I saw two neighboring restaurants recently which both had signs reading “All You Can Eat.” For those of you who know me quite well, you may have guessed that I haven’t visited either place. My choice to avoid these restaurants, however, is not based on the taste or quality of the food. It is based upon another, often confused and misunderstood, concept altogether. What is this concept? It is the concept of gluttony—also known as overeating.
This concept applies very well in the world of law enforcement. How so, you ask? Early on in my career as a law officer, many times I found myself and my colleagues discussing where we would eat. We would discuss types of food, discounts or no discounts and buffets. Unfortunately, we selected buffets more often than not because we were enticed by the concept of “all you can eat.” Sadly, this has gotten so many in dire trouble because frequently indulging in “all you can eat” eventually causes a myriad of chronic health conditions.
Before you stop reading and possibly get defensive, I ask that you allow your mind to see a different perspective. Gluttony is the insatiable appetite for something that will never bring fullness of satisfaction, which is a much deeper definition than the often repeated (and shorter) definition— that of eating too much.
8 Reasons to Avoid Overeating
1. Your stomach can only hold so much. It can stretch of course, but the digestion process is very poor because of the enormous amount of food.
2. During the eating process, there is an immediate sense of gratification or happiness. However, it is followed by an even longer sense of remorse and a generally poor feeling.
3. The stomach is made a certain size for a reason. With too much food to process as energy, the reserved energy is, in turn, stored as fat.
4. Eating too much promotes obesity, which can lead to heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and joint pain. Obesity is epidemic in our world.
5. The propensity to eat too much can become habitual in nature, making you a slave to food. Most have no idea how many calories they eat.
6. Food addiction is harder to break than addiction to alcohol and drugs. This is based on the fact that we must eat to survive.
7. Gluttony can make you forget that having enough food is a blessing. We live in a land of plenty rather than a land of not enough.
8. Food is designed to give the body a source of sustenance and energy rather than a pleasurable experience. That is why a key food measurement is the calorie—a unit of energy. The pleasure of the experience is sharing a meal with loved ones.
I ask you then—is the practice of gluttony beneficial? I will be bold in my own assessment. I fear we have fallen prey to having it too good for too long. We may have become spoiled to the core in expecting to always have more than enough. Abundant food, in my opinion, is both a blessing and a curse. We are blessed to have it in abundance, but at the same time our abundance has given us a sense of entitlement. We have eating contests and claim the contestants are athletes while at the same time realizing eating too much is damaging to our bodies. We want to save room for more when we really are gathering more than we can ever utilize. Many of our daily schedules are made based on when we will eat. We joke and laugh about eating too much like it is a badge of honor.
Maybe, just maybe, we don’t want to admit we have become prisoners of our abundance! All you can eat should rather be viewed as all you should eat. My friends, I ask you to really think about this! Reassessing the concept of gluttony can literally save your life.
