs of shoes do you own? How many hours of TV do you watch a week?" I would add, how many hours of video or computer games? How many gallons of gas per mile does your car consume?
Gluttony is the overlooked sin in religion; we are more likely to hear a sermon or public pronouncement on pride, envy or even lust, before overeating. It is too common and too impolite, it might hurt someone's feelings. Some medical conditions and some medications, unfortunately, are often part of the problem. Sedentary jobs are part of the problem. Aging is part of the problem, needing to eat less but not changing our lifestyle.
Which brings us to the only long term cure for gluttony: there is no diet that will work once someone goes off of it. The only thing that works is to change our lifestyles, our ways of eating and dealing with food, developing habits that use less of the earth's resources, striving for balance in exercise, media use, purchases.
The RX for gluttony is plain old self-control, something you can't buy at the store. It comes with hard work. I know these are hard words in a satisfy-me-now culture. But the rewards-the good feelings of self-control, restraint, saving money, saving fuel are like steak instead of cotton candy: they stick with you a long time. Even eternity.
Contributed by Melodie Davis: [email protected] Melodie is the author of eight books and writes a syndicated newspaper column, Another Way
Kitchen dancing does indeed have posture rules Dreamer