Drinking water, breathing oxygen and eating food are very important for everyday survival. However, it is difficult to imagine that a person suddenly began to greedily swallow air or drink gallons of water without a rational reason. But there is such a problem with food, and its name is gluttony. Residents of developed countries are increasingly becoming convinced of what this is by their own example. And Russia is no exception.

What is gluttony in Orthodoxy?

In Orthodoxy, gluttony is considered one of the seven deadly sins.

There are several signs, each of which is reflected in the pages of Holy Scripture:

• Eating before traditional meal times to stimulate digestion. King Saul's son Jonathan sipped a little honey before dinner, for which his father punished him by fasting until dark;
• Search more quality products nutrition. The Israelites asked the Almighty for meat, since they were tired of fish and other food. God fulfilled their request, but punished the people 500 years later;
• Add seasonings to bring new flavors to regular grub. Eli's two sons died after cooking meat in a manner different from the traditional method;
• Eating too eagerly, even when very hungry. Esau sold his birthright to eat lentil stew.

The last sin is considered the most serious among Orthodox Christians, since it demonstrates a craving for pleasure - unacceptable in the Christian world.

Overeating as a mental problem

Science rarely finds common ground with the Christian faith. The situation with gluttony is one of the rare exceptions. Eating disorder leading to obesity is officially recognized by the International Classification of Diseases. There can be many gradations of the disease: from mild to severe bulimia nervosa.

Among the most typical symptoms of the disease:

• Periodic loss of control over the process of eating;
• Multiple increases in portions and frequency of eating during times of stress;
• Weakening of subjective feelings regarding the volume of portions and the time of their absorption;
• Breakdowns can sometimes be pre-planned: buying large quantities of food for late-night meals;
• Patients are usually embarrassed to show weakness to their stomach in public. To obtain simple pleasure, they retire and are very shy if they are caught at this time;
• Memory lapses regarding meals: inability to remember the diet for the previous or even the current day;
• Feeling guilty for every extra piece shoved down your throat.

Why is gluttony a sin?

None of the religious prohibitions would have ever been observed by billions of people over thousands of years if it had not had at least the slightest relation to common sense.

From the point of view of faith, every Orthodox Christian must limit himself in daily meals according to the following reasons:

• Indulging in a huge amount of food beyond measure, a person forgets about those in need. Our absurd world is structured in such a way that while some people overeat, others cannot find even a crumb of bread for themselves. Any extra piece of food should go to the hungry and only to them;
• Hedonism is the worst enemy of any world religion. Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism - they are all equally based on the idea of ​​self-denial for the sake of a great idea. Receiving pleasure is regarded as a sin, be it carnal pleasure or eating extra fruit;
• Even people far from religious prohibitions admit that gluttony is not in the best possible way affects health. Those with impressive belly sizes are regulars at clinics and do not live longer than the average life expectancy.

Proper Orthodox nutrition

So, we found out how not to eat. Now all that’s left to do is figure out how to properly organize a meal in accordance with all the canons of Orthodoxy.

According to the holy fathers, the process should look like this:

1. If a person has realized that he is eating incorrectly and sinfully Christian morality, then everything can still be corrected;
2. First of all, you need to limit the use of spices and herbs in everyday food;
3. Then comes the turn of giving up sweets;
4. Then comes the refusal of fatty foods;
5. You need to leave the table when the first urges of hunger are satisfied, but you still want to eat;
6. While eating food, you need to remain silent. During an interesting conversation, you may eat much more than usual;
7. It is recommended to repeat the prayer silently to distract the brain from mortal and sinful thoughts.

Harm from eating too much

Storing kilograms of excess food in the stomach can lead to very disastrous consequences for the body:

• Millions of people nowadays are engaged in mental work. Calories do not have time to be consumed, which leads to the formation of fat deposits and excess weight gain. Which, in turn, can be the source of a whole bunch of new diseases;
• Regular exposure to the parts of the nervous system responsible for the feeling of satiety can negatively affect the concentration of glucose in the blood. Thus, the feeling of hunger increases for a longer period;
• There is an increased load on the digestive organs responsible for the synthesis of biologically active catalysts. Disruptions in their work can lead to stomach ulcers, liver diseases and the formation of kidney stones;
• If your diet contains a significant amount of sweets, then the pancreas comes under attack. Problems with this organ lead to disruptions in the endocrine system and the development of diabetes;
• In advanced cases, natural metabolism is disrupted. Then returning to a normal diet will be doubly difficult: the body is already accustomed to serious stress.

How to overcome gluttony?

