This may take the form of eating for comfort, or fastidious eating and obsessive dieting. At its most extreme, it may become compulsive over-eating (loss of control) or food refusal (holding on to control).
Graham Tomlin The seven deadly sins pp.101-120.
Why on earth is gluttony a sin? ... surely just eating a little too much is as harmless an activity as you can get? ...
Strange though it may seem, in the earliest fourth-century lists of the deadly sins, gluttony used to head the list as the worst of them all. Pope Gregory wrote: "Unless we first tame the enemy dwelling within us, namely our gluttonous appetite, we have not even stood up to engage in the spiritual combat." ...
[There are] reasons that ... might make us question why gluttony is considered a sin at all. ... Jesus, it seems, was rather fond of a party ... A fine claret, a tasty slice of rich, creamy Camembert, a pint of dark beer, a sweet-tasting pear are all good, God-given pleasures. ...
When we think of gluttony we normally think of very large people stuffing food into their mouths with no thought of tomorrow; over-indulgence to a large degree. Yet the sin of gluttony has always been seen as covering a wider area than that, including that fastidiousness about food that obsesses over what we can and cannot eat. ... Obsessive dieting can be just as much a sign of gluttony as overeating.
Gluttony then is an inordinate obsession with food, drink or plain consumption. It is getting food out of proportion, just as lust is getting sex out of proportion. ... [W]hen food become a god, it becomes dangerous. ...
The evidence of that is all around. Obesity is one of the biggest ... problems in the developed world ... [F]irst-world gluttony is scandalous when related to third-world poverty and hunger.
But overeating is not the only way of abusing food. Obsessing about quantities is also a sign of bad inner health. ... Suffering from anorexia, bulimia or a compulsive eating disorder are not sins as such, but they are an indicator that something is deeply wrong. ...
Why do people overeat themselves into obesity, or starve themselves into anorexia? All the studies suggest that these disorders often emerge from a sense of lack of worth. We all know the pattern of comfort eating. When we feel a bit low, a slice of chocolate cake or apple pie can make us feel a whole lot better. ... Similarly, anorexia or bulimia often emerge out of patterns of unhappiness or self-dislike. ...
Now these of course are extreme cases. Yet they point to the ease with which we use food and drink to replace something that's missing from our lives, to comfort us when we feel lonely and to satisfy us when we are not just physically, but also spiritually hungry.
Peter Kreeft, an American philosopher and writer, puts it well: "The motivation for gluttony is the unconscious self-image of emptiness: I must fill myself because I am empty, ghostlike, worthless." Gluttony is trying to fill a spiritual vacuum with a physical remedy. ...
So how do we know when we are in danger of gluttony? The guilt feelings that come when we know we have eaten too much once in a while ... are most probably not true, healthy signs of guilt ... [They] may be caused more by vanity than gluttony.
Gluttony happens when the connection between food and its proper purpose is broken. Food is given to sustain the body, to enrich our communal life and to give pleasure to the taste. It is not there to comfort the isolated and lonely, to bolster a fragile self-image or to be a substitute for prayer. ...
Gluttony begins to rear its head when someone begins to get food out of proportion. The key issue here is control. The overeater loses control over how much he eats. He is unable to stop himself ... He believes the lie that it is impossible for him to control his eating. For the anorexic or bulemic person, the issue is the other way round: it is a matter of giving up control. ... Here, the remedy is to learn to give up control and re-form their identity around something other than eating habits, so that food can take its normal place as something to be enjoyed. ...
Gluttony is disordered desire. It is thinking that food can satisfy our deepest needs. And no created thing can do that. We were made to find our deepest satisfaction when we are connected with our creator; when we learn to desire him above everything else. ...
The Christian answer to gluttony is not self-denial for the sake of it, nor is it the boring routine of endless moderation, a meagre diet of lettuce leaves and dry bread. It is the rhythm of feasting and fasting, the ability to take time to enjoy the delicious flaviour of a Belgian chocolate ... when the time is right, yet to say no to any of these at other times, because our deepest needs are not met by food, but by fellowship with God.
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