7 Deadly Sins: Gluttony

As I continue my "series" of posts about the 7 Deadly Sins, we are about to take a look at Gluttony. As this series is also about me, we will refer to the definition with me as reference... how interesting is that going to be?

Now I'm a guy who likes to eat. I've always enjoyed my food, my desserts and my candies. Not to mention potato chips and a mouth watering bar of chocolate.

Apart from fulfilling the desire of Lust which we talked about last time, the desire to eat is one we need to fulfill or we will die. Lust is only important, really, when taking survival of the human race into account... that's not so important, now is it? Yeah, I'm joking... in case you are one of those people who have a hard time picking up sarcasm and irony.

Let us also continue the tradition of referencing Gluttony from the ever popular web encyclopedia "wikipedia". This is how it describes the Deadly Sin of Gluttony:

Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp
down or swallow, gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of
anything to the point of waste. In the Christian religions, it is
considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food, or its withholding
from the needy.[2]

Depending on the culture, it can be seen as either a vice or a sign of
status. Where food is relatively scarce, being able to eat well might be
something to take pride in (although this can also result in a moral backlash
when confronted with the reality of those less fortunate). Where food is
routinely plentiful, it may be considered a sign of self control to resist the
temptation to over-indulge.

Medieval Church leaders (e.g., Thomas
Aquinas) took a more expansive view of gluttony (Okholm 2000), arguing that
it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant
eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods.[3] He went so
far as to prepare a list of six ways to commit gluttony, including:

• Praepropere - eating too soon
• Laute - eating too expensively
• Nimis - eating too much
• Ardenter - eating too eagerly
• Studiose - eating too daintily
• Forente - eating too fervently

This was a bit of a funny read, as I learned a couple more things about what Gluttony really mean... I always thought it was all about over-eating - excessive eating of generally unhealthy foods, while this shows that there are really other forms of Gluttony. Lets not get ahead of ourselves... we'll do the highlighting thing again.

Gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste: Yup - this is what I figured Gluttony was all about. Am I guilty? Hell yeah! At times, anyway. I come from a long line of family members who are natural born eaters... I have been to other family dinners and actually been worried that there isn't enough food. My eyes scouring the tables, while my brain wondering can I really fill my plate with the goods and still leave something for the others? See... our family always makes enough to have left-overs for weeks after a get-together. We are the kind of family who says "Come on. Have some more. There is plenty left."

Stilll - I am the only one who [was] over-weight.

Add to this a love of pizza, hamburgers and other kinds of junk food. Kentucky Fried, Taco Bells... man, I miss those two! Can't have'em around here.

So, I eat a lot. I don't go hungry, that's for sure. But, let me ask one question? How important is it to eat moderately and healthy? Really?

I lost weight. I've mentioned that before here. I went from 260 pounds down to 186 pounds in about a year. I didn't do this by counting calories on every damn thing I ate. While indulging in Gluttony (of course) isn't going to shed the pounds, you can still enjoy eating some good food every now and then. I ate pizza and hamburgers, and I ate large servings of food. What I did, mainly, was cut the potato chips, the chocolate and most importantly; No evening snacks! Evening snacks are the killer... do not eat 4 hours before bedtime! You can have water to keep from getting hungry. And, keep yourself in motion - excercise is more important than counting calories... the word from Dr. R.E.H.!

So, my take? Eat what you want... moderately most of the time... enjoy some Gluttony every now and then, and keep away from the snacks and the midnight bite!

Where food is relatively scarce, being able to eat well might be something to take pride in: Yes, in a way. We are fortunate enough to live in rich countries where we do not have to suffer from starvation. We should eat, and we should eat well - but that's not to say we should eat excessively... nor too fattening foods. I am, honestly, quite proud of the fact that I can afford to put a decent meal on the table each day.

Of course - I would be even more happy if this was possible for all humans on our planet.

Now. To finish off this little look at Gluttony - let's have a look at the six ways to commit Gluttony. This is the part that I didn't know of until I read about it here on wikipedia.

Praepropere - eating too soon: Guilty! At times I do eat stuff even though I'm not the least bit hungry. Most often the things I choose to eat at such a time are candy or potato chips. Hey! I bought that bag of chips to eat while watching that movie on TV tonight... so what if I just had dinner? Bring on the tasty tater chips! Though... as I said, I have scrapped the chips for the most part. I don't want those pounds back.

Laute - eating too expensively: Not Guilty! I rarely pay too much for food. I rarely eat out even - cook mostly at home. Even when buying the groceries I will often opt for the cheaper brand. Only a few things will I buy from the more expensive well-known producers, and that is a decision which has been made depending on the quality of the lesser known suppliers.

Nimis - eating too much: Guilty! We covered this already...

Ardenter - eating too eagerly: Guilty! Depending on what it is. If it is something I've been longing for... I will dig in fervently. If I am extremely hungry - even more so. Both Nimis and Ardenter is practiced on my birthday to the max. There is a special meal we always have on that day, I would call it "Pepper Sauce"... I have never, ever left the table without being so full I can barely breathe! And, my motto on that day is "the faster I eat, the more I can swallow before my stomach sends warning signals to my brain".

Studiose - eating too daintily: Not Guilty! Sometimes I wish I were. I don't do too well at fancy dinners or anything. I like to sample the foods and I am often a sloppy eater... not to the point that I have grease running down my chin, or eating with my hands or anything. But, soon after I dig in - usually the plate looks like a mess.

Forente - eating too fervently: Hmmm... well, Guilty! I think of that as pretty much the same thing as eagerly... go figure!

We will continue the tradition of adding a song to the playlist which has got to do with Gluttony. I couldn't really come up with any songs that deal with over-eating, except for Alice Cooper's "Eat Some More", which of course was not available in the playlist. Instead, I give you another Cooper classic - which if you use your imagination is quite suitable; "Feed My Frankenstein".

Tomorrow it's time for some WWC fun again. ROUGH and SMOOTH are the words!