Global food consumption is growing at the same time as the desire to look good. The most popular ways to get a good figure are:

• Diets. This method is popular only on the Internet. To consistently implement all the instructions of strict diets requires remarkable willpower. And the effectiveness of a number of methods is in question. Harm to health also cannot be ruled out;
• Therefore, future beauties can choose more easy way - pharmaceuticals. The latter come in several types: burning fat, reducing appetite and slowing down the rate of absorption of food by the body;
• Food coding. This mysterious phrase hides a hypnotic effect on the human psyche to wean him from the harmful habit of eating the plate;
• Use of folk remedies. Obesity was not a popular disease in Rus' for obvious reasons. But even for her there are special decoctions and tinctures of medicinal herbs. For example, it is known to use tinctures of dandelion, marshmallow and burdock for these purposes.

For most of human history, there has never been a situation in which the vast majority of the population suffered not from hunger, but from the complete opposite of this phenomenon. Not a century passed without a hundred or two thousand people dying from lack of food in one or another part of the world. Only from the sermons of the local priest did they hear the word “gluttony.” This is a blessing rather than a sin, no matter what the Abrahamic religions say.

Let me immediately say that we are talking about traditional knowledge, which we will discuss separately from religious aspects, so take the text accordingly, agreed? You probably know that traditional knowledge is an important source of health information for me. I believe that health-promoting knowledge, skills, and practices survived and perpetuated because they conferred an advantage on their bearers (like genes in evolution). Why is gluttony (gluttony) included in the list of mortal sins?! It seems, who feels bad because of what I eat? But it's not that simple.

What is gluttony?

Gluttony is gluttony, immoderation, greed in food, overeating, eating too much food, satiety. There was even such a definition of a glutton as - gluttonous, i.e. almost insane, obsessed. And overweight, fat, obese, “fat belly” are the usual definitions of the consequences of the life of a glutton.

In antiquity, it was believed that gluttony causes both bodily suffering and suffering of the soul, since the object of the sensualist’s joy is not a true good. The fight against the vice of gluttony involves not so much the volitional suppression of the urge to eat, but rather reflection on its true place in life[

Gluttony is one of the most serious mortal sins. Gluttony is understood not only as overeating, but also as drunkenness, drug use, smoking, and excessive love of pleasure and delicacy of food.

This passion turns into the desired goal of the soul for pleasure, in an irresistible desire to take more or more refined food than is required to maintain a healthy body. Gluttony means greed and excess in food, leading a person to a bestial state. A person possessed by the highest degree of gluttony reaches the point where, realizing the physiological impossibility of digesting the amount of food consumed, he takes pills to digest food, or, by inducing a gag reflex, he is freed from swallowed food for further consumption of the next meal.

The Holy Fathers say that if a person has submitted to the passion of gluttony, then all other passions, fornication, anger, sadness, despair, and love of money easily take possession of him. If you control the womb, you will live in paradise, and if you do not control it, you will become the prey of death.

Gluttony is the door and the beginning of many sinful inclinations, and whoever overcomes gluttony by strength dominates other sins.

Know that the demon often sits down on the stomach and does not allow a person to get enough, even if he devoured all the food in Egypt and drank all the water in the Nile.

“The beginning of all evil is the trust of the belly and the relaxation of oneself with sleep,” “satiation is the mother of fornication, those who have fallen into the pit of iniquity, and “to the extent that one labors in the belly, to that extent he deprives himself of tasting spiritual blessings.”

Types of gluttony

1. Encouragement to eat ahead of time;

2. Saturation with any food: a person is more interested in the amount of food. The limit of overeating is when a person forces himself to eat food when he doesn’t feel like it. Gastrimargia (Greek: gluttony) is a person’s desire to simply fill his belly, without particularly paying attention to the taste of food.

3. Desire for exquisite food, that is, a special attachment to the quality of food. Lemargy (Greek laryngopharynx) is a person’s desire for pleasure from consuming tasty food, receiving pleasure from organoleptic properties.

4. Other types: There are other types of gluttony, these are: secret eating - the desire to hide one’s vice; early eating - when a person, having barely woken up, starts eating without yet experiencing the feeling of hunger; hasty eating - a person tries to quickly fill his belly and swallows food without chewing, like a turkey.

Differences between satisfying hunger and gluttony

“A person has a natural need for food as a source of energy for the normal functioning of the human body. There is no sin in judicious, healthy, moderate satisfaction of it. The passion of gluttony grows from the abuse of satisfying this need. Passion perverts, exaggerates natural need, subjugates the will of a person to the lust of the flesh. A sign of developing passion is a constant desire for satiety.”

“Eating on a whim means wanting to take food not out of bodily need, but to please the belly. If you see that sometimes nature more readily accepts one of the vegetables than the juice, and not because of whim, but because of the lightness of the food itself, this must be distinguished. Some by nature require sweet food, others salty, others sour, and this is neither passion, nor whim, nor gluttony.

