I recently wrote a post about the ten rules , or lessons, as stated by alchemist Francis Barrett.  Lesson 9 said: Avoid gluttony and all excess...   The Bible lists gluttony as one of the seven deadly sins.  So how did it become a virtue in a society with a primarily Christian background?  
    Today, we see people in restaurants being encouraged and even given a prize for scarfing down a giant banana split or a two pound fatburger or for chugging a half gallon of beer.  We see the winners of food eating contests being put on national news as if they were heroes.  And then we wonder why obesity is an epidemic.
    It's great that we now have a television show that awards people for loosing weight, but that is just one small step.  We need to do a lot more to counter the culture of excess.  We need local papers listing weekly those who have lost excess weight.  We need to award kids for saying they are full and leaving food on the plate, not punishing them and telling them to sit there until the plate is empty because they will cause a kid in China to starve to death if they don't eat there creamed turnips.  We need to award them for turning down the second piece of chocolate cake at Grandma's house.  In short, we need to start treating healthy eating habits as more news-worthy and praise-worthy than bad ones.