Stoic Or Glutton, But Not Both

What if they invented a pill that mitigated every negative effect of overeating? What if, after taking the pill, you could eat Twinkies all day long and still look like Brad Pitt circa Fight Club?

It would still be worth it to eat fruits and vegetables, and just barely enough of them.

You can't be both a Stoic and a glutton, friend. So take your own advice. Are you stronger than a Twinkie? No, but you could be...

Eat Like A Roman And Live Forever

That title is deceptive. It's probably more accurate to say "Eat Like A Greek Peasant in 1820," but this is a Stoic blog, so...

My doctor recommended a book to me called "Good Food, Great Medicine." It's author, Miles Hassell M.D., uses evidence to make the case for the Mediterranean diet.

Doctor Hassell is deeply suspcicious of fad diets. Instead he bases his advice on high quality studies from peer reviewed journals. These studies teach us that the Mediteranian diet produces:

1. Lower total mortality
2. Less heart disease, artery disease and stroke
3. Les diabetes
4. More sustainable weight loss
5. Less depression
6. More active elderly people
7. Less cancer and better cancer outcomes

In broad strokes Doctor Hassell recommends that we avoid processed foods, sugar, refined grains, and hydrogenated fats.

Instead we should eat whole foods which would be recognizable 150 years ago. We should eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and animal protien. Whole grains are fine and dark chocolate is mandatory. He advises that we drink 2-6 cups of coffee per day and one alcoholic drink (probably red wine, probably with dinner). Cheese and eggs are great.

We shall see, folks...

Hassell emphasizes simplicity in cooking. Most of his recipes seem unfussy and very doable. That's pretty Stoic.

If you're interested Wikipedia has an excellent article on Roman cuisine. Made me want to try making puls. This article claims that modern Romans eat a puls made of boiled farro grain in coffee and cream. I would not have thought of that combination.

This nice hipster lady wants to lay some science on you:

Turns out that interest in the Mediterranean diet started in Crete after World War II:

Image is by Sailko and is used under some sort of public domain license

Stop When You're Comfortable

Gluttony is a vice. I believe this. I believe that a virtuous person is not a glutton.

I'm a glutton.

I started overeating in the sixth grade. I remember that grade very well; it's when I realised that there were cool kids and uncool kids, and I was in the latter category. Or rather I thought that I was. Turns out thinking a thing like that tends to influence reality, rather than the other way around. Anyway...

I dealt with it by overeating. Why overeating? People who specialize in food addiction tell us that it's the dopamine. When you eat a piece of fruit or meat your brain releases a moderate amount of dopamine to reward you for feeding your body. When you eat a candy bar your body dumps dopamine into your system as a super reward for finding a rare high-calorie treat.

Problem is that, in the past, finding a high calorie treat meant raiding a bee hive. Nowadays it involves swiping a plastic card.

I had a handle on the overeating thing for awhile, but in times of stress I revert. I'm in a stressful situation now and I'm reverting. I eat past the point of comfort. I eat until I'm NOT comfortable. It actually hurts.

"First decide what you would be; then do what you have to do."

I would be a man in control of his appetites. How to do that?

Authority Nutrition has a post describing food addiction. It details how the brain becomes tolerant of dopamine and how breaking the addictive cycle means that there will be a withdrawal process. I've been "withdrawing" for three days now, and I don't feel anything, but I do think that there's something to this idea of dopamine use. Why else would I eat to the point of discomfort?

The idea that we can become "addicted" to food seems silly at first glance. It seems like psychobabble designed to reinforce the idea that we are all victims. When I think like this, though, what I'm really doing is worrying that I am weak, that if I submit myself to this it will chip away at my confidence.

So when I think about overeating I will remind myself that I'm craving dopamine. I'll do something else. Pushups are good; writing is good. Yoga is good. These are positive uses of time. How good does soda taste, anyway? Tastes salty and rusty.

Look, if overeating is an addictive process then it is. If it is simply a bad habit then it is. I can worry about my confidence or I can do something about it. I can worry about what YOU, gentle reader, will think of me and my weakness or I can accept that I am a flawed human being and I can improve myself.

I will cheerfully confront my problem and defeat it with a glad heart. Or not. Maybe I'll white-knuckle it and fail a hundred times before I beat it, and then appreciate my victory later. It is what it is. The main thing is that I don't want to be a glutton anymore.

First decide what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

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Public domain image courtesy of the New York Public Library


Post Script: Step 1 is to cut out sugar... No soda, no sugar in my coffee (yes I'm addicted to coffee... one at a time, people, one at a time)

Stoic Yoga

"It shows a lack of natural talent to spend time on what concerns the body, as in exercising a great deal, eating a great deal, drinking a great deal, moving one's bowels a great deal or copulating a great deal. Instead you must do these things in passing, but turn your whole attention toward your faculty of judgment." -Epictetus, Enchiridion 41


There are two things to take from this passage. The first is that Epictetus assumes that we will take physical exercise, eat, drink (wine, presumably), use the toilette and enjoy physical love. The second is that he sees these things as mere incidentals, not goals in and of themselves. For him the needs of the body should be met, but not dwelt upon.

I'm pretty good about not dwelling on these things, but I'm not very good at meeting them.

I want to set up some simple systems to care for my body without requiring obsessive amounts of time and effort. I want to be a good steward of it, but I don't want to build it into my life's work. I don't want my body to be a monument to my will.

So what have I done to further this goal?


1. Green smoothies to up my fruit and veg consumption

2. Walk three miles three times per week

3. Body weight and fitness band exercises twice per week

4. Calorie limitation using myfitnesspal.com

I'm getting to the point that these things are becoming habit. I don't have to think about them too much. I believe that this is in keeping with Epictetus's teaching.

There's one thing left to deal with: pain.

There is a very realistic older man where I work, a man who tells the truth all the time. He doesn't volunteer it freely; he's pretty self contained. If you ask him a question, though, you'll get a straight answer.

Once I asked him what it's like to be an older man.

"I'm in constant pain," he said. I thought he was talking about psychological pain. He may have had regrets or failures of character. I said as much.

"No, I mean physical pain. The older I get the more everything hurts."

There is some truth to it. What we cannot change we must accept, right, fellow Stoics? But what if we CAN change it?

I try to do a simple yoga routine at least once per week. Notice that I say "try." What I really ought to do is to commit to doing it twice per week. I've noticed that when I do yoga my joint pain decreases and my back pain sometimes dissappears.

So I have a goal: I will do yoga twice per week. This seems moderate, and I know that it will produce real results, a claim which seems to be  backed up by science.

Here is a sequence I've been using, and it seems to work pretty well:

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Public domain image courtesy of the New York Public Library