But to love any food especially and lustfully desire it is a whim, a servant of gluttony. But this is how you know that you are possessed by the passion of gluttony - when it also possesses your thoughts. If you resist this and decently take food according to bodily needs, then this is not gluttony.

The Story of Gluttony (Gula)

Gula is a Latin word meaning “gluttony, gluttony,” which organically entered the Old French language and existed almost until the beginning of the New Time. Thirsting for rich dishes and fine wines, the glutton goes beyond what God has laid down, thereby destroying the order He established on Earth, creating a threat to the state... The situation has gone so far that the very word “glutton” (gloz, glot or glou - in the language of that era) has become denote a rowdy, a person of dangerous and unpredictable character. The feminine form - gloute - among other things, received the meaning of “nymphomaniac”, “prostitute”, a woman not distinguished by decent behavior.

Negative attitudes towards people who abuse food can be found in both the books of the Old and New Testaments. For example, King Solomon wrote: “Be not among those who are drunk on wine, nor among those who are satiated with meat: for the drunkard and the satiated one will become poor, and sleepiness will be clothed in rags.” He also advised: “And put a barrier in your throat if you are greedy.”

In Catholic theology, gluttony is also one of the seven cardinal sins (the sin against the second commandment). Together with debauchery, it is classified as “carnal sin” (Latin: vitia carnalia). In German inquisitor Peter Binsfeld's classification of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttony was personified by Beelzebub. Beelzebub or Beelzebub (from Hebrew - Baal-Zebub, “lord of the flies”, literally “lord of flying things”) in the Christian religion is one of the evil spirits, an assistant of the devil (quite often identified with him along with Lucifer.

Miniatures and wall paintings of churches show us a huge number of frightening and repulsive images of gluttons. Here is a glutton with a bloated belly, like a dog, gnawing on a bone, here is a thin and wiry drunkard greedily leaning towards a glass. Here is another one galloping at full speed on a pig (a symbol of pleasing the belly), clutching a piece of meat in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. This type of depiction was the simplest way to convey to the flock the necessary truth: excessive cravings for food and wine are mortally dangerous, both for the body and for the soul!

Why is gluttony a mortal sin?

In 2003, leading associations of restaurants and cafes in France sent a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to remove gluttony from the list of sins. They see nothing wrong with a good table with delicious dishes. What sin is this?

And really, why is the desire to eat counted as a sin? There are a lot of things around that, it would seem, deserve more to be in the “honorable seven” than simple gluttony, which we most often treat very condescendingly. After all, hunger, according to scientists, is simply a kind of beacon that begins to indicate to us that the body does not have enough energy. But this is only at first and very inattentive glance...

Thomas Aquinas defined the cardinal vices as the source of many sins as follows: “a cardinal vice is such that it has an extremely desirable goal, so that in the desire of it a person resorts to committing many sins, which all have their origin in this vice as their main cause.”

Our ancestors did not know about dopamine, but they correctly noted that “greed has no boundaries.” And if you satisfy emotional hunger with food, or “polish” with food, then this behavior leads to serious disruptions in the dopamine system. Let me remind you that normally the dopamine system works like a stick, not a carrot.

With few exceptions, this system controls punishment rather than reward by shutting down dopamine. In such cases, dopamine levels drop (for example, in case of hunger), forcing us to take active actions. As a result, the reward system briefly returns dopamine, and we feel good. The same mechanism works, for example, when winning a sports competition, praising or condemning other people, etc. A drop in dopamine drives us to achieve a goal, which can be achieved at the cost of overexertion and stress.

That is, if you eat when there is a real need, then this behavior does not disrupt the functioning of the dopamine system. This is not gluttony. And if you eat for pleasure, then this is a classic dopamine stimulant! That is, according to traditional knowledge, everything that excessively stimulates dopamine is gluttony. I previously described this situation in detail with sweets, but it generally applies to other manifestations of gluttony. Stimulating dopamine with sweets is a common method. We are learning that sugar is no different from a drug and can be addictive, especially for people with a genetic or social predisposition. Yes, yes, people who eat sweets, cookies or sweet yogurts are actually no different from smokers. For our brain, both behavior patterns are the same. The desire to have a snack is an absolute analogue of the desire to smoke or drink.

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The sin of gluttony (or as it is also called gluttony) is a kind of addiction to excessive overeating of tasty food and drink, and is also one of the eight main addictions.

Meaning of sinful act

This kind of sinful addiction disfigures a person, because a belly heavy with food can plunge the mind into a dark slumber, and make it dull and lazy.

The person who is subject to this sin is not able to reason about the spiritual, and is also not able to deeply comprehend anything. His belly is a lead weight that pulls down the grounded soul, and at the same time such a person is especially sensitive to his weakness while saying a prayer service. Since the mind cannot penetrate the words of prayer, just as a dull knife blade cannot cut bread. That is, the passion for overeating carries with it a constant betrayal of one’s own prayer.

