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In defence of sensible eating

Is gluttony as sinful (or as sinless) as drinking?

I went out for a cracking Indian meal the other night. Chicken Madras, pilau rice, naan bread, onion bhajis, spicy Bombay potato, poppadums - and let's not forget two coffees and a delicious after-dinner mint. Waddling home I must have looked like a monster from a low-budget science-fiction film. And a fat one at that.

Still, the food was delicious and, since my father had kindly offered to foot the bill, there were copious amounts of it. Yes, it was expensive; yes, it was so excessive that we could have filled a large bucket with the leftovers; but then again, what other meal pleasures those around you with the fragrance of cultured cuisine for the whole of the following day?

The next morning, as I woke to discover that the bedcovers had formed a kind of hot-air balloon that was floating across my room, the words of Proverbs (chapter 23, verse 21): 'drunkards and gluttons become poor' seemed to ring round my head. Quite why, I wasn't sure; after all, I hadn't even been drinking on the previous night. Dismissing the thought just as quickly as it had arrived, I headed downstairs for a full English breakfast.

Admiral Nelson once said that while a bad man lives to eat, a good man eats to live. So if you were salivating at any point during the last three paragraphs, perhaps you need to read on. The Proverbs quote is interesting because it couples food with alcoholic drink; the latter being something which Christians everywhere have always been quick to pounce on. However, the fact that they are placed together here seems to suggest that in God's eyes, over-indulgence in food and drink are equally inappropriate. Why then, do we so often turn a blind eye?

The stereotype of an ample bulge located beneath a tasteless jumper is more than just accurate, it's testament to the fact that Christians, and particularly Christian men - myself most definitely included - do have a real problem with nice food. We pretend that a pudding party is preferable to a night in the pub, when either could be just as sinful or sinless as the other. While condemning those who drink, we often do so through mouthfuls of a needless snack, and thus become hypocrites. Next time I'm in The Red Rose Tandoori, I think I might just have an omelette.

Martin Saunders