Gluttony

Gluttony is excessive pleasure in eating food.  It isn't just about how much we eat but also how much pleasure we take in eating.  Gluttony makes us lose our appreciation for food and our God that created it.  There are five forms of gluttony:  eating fastidiously, ravenously, excessively, sumptuously, and hastily.  Eating too fastidiously and too sumptuously regard what we eat.  Fastidious gluttons have a certain expectation of how they want their food and will do whatever it takes to get it that way.  These are the people that send their plates back to the kitchen several times in order to get their food just the way they want it.  Sumptuous gluttons excessively seek the pleasure of fullness from food.  These people eat food not only because it tastes good but also because they desire the satisfaction of being full.  We can all relate to the other three kinds of gluttony even more:  eating too hastily, too greedily, and too much.  DeYoung describes hasty eating as, "...putting in another bite before the last one is chewed and swallowed but also pinpoints the sneaky snacker..."(144).  An overeater eats past the point of fullness just for the satisfaction of another bite.  A greedy eater eats quickly so that he can go back for more of his favorite dishes.  These three types of gluttony regard how we eat.  Bottom line, the glutton eats because it satisfies their own pleasure.  When these desires for food become excessive we loose sight of the use God intended for them; we loose appreciation for food.  DeYoung says, "...keeping our desire for this pleasure in order is necessary for keeping our relationships to God and other people in order" (154).  She says that gluttony's remedy is fasting.  "By giving up certain foods for a time, and by not eating to satiety, we learn anew to appreciate and be content with simple foods" (155).  Fasting also increases our appetite for spiritual goods and makes us aware of our dependence on God (156). 


Our discipline was to skip lunch today.  I did skip lunch and I must say that I was surprised by what I learned from this.  I thought that by skipping lunch I would be just starving until dinner.  To my surprise I didn't feel that hungry until close to dinner time.  From this I learned that most of the time when I go to eat lunch I'm not even that hungry but I eat anyway.  At dinner I didn't seem to eat much more than I usually do but I felt hungry.  This taught me that I eat when I'm not really hungry and that I probably eat too much.  Also by reading the chapter, I found that I am guilty of almost all five of the types of gluttony.