Saints on Gluttony

Saint Abba Theodore: “he who fattens his body without knowing abstinence in both drinking and eating will torment himself with the spirit of fornication”;

Saint John Kolov: “Who can be a mighty lion? However, he is also capable of getting caught in the net because of his womb, and at that moment all his power will no longer serve anything”;

Saint John of the Climacus: “If a person is able to overcome this mistress addiction, then every place will help him in gaining self-control, but if weakness gets the better of a person, then everywhere he will suffer disaster, and so on until the grave”;

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Rev. Gregory Palamas: “Let us also begin to worry about whether, by giving in to a harmful addiction, we do not lose the promised inheritance and blessing from the Almighty”;

Saint Simeon the New Theologian: “Whoever desires various dishes in large quantities, he is considered a glutton, even if he eats only bread and water as the reason for his poverty. It is unthinkable to fill your belly to the full with food and receive spiritual bliss from mental and sacred blessings, for whoever works for his belly to the extent that he deprives his flesh of spiritual saturation with blessings. And vice versa, who will refine his flesh to what extent commensurate with the fact that he is able to be satisfied with food and spiritual consolations”;

Abba Anthony: “Over-saturation of one’s womb awakens the seed of voluptuousness, a soul suppressed by the weight of over-saturation and the inability to reason. After all, not a single consumption of wine in excess of measure instills madness in a person, however, excessive saturation with food can also darken and upset him, depriving him of purity and purity”;

Saint John Cassian the Roman: “The passion for gluttony can be divided into several types: one is capable of urge to consume food before the allotted hour; the second type honors only gluttony; the latter will only desire a tasty dish. Against which a believer needs to have threefold vigilance, that is, wait for certain hours to eat food, avoid oversaturation and be content with various, but the simplest dishes.”

How to get rid of the sin of gluttony

When looking for an answer to the question of how to deal with gluttony, you should mainly arm yourself with tools such as:

• repentance for all cases of various pleasing to one’s belly;
• the objection of the aspirations of gluttony;
• remembrance of the main judgment and endless retribution for sinful acts;
• introducing rules for your belly and time for eating;
• prayer against gluttony and gluttony helps in the fight, as well as deliverance from sinful addictions;
• prudent overexertion of fasting, which can lead to the perfection of abstinence;
• mortal memory;
• you can arm yourself against the addiction to overeating by pronouncing the passages of Scripture and the Fathers;
• mastering the art of deceiving your belly in any way and not eating food when you are not hungry;
• punishing himself for making all sorts of concessions for his belly and excess with bows and physical labor;
• Gluttony and gluttony can be overcome by turning in prayer to the Almighty with a call for help when you realize your powerlessness and terrible weakness in the fight against such addiction.

The Orthodox prayer against gluttony is read in these words:

Lord, our sweetest Feast, which never perishes, but arrives in the eternal belly: cleanse Thy servant from the filth of gluttony, all that is made flesh and alien to Thy Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Thy life-giving spiritual Feast, which is Thy Flesh and Blood and the holy, living and Thy Word is efficacious.

May the Lord protect you!

Also watch the video on how to overcome the sin of gluttony:

It would be wonderful if someone, before descending into the grave, were freed from this passion.

Saint John Climacus

About gluttony. Its modern manifestations

Although to many people the conversation about gluttony seems outdated and archaic, this passion is firmly alive in the people of our time. True, it can be called by completely different words, more modern and more familiar to our ears. "Obesity" overweight", "overeating", "eating disorders". These are all different names for this terrible illness, which leaves its mark on both the soul and the body of a person.

The life of modern people is full of excess food. Of course, there are still many poor people and poor countries where things are completely different. However, harsh statistics show that currently every sixth person on our planet suffers from obesity. Never before have so many varieties of food been available to people. Go to any supermarket and you can easily see how every time sellers come up with new ways to present their products to the fullest. attractive form. And this is at a time when manufacturers make their dishes as fresh as possible, the portions for the same money are even larger, and the taste is fuller and richer. Recently, natural seasonings have been replaced by even synthetic flavor enhancers, the main task of which is to make even quite tasty artificial food, devoid of at least some taste before. But that's not all. The presence of such flavor enhancers (emulsifiers) in food products over time causes addiction in people. The cult of food, the stimulation of human gastronomic needs and preferences is another step towards gluttony, which, becoming a habit, causes obesity and many other diseases.

