Musonius Rufus, Lectures 18.10

That God who made man provided him food and drink for the sake of preserving his life and not for giving him pleasure, one can see very well from this: when food is performing its real function, it does not produce pleasure for man, that is in the process of digestion and assimilation. At that time we are being nourished and renew our strength, but we feel no sensation of pleasure; and yet there is a longer time involved in this process than in eating. 

 
Surely if God had planