If I were permitted to abolish six of the deadly
sins from our planet the one which I would retain is gluttony. People who are driven by
pride, wrath, envy, lust, or avarice probably make life unpleasant for those around them,
but the penalties associated with gluttony and sloth (which are often mentioned together)
fall mainly on the sinners themselves. To choose between these two last intransitive sins,
consider their opposites: asceticism and hyperactivity. I would not mind people around me
being hyperactive, so long as their motives were purged of the other deadly sins, but
asceticism, restraint, or self denial are not characteristics that I would welcome in my
associates and still less in myself.
Our moral mentors deplore gluttony because self
indulgence deflects our thoughts from higher things, but the Bible has little direct
criticism of gluttony per se. The Book of Proverbs has some aphorisms about the social(1
2) and economic(3) disadvantages of gluttony, and the apostle Paul throws in
gluttony in a general disparagement of the character of Cretans,(4) but sinners who
show gratitude by overconsumption of good things offered do not attract their most severe
rebukes.
The strongest case that can be made against gluttony
concerns its effects on the body rather than the soul. In medical literature it is
fashionable to use gluttony as a synonym for overeating, especially as in "there is
increasing evidence that obesity is not merely due to gluttony."(5)(6) This is
loose use of language: it is certainly possible to eat far more than energy requirements
dictate without ever overriding the physiological signals of satiety.
Watch those TV
dinners
A picture to illustrate the aetiology of obesity would not be of gargantuan
feasting: rather it would be of someone settling down to an evening of televiewing with an
array of telesnacks within reach. If, during a typical 30 minute period between commercial
breaks, he or she consumed a small (50 g) packet of peanuts or potato crisps, washed down
with a half pint of beer or lemonade, the energy intake over three hours would exceed energy
expenditure by about 2000 kcal. This is substantial overeating, but you could hardly call it
gluttony. Indeed, such a person would probably tell a dietitian the next day, in all
sincerity, that he or she could not recall eating anything that evening. We know that obese
people must overeat, because calorimetry shows that obese people have higher energy
expenditures than lean ones, so thermodynamic principles require that they have
correspondingly higher energy intakes.(7) The health risks of obesity have been
rehearsed elsewhere.(8)
The characteristic of gluttons is that they are insatiable.
With respect to food intake this has rather modest medical disadvantages. For a given daily
energy intake it is metabolically less favourable to eat few large meals (gorging) than many
small meals (nibbling).(9)(10) The syndrome of bulimia nervosa may drive young
women to gorge, purge, and vomit in an effort to achieve a low body weight, but the medical
problems of this syndrome arise as much from their "dyslipophobia" as from the disturbed
eating pattern.(11) But gluttony need not apply only to food, there are also gluttons
for work. Satiation also can be overdone. We should all be capable of satiation, but not too
easily and not all the time.
Rickmansworth,
Hertfordshire WD3 2DQ
John Garrow,
retired
professor of human nutrition
References:
1 Holy Bible (New International Version). Proverbs
xxiii,2.
2 Holy Bible (New International Version). Proverbs xxviii,7.
3
Holy Bible (New International Version). Proverbs xxiii,21.
4 Holy Bible
(New International Version). The epistle of St Paul to Titus,i,12.
5 Hamilton B S,
Paglia D, Kwan AY, Deitel M. Increased obese mRNA expression in omental fat cells from
massively obese humans. Nature Medicine 1995;1:953-6.
6 Ravussin E.
Metabolic differences and the development of obesity. Metabolism 1995;44(suppl
3):12-4.
7 Garrow J S. Obesity and related diseases. London: Churchill
Livingstone, 1988.
8 Garrow J S. Importance of obesity. BMJ
1991:303:704-6.
9 Jenkins DJ, Jenkins AL, Wolever TM, Vuksan V, Rao AV, Thompson
LU, et al. Low glycaemic index: lente carbohydrates and physiological effects of
altered food frequency. Am J Clin Nutr 1994;59 (suppl 3):706S-9S.
10
Jenkins DJ, Khan A, Jenkins AL, Illingworth R, Pappu AS, Wolever TM, et al. Effect of
nibbling versus gorging on cardiovascular risk factors: serum uric acid and blood lipids.
Metabolism 1995;44:549-55.
11 Crisp AH. The dyslipophobias: a view of the
psychopathologies involved and the hazards of construing anorexia nervosa and bulimia
nervosa as "eating disorders." Proc Nutr Soc 1995;54:701-9.