Obesity and excessive, unbridled passion for food are an additional burden on all body systems, primarily the cardiovascular system. As a result, this leads to an increase blood pressure, the occurrence of arrhythmia, angina, etc. And undoubtedly, this also creates incredible stress on the gastrointestinal tract, which is now forced to work without rest, around the clock. The endocrine system also changes, causing metabolic disorders. In the end, one can notice the influence of gluttony on the functioning of the human brain. After an excessive meal, laziness, fatigue appear, and thinking processes slow down. A person cannot concentrate and do something as well as he did just before. “A full belly is deaf to prayer.” That is why self-restraint and fasting are necessary practices for ascetics of all world religions. And ascetics of piety - Orthodox monks - are directly called “fasters”, with this name defining the nature of their main service - pacification of the flesh through restrictions on food and other pleasures.

Eating food in moderation is a vital necessity for humans, because hunger is biologically determined. When the balance of sugar, water or another important substance in a person’s blood is disturbed, an impulse automatically appears to replenish this deficiency with what the body needs right now. The centers that regulate the process of eating are located in a special part of the brain - the hypothalamus. Its individual zones are responsible for the feeling of hunger, thirst and satiety. In a normal state, this well-coordinated system maintains the existence of our body and weight at an optimal, genetically fixed level.

However, human nature, stricken by sin, made it possible to distort this physiological need, which was completely neutral in itself. So doctors know that when the desire for food weakens, a person ceases to feel hunger and thirst, up to the complete disappearance of appetite. And vice versa - gluttony, the consumption of even obviously spoiled food, is typical for people with congenital or acquired mental retardation.

Illustration: Hieronymus Bosch "Gluttony" from "The Seven Deadly Sins", 1475-1480

Saint John of the Climacus, like other ascetics of piety, in his ascetic works noted three main ways in which a person can violate the norm established by God in spiritual terms, using the process of eating to spite and harm himself.

• 1) First of all, people sin from gluttony when they take food in excessive quantities, significantly larger than what the body actually needs. For such a person, it is important to fill his own stomach with food as much as possible, almost through force.

2) The second sin is voluptuousness or guttural rage. This passion is realized in a person who seeks to gain pleasure through refined food, gourmet eating, using all kinds of seasonings and unusual, complex methods of preparing dishes. In this passion, unlike the previous one, it is not the amount of food consumed that is sinful, but its delicacy, a person’s search for unusual tastes, impressions and pleasures. It should be understood that we eat not to enjoy the taste, but to give the body the necessary amount of nutrients. It is known that the enjoyment of taste almost does not depend on the refinement of dishes. Even a piece of stale bread will bring more pleasure to a hungry person than a piece of cake to a pampered gourmet in the middle of a meal.

• 3) The third sin is secret eating. This sin is predominantly monastic, the danger of which is primarily experienced by monks living in communal monasteries. The essence of this passion lies in non-compliance with the monastic rules and daily routine, in untimely eating, more often than not, after prayer or secretly from the brethren. Of course, the laity can also sin by this, eating food not according to the daily routine, doctor’s prescription or the requirements of the church charter.

In addition to these three main passions associated with food, Saint Climacus recalls two more, no less dangerous cases.

The first passion is an uncontrollable thirst for your favorite food, an addiction to a specific dish. Saint John the Prophet describes people affected by this weakness as follows: such a person constantly dreams, fantasizes about a specific dish, often imagines it and tells others about it, and at a meal asks to be served first or moved closer. “In the passion of gluttony, the belly, when full, cries out: “I want more!” And even sighing from satiety, laments: “I’m hungry.” This passion teaches us to devour everything that stands before our eyes” (Ladder 2.1.4: 1).


And the apogee, the extreme point of development of the sin of gluttony, is the complete darkness of the mind towards issues of food and the pleasure of the stomach. In the language of the fathers, this sin is called the terrible word “gluttony.” A person with such mental illness lives for the sake of food, and does not eat in order to live.

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The passion of gluttony is one of the most dangerous passions of a person, known as a mortal sin in the tradition of the Western Church, and, in fact, “passion” in the tradition of the Eastern Church. Often appearing under a pious pretext, she seduces even the strongest in faith. Therefore, special wisdom is required in order to learn to distinguish objective reality from the temptation of the devil or our own passion.

"What made Esau so degraded, what made him his brother's slave? Wasn't it just the food for which he sold his birthright? And vice versa, wasn't it prayer with fasting that gave Samuel's mother? What made the great fighter Samson invincible? Wasn't it the fast that began still in his mother’s womb? (Judgment 13). Fasting gave birth to him, fasting nurtured him, and by fasting he grew to manhood - by that fasting, the angel commanded his mother (Basily the Great. About fasting 1.)

Only the one who has managed to curb his body, his own passionate flesh, will be able to put a good start struggle against more subtle spiritual and mental sinful states. It follows that the struggle with one’s stomach and carnal passions is the beginning of a person’s struggle with his other, more dangerous spiritual vices. Gluttony, like other bodily passions, is only a means, and the goal of demons is to subjugate the human soul through them.

