When's Gluttony a Mortal Sin?

[Emil]

I have advanced heart disease and have been told I need to get off the Pepsi, but I can’t. I am overweight since I can’t exercise without having palpitations, etc. – My question: Is my unwillingness to give up Pepsi considered gluttony?

I have been working on gluttony lately and I would really appreciate some feedback on this. Pepsi seems to refresh my stomach when I have acidity (my mother says that’s the strangest thing she’s ever heard) and it soothes my frayed nerves like cigarettes did at one time. I also suffer from anxiety, so something that could be easy for someone else can in fact be quite harder for me to accomplish. I do realize God is always there to help.

What to do?

Regards,
Emil

 

[GandalfTheWhite]

I’m actually getting troubled with this as well so I have few questions.

I had a smaller dinner today at 8PM and later on (about 10PM) I ate some fruit and yogurt - that’s what I do every day. Now after about an hour I felt like eating some peanuts so I opened the bag and ate some. I wasn’t hungry at all but yet I ate. In the end I felt full (not my-stomach-is-going-to-explode full but full anyways). Was that a sin? Was that a grave sin?

When I’m served a rather large dinner and I don’t want to throw away food (or just leave it) but as a consequence I eat TOO much, is that a sin? A grave sin?

Thanks,
~G

 

[greystoke]

what exactly is gluttony? Is it just when you eat more than you need to? Or is it when you eat enough to feel sick?

Hi cgirl.

Imagine you and I were on a lifeboat with plenty of food and drink, to last 'til rescue. Imagine I was injured and helpless. If you consumed my portion and let me starve…NOW THAT WOULD BE GLUTTONY.

Read the commandments. There are only 10. Jesus paraphrased them to two. Men added hundreds more, often nonsensical. We are so busy sweating the little ones, but are breaking the God given ones without a thought.

Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton. He ate, drank, and made merry with his friends. Obviously didn’t have issues about food, like everyone ('cept me) seems to have these days.

These issues are because eating has become dissociated from energy reqirements, as stated in my post. Get active, and get out of your head.

Hope this helps.

God bless.

 

[greystoke]

I have advanced heart disease and have been told I need to get off the Pepsi, but I can’t. I am overweight since I can’t exercise without having palpitations, etc. – My question: Is my unwillingness to give up Pepsi considered gluttony?

I have been working on gluttony lately and I would really appreciate some feedback on this. Pepsi seems to refresh my stomach when I have acidity (my mother says that’s the strangest thing she’s ever heard) and it soothes my frayed nerves like cigarettes did at one time. I also suffer from anxiety, so something that could be easy for someone else can in fact be quite harder for me to accomplish. I do realize God is always there to help.

What to do?

Regards,
Emil

Hi Emil.

The answer to your question is NO.

I’m not surprised that an acidic drink seems to help with stomach acid. This has been observed for centuries…eg orange and lemon juice, cider vinegar etc.

Many people with anxiety have addictions to things which appear to alleviate the symptoms…but actually perpetuate the stress.

Caffeine, and especially nicotine, actually cause a STRESS REACTION in the body, not realaxation! They cause a surge in stress hormones like adrenaline, increasing heartrate and blood pressure, and constricting the smaller blood vessels. Bummer if you’ve got heart disease.

Amazingly, the stress reaction becomes addictive( like a roller coaster ride). When you realize this, it’s much easier to take back control. You don’t actually have to do anything if you decide to stop.

Being inactive because you fear palpitations is a vicious circle. Find out what limited exercise you CAN do and DO IT, even if it requires you to throw away the remote control.

Suffered from stress and anxiety for years. Then serious illness nearly killed me. Guess what? That CURED my stress and anxiety! I stopped worrying about the little things. I thank God every day I can get out of the bed.

Best of luck.

God bless.

 

[Kathrin]

I had a smaller dinner today at 8PM and later on (about 10PM) I ate some fruit and yogurt - that’s what I do every day. Now after about an hour I felt like eating some peanuts so I opened the bag and ate some. I wasn’t hungry at all but yet I ate. In the end I felt full (not my-stomach-is-going-to-explode full but full anyways). Was that a sin? Was that a grave sin?~G

That’s a little bit what I do too. Eat a little at a time. I THINK that’s ok. I have had the same concerns a bit as you have about eating when you’re not really all that hungry - out of habit, maybe? I don’t THINK what you describe here would be called a sin, but let’s see what others have to say. I think most of us who have posted questions here are rather scrupulous.

Sometimes it’s also that your body needs a certain nutrient… maybe you craved the peanuts because you needed something that was in them? I crave nuts sometimes. Maybe when I need salt (like on a hot day) or even fat (I don’t like many fatty things, but nuts is one of them).

About the not wanting to throw away food and eating it instead… you know I read something once I think it was a woman who needed to lose weight and she had that problem. But then she realized if she ATE IT instead of throwing it away, she was actually using her stomach as a “garbage can”.
Now that depends of course on whether you could use some extra nutrition or not. In her cause apparently she needed to eat LESS.
But I do hate throwing away food. If I am somewhere where there are a lot of homeless people I’d rather put it on top of a garbage can for somebody else to pick up. But that’s not always possible. And saving for the next day, of course, great, but I don’t have my own refrigerator these days. If I make myself something to eat, I try to do it on the small side. Can always get more. Ok, not if you cook something complicated. I usually don’t do that. I usually just eat cold stuff. Oh well. Maybe I’m the wrong person to reply to your question.

God bless!

Kathrin

 

[greystoke]

I’m actually getting troubled with this as well so I have few questions.

I had a smaller dinner today at 8PM and later on (about 10PM) I ate some fruit and yogurt - that’s what I do every day. Now after about an hour I felt like eating some peanuts so I opened the bag and ate some. I wasn’t hungry at all but yet I ate. In the end I felt full (not my-stomach-is-going-to-explode full but full anyways). Was that a sin? Was that a grave sin?

When I’m served a rather large dinner and I don’t want to throw away food (or just leave it) but as a consequence I eat TOO much, is that a sin? A grave sin?

Thanks,
~G

Hi Gandalf.

With a weary heart, the answer to your questions:

NO, NO, NO and NO.

I am sure I could eat your whole week’s diet in one day. Please stop beating yourself up about this. Read my posts. All this anxiety about food is due to dissociating eating from energy requirements.

This usually happens when people are physically inactive. Same thing happens to their dogs, if they don’t get out in the air!

It is not a spiritual problem, its origin is physical. The psychological issues follow the physiological. The problem is so endemic in society today, because we allow our bodies to deteriorate, by giving them nothing to do. Who digs ditches, when a machine can do it?

Get out and engage with the wider world and the people in it. That’s the way to get out of your own head.

Hope this helps.

God bless.