Völlerei folly

Gluttony (lat. gula) is spiritually known as the seventh of the seven deadly Sins.

This sin is considered a personal character flaw, a vice marked by the human proneness to overt luxury tastes and the squandering of their brief sojourn on Earth in the search thereof, which entails a lack of thankfulness for the gift of a life crafted after their divine Creator. The ultimate price to pay for the immodest display of gluttonous deportment is a permanent ban to Hell while admitting the suffering of ever-lasting sorrow. The sin of gluttony can also encompass an assortment of other base behaviours such as selfishness for not sharing with the needy and destitute the excess food one has in their possession, electing to consume all of it at which point it will inevitably go to waste due to natural course that any provision takes once it hits the digestive tract. May health ailments are also the result of over consumption of material food, which eventually leads to further pain and death if left unattended. The unsightly shape humans assume upon their frequent overeating is another highly undesirable side effect for which this sin is to account. The opposite of this sin is the virtue of restraint, the ability to have enough presence of mind to not indulge oneself in earthly short-term pleasures.

Georg's Emanuel's Der Völler. Notice the monarch's undue girth while the servants look overall slim and physically fit.

The deadly sin of gluttony isn't just measured by one's selfish thoughts and outright disregard for the dearth of food items in starving communities across the world. It can also spring as a kind of disorder, namely binge eating, to which a gallimaufry of other labels can be plastered such as overeating or compulsive eating disorder. Whichever fancy name you'd like to stick to this despicable issue, those affected by this disorder feel as though they aren't in control of their urges, even though any strong-willed individual would promptly tell them otherwise. Below are some token signs that hint at the ill-favoured demon of gluttony's lurking about:

• eating even if you're beyond full
• earnestly trying to gobble up as quickly as possible
• helplessness about giving in to the sin of gluttony
• depression
• anxiety
• often looking to engage in mindless diets with no real result
• eating alone with thoughts far away from the chore of eating
• stashing away empty food containers
• hoarding edible stuff