No spiritual warfare can begin without fasting and self-restraint. And vice versa: weakness in food leads to the development of other passions in the human soul. For example, in the classical scheme of the dependence of some passions on others, voluptuousness (love of pleasure) gives rise to gluttony, and this, in turn, gives rise to lustful thoughts and unclean actions. Thus, in order for a person to overcome fornication, he must first overcome gluttony. From here, we can conclude that the ability to manage one’s desires, actions and dreams is important for every person, and not just for a monk. Including in the sphere of one’s own gastronomic preferences.

Testimony of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition

“Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and lest that day come upon you suddenly,” (Luke 21:34)

“Be not among those who are drunk with wine, nor among those who are full of meat; for the drunkard and the one who is full will become poor, and sleepiness will be clothed in sackcloth” (Proverbs 23:20-21).

“If you have found honey, eat as much as you need, lest you become full of it and vomit it up” (Proverbs 25:16).

“He who keeps the law is a wise son, but he who associates with wasteful people (gluttons) disgraces his father” (Proverbs 28:7).

“For many, of whom I have often told you, and now even speak with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory is in their shame; they think on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-21).

“For there are many disobedient, idle talkers and deceivers, especially among the circumcised, whose lips should be stopped: they corrupt entire houses, teaching what they should not, for shameful gain. Of these themselves, one poet said: “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts.” , lazy bellies" (Titus 1:10-11).

“But I discipline and bring my body into subjection, so that while I have preached to others, I myself may not be unworthy” (1 Cor. 9:27).

“The true widow and the lonely one trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers day and night; but the lustful one died alive” (1 Tim. 5:5-6).

“As in the day, let us conduct ourselves decently, not [indulging in] feasting and drunkenness, nor sensuality and debauchery, nor quarreling and envy; but put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and do not turn the cares of the flesh into lusts” (Rom. 13: 12-13).

“It is natural for a person to feel hunger. Still, one must take the food necessary to maintain life, and not for passions and not for satiety. Sleep is also natural for a person, but not to the point of satiety, pampering of the body, so that we can subdue the passions and vicious desires of the body.” (Sayings of nameless elders)

“The perfect goal of restraint is to achieve not only curbing the body, but to become more favorable for serving the needs of the soul” (St. Gregory of Nyssa).

"... Gluttony is a deception of the stomach, because even when it is full it cries out: “Not enough!”, Being filled and expanding from excess, it cries out: “I want!” (Ladder).

“Ahead of all virtues is obedience, and ahead of all passions is gluttony” (Abba Isaiah the Hermit).

“Gluttony is a violation of the second commandment: “Thou shalt not make unto thee an idol... thou shalt not worship them, nor serve them. It is indeed idolatry” (Antony the Great).

“Gluttony destroys everything good in a person” (Reverend Neil of Sinai).

What promotes gluttony?

Very often people serve this vice by inventing various excuses for themselves. The Holy Fathers of the Church, as subtle psychologists and experts on human souls, learned to see these cases and warn us about them.

The first and most common way to be captured by this dangerous passion is to attribute indulgences in food to concern for one's own health and a craven fear of possible diseases associated with abstinence. In fact, it is very rare to talk about such categorical abstinence from food that it could pose a threat to our life and health. The Orthodox Church preaches the “royal way” - the golden mean, from which only good can come. Its goal is not to starve us, but to teach us to control everything we do. Including, teach how to properly worry about your own body - the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

"Fasting is always useful for those who welcome it. For those who fast will not dare to be attacked by evil spirits. On the contrary. The quick guards of our lives - angels help those who cleanse their soul (and body) by fasting. (St. Basil the Great, O post 2).

The fathers even recall such a reason for the fall as careless priests, indifferent to their service, often recklessly blessing others with relaxation in fasting. Such a blessing, at first glance, may indeed look like a good deed, a deed of love, but for a person’s soul it can bring destruction, because it not only serves to satisfy the flesh. It also teaches people the idea that fasting is supposedly unnecessary for a person’s salvation, and in general, gives rise to doubts about the inviolability of church requirements, rules and canons. ("Ladder" 14: 11-12)

Another way of gluttony is imaginary hospitality, the desire to visit friends or receive guests for the sake of a good meal and wine. This is a very subtle passion that not everyone can notice in themselves. This danger especially increases when great Christian or folk holidays. It seems that on such days gluttony receives all the justifications for itself. However, there is no doubt that gluttony and drinking alcoholic beverages, as well as laziness and fornication, neither on holidays nor on any other days, are unacceptable for Christians. “Incited by the insatiability of his stomach, he believes that the opportunity to please a guest is also a permission for him to do everything” (Ibid. 14: 8)

