(I completed this diary prior to the news of the passing of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
“Boy, you eat too fast!”
The voice that I forever hear in my head is my grandmother’s on this specific topic but...everyone, at some point, tells me this or something like this:
“Do you even chew your food?”
“How do you taste and enjoy your food?”
”You must have a tapeworm or something.”
My mother has told me that when she was in the hospital after I was born, some of the nurses complained to her that, “All the other babies in the hospital only drink one bottle, your son drinks two”!
I’ve never had much of a history of being overweight or anything...well, nowadays, I have a bit of middle-aged spread but...that’s normal, right?
Yes, I chew my food.
Yes, I taste and enjoy my food.
Yes, I still eat faster than most other people.
I did not even think of writing much of what I’ve said to this point had I not looked up the definition and, more importantly, the etymology of...gluttony.
Online Etymology Dictionary-Gluttony
"extravagant indulgence of appetite," c. 1200, glutunie, from Old French glotonie "debauchery, gluttony," from gloton "glutton" (see glutton). Gluttonry recorded from late 12c.
Lets see...Glutton
"one who eats and drinks to excess," early 13c., from Old French gloton "glutton;" also "scoundrel," a general term of abuse (Modern French glouton), from Latin gluttonem (nominative glutto) "overeater," which is related to gluttire "to swallow," gula "throat" (see gullet). General sense in reference to one who indulges in anything to excess is from 1704. Glutton for punishment is from pugilism; the phrase is from 1854, but the idea is older:
Thus, Theocritus, in his Milling-match, calls Amycus "a glutton," which is well known to be the classical phrase at Moulsey-Hurst, for one who, like Amycus, takes a deal of punishment before he is satisfied. [Tom Moore, "Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress," 1819]
Extravagance! Debauchery! A scoundrel! Excess!
Other than, perhaps, my packrat ways, doesn’t sound much like me at all; I am far from a broke-ass ancient Roman or French aristocrat eager for a Feast of Trimalchio...but, being the know-it-all that he is, St. Thomas Aquinas seems to have me... pegged.
More about that after I tell you what we are and what we do here at Top Comments.
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Back to Wikipedia.
In his Summa Theologica (Part 2-2, Question 148, Article 4), St. Thomas Aquinas reiterated the list of five ways to commit gluttony:[12]
- Laute - eating food that is too luxurious, exotic, or costly
- Studiose - eating food that is excessive in quality (too daintily or elaborately prepared)
- Nimis - eating food that is excessive in quantity (too much)
- Praepropere - eating hastily (too soon or at an inappropriate time)
- Ardenter - eating greedily (too eagerly)
So...that “Ardenter” thing there...might be the only thing that I am guilty of with regard to the sin of “gluttony?”
And...wow, that story above the St. Thomas Aquinas about Esau? That eagerness is the worst manifestation of the sin of gluttony?
I mean, granted that my folks had no understanding of Catholic discourse on gluttony, my eating too fast was never considered to be sinful; it was considered to be more unhealthy than anything else.
And...switching to the modern medical literature, eating too fast is still considered to be unhealthy.
Although I rarely come down with the five signs discussed in the Bustle link above.
The suggestions at the WebMD link sound reasonable but I find this to be...a little extreme.
You can find still another option at the dentist's office. Ask about the new dental appliance designed to help you eat more slowly. You place the device, which is much like a dental retainer, in the roof of your mouth before meals. It reduces the size of your oral cavity and forces you to take smaller mouthfuls.
Frankly, the ancient suggestion of fasting sounds a lot better than going to the dentist for that (and I have fasted before)!
Over the next seven weeks, I’ll be doing a little self-examination, personal “case study”, and philosophical contemplation (lol) of the so-called Seven Deadly Sins of pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. I can certainly see myself in six of them and I have puh-lenty of material to choose from.
But gluttony?
I might have to go into full Brittany Spears mode on that one.
(Tried to end on a jovial note but the truth is that this has become a sad and frightening evening all of a sudden.)
Comments below the fold.
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