Gluttony [gluht-n-ee]: noun

Slowly, over days, weeks, months and years… if you’re not paying careful attention and enjoying living too good a life, this happy life will suddenly turn on you and bite back! You will wake up one morning and realise that you just can’t do up that button, no matter how hard you suck and bend and twist. Yes, you’ve slowly eaten and drunk yourself to bursting point.

In our first-world western lives, gluttony is no longer seen as one of the seven deadly sins. The desire for wealth and the finest foods and wines have become part of our everyday lives and ambitions. Are we part of the successes and excesses of capitalist living, or are we just greedy piglets with a hunger for more, more, more?

I'm afraid I don’t have the answers and I’d cry like a baby if someone took away all the treats I’ve become accustomed to. Following the principle of “everything in moderation” will perhaps give us a more balanced approach to life, and I get this. Totally. But in the words of Oscar Wilde, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.”

Our friend Oscar Wilde