Sometimes, the holy ascetics write, the passion of vanity wants to overcome the addiction of gluttony. This is when some people fast in order to prove to themselves and others - “How tough I am, how strong in spirit I am, how much patience I have, etc.” The desire to show oneself as the best fights for a person, as for a purchased slave. What is better: to observe a strict fast or to give yourself some relief? Overcome pride or taste the food? Saint Diodochos advises to still eat food, because a sorrowful heart will bring more benefit to the soul, reminding a Christian of his imperfections than pride about one’s own fasting. (Ibid. 14:9)

It should also be said about psychological reasons passions of gluttony. The pleasure that a person receives from eating high-calorie foods can become a strong drug that can cause addiction in a person. While eating, a person produces pleasure hormones, which can temporarily improve mood and general psychological state. Thus, food, most often in combination with alcohol and tobacco smoking, becomes quite in a simple way relieve the pain of stress or depression. Many people try to “eat up” their problems: lack of fulfillment in life, low self-esteem, unsuccessful family life, anxiety, negative emotions. And since this does not solve the problems themselves, very soon a person will need another portion of pleasure. This is how a person ends up in a vicious circle of passion and gluttony. In the desire to find happiness and get rid of suffering and slavery, people receive yet another shackles. Only an experienced specialist - a priest and a psychologist, a psychotherapist - can help with this. Of course, now we are talking only about spiritual and emotional reasons gluttony, leaving aside physiological causes: various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, thyroid gland, metabolic disorders or invasion.

Practical steps to fight passion

As we have already mentioned several times, the most effective way overcoming any passion is to develop in oneself traits and virtues opposite to this passion. Thus, gluttony is overcome by abstinence and fasting. Although this vice is considered first among other carnal passions, this does not mean that it is the easiest to eradicate. Vice versa. Since gluttony is the foundation of other human passions and sins, there are a number of reasons that directly or indirectly influence the development of this passion in a person and contribute to it in every possible way. Since passions are deeply rooted in human nature, in order to overcome them, efforts must be made at all levels: mental, spiritual and physical.

In the spiritual realm. First of all, a person needs awareness and honest recognition of the presence of this passion in himself. The Sacraments of Repentance and Communion, as well as an active prayer and spiritual life, can become invaluable helpers in overcoming it. Looking at a person’s sincerity, the Lord will definitely help him receive spiritual and physical healing faster.

In the mental (psychological) sphere. There are a number of effective practices that allow a person to approach a decision more consciously psychological problems associated with gluttony and other gastronomic abuses. Of course, the greatest results here can be achieved by consulting a specialist - a psychologist or psychotherapist. And we can try it together existing techniques. In particular, keeping a food diary, identifying personal reasons for gluttony, working with motivation, setting goals, overcoming situations that provoke excessive food consumption.

In the bodily sphere. First of all, medical consultation is necessary to make sure that food abuse has not yet led to irreversible changes that are life-threatening. At the same time, you need to work with a nutritionist to develop an individual diet and strictly adhere to it. And, of course, increase physical activity. A professional trainer can help you create an individual, most optimal and effective physical activity schedule.

The main means to combat the addiction to gluttony is fasting and abstinence. It's good to leave the table a little hungry. The pleasure that naturally accompanies eating delicious food loses its sensuality and becomes more spiritual if eaten with prayer and feelings of gratitude to God.

Conclusion

And in conclusion, I will repeat the most important thing. According to the testimony of the majority of the Holy Fathers - ancient ascetics and ascetics - the subordination of the soul to carnal passions is direct evidence that the human soul has moved away from God. Appetite and the desire to eat in themselves cannot have a negative connotation. They can only have mental states of voluptuousness (uncontrollable desire for pleasure). That is why we consider the passion for gluttony not as an exclusively bodily vice, but as a mental and spiritual state of human fall. Careful observance of the fasts established by the Church contributes to the humility of the flesh, which weakens voluptuousness and all our other passions. Why does a person sin? Through selfishness, pride, desire for pleasure of the flesh. All this is eradicated by love for God, fear of God, sorrow for sins committed, cutting off passions, and, undoubtedly, self-restraint and self-control. Help us with this, Lord!

Archpriest Evgeny Zapletnyuk,

candidate of theology,

Ternopil.

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The first link in the sinful chain is gluttony. To many it seems only a weakness that does not inspire much fear, and even that the consequences of this sin, like scabs from leprosy, do not appear immediately, but after several years. It must be remembered that after Adam committed sin, the harmony of the soul with the body in man was disrupted. After all, the body is only an instrument of the soul, and also an organic part of the human personality. And it turned into a substrate for passions with lust. The body must be a slave of the spirit. But in no case should the body control a person, his soul. Ideally, there should be a balance between spirit, soul and body.

What is the human body

The body can be called an evil friend and a good enemy. Without a body, a person’s personality will not be formed. Without a body, the spirit and soul will not be able to express themselves to the outside world through words and deeds. The evil flesh is ready at any moment to betray the soul to the Devil in order to receive base pleasures. It’s as if Judas sold his Teacher to death for three dozen pieces of silver. The body is a very insidious companion of the soul on its difficult path to the kingdom of heaven. It either obediently follows the spirit, or, on the contrary, tries to drag it onto a wide road paved with stones, which leads to eternal death. Alternatively, you can even compare the soul and body to a certain rider on a wild horse. And as soon as the rider slightly loosens the bit, the horse rushes to where his eyes are looking, as a result of which both will fall into the nearest hole.

Important!!!

Gluttony is essentially a victory of the body over the spirit. This is a kind of wide field where different passions run wild. You can talk about it as the first step of a steep and slippery staircase that leads straight to the underworld.

The belly, as soon as it becomes heavy with food, begins to plunge the mind into a kind of dark abyss of slumber, making it lazy and even dull. A glutton loses the ability to think deeply and accurately or reason about anything spiritual. His belly, like a huge lead weight, begins to pull the earthed soul straight down. Such a person especially acutely feels his weakness during prayer. The mind cannot penetrate into the holy words, as if a dull knife does not cut bread. In this sense, gluttony can be considered a constant betrayal of one's prayer.

Important!!!

It should also be noted that gluttony, like any sin, darkens the intellectual and even creative powers of the one who indulges in it. Almost none of the outstanding people, be they poets or artists, were distinguished by gluttony in their time, or even had a body that resembled a beer barrel.

It often happens that a glutton, who is already very tired of the burden of his own body, which leads him to shortness of breath and exhaustion, decides to lose weight. He is exhausted by the need to constantly overcome the obstacle of the size of his own belly, for example, when he needs to bend down and pick up something from the floor or even simply tie his shoelaces. Then it is logical that he decides to declare war and defeat the demon of gluttony by destroying his own fat as an enemy. Such a person will subscribe to diets from fashion magazines, and even announce to all his friends and relatives that soon his figure will noticeably decrease in size. But such a glutton, as soon as he goes on a diet, finds himself in the role of a gladiator who, unarmed, entered into a fight with a huge, wild beast. At first, for the first minutes, he resists, but then falls, torn to shreds by the claws or fangs of a terrible predator. At first, the glutton will adhere to a strict diet and look at others almost victoriously, but then the desire to absorb food will take its toll and he will, as before, zealously eat.

Are there certain types of this sin or its directions?

In gluttony, two addictions can be conventionally distinguished: gluttony and laryngeal madness.

Gluttony is essentially an insatiable desire for food, a kind of aggression of the body directed against the soul. That is, constant harassment from the womb, which every now and then requires a person to constantly consume food. This can be compared to the madness of the belly, which absorbs any food indiscriminately. The stomach of such a person will be like a bag into which a stingy owner shoves all things indiscriminately, after which he can barely drag the unnecessary load behind him.

Laryngopharynxia is a constant desire for tasty or refined food, that is, it is voluptuousness of the larynx. Simply put, a person must eat to be able to live, but this person lives in order to eat. He plans his menu in advance, paying too much attention to the dishes and choosing them carefully. He spends almost all his money on treats, as if a gambler is losing his fortune in excitement.

There are other types of gluttony, such as secret eating - this is the desire to hide one's vice. Wound eating is that a person, as soon as he wakes up, immediately starts eating, even before he begins to feel hungry. Hasty eating is also vicious, in which a person tries to fill his stomach very quickly and swallows food without even chewing it, like a turkey. It is considered sinful to fail to observe fasts, as well as to consume various harmful foods out of lust. Ancient ascetics generally considered even excessive drinking of water to be a sin of gluttony.

How to rid yourself of gluttony?

The Holy Fathers recommend that you first limit yourself to eating spicy or irritating foods. Then limit yourself to sweet and laryngeal-stimulating foods. Then you can give up fatty and fatty foods. You need to eat slowly, this way you will feel full more quickly.

Advice

One must get up after a meal in a state where the first hunger has already been satisfied, but the person still feels thirsty for food. Previously, there was even a custom of eating in silence. Any extraneous conversations will distract attention, and a person who is carried away by the conversation will most likely automatically eat everything that is on the table. It would also be good to read a prayer to yourself while eating.

Conclusion:

We can say that the sin of gluttony is the gradual consumption of the body of the soul, and the result of this is that the heavenly and spiritual principle gradually fades in a person, and he turns into blind flesh. To get rid of gluttony, you need to give up spicy and irritating foods and limit your consumption of sweets. And remember one rule - you need to get up from the table with a slight feeling of hunger, then gluttony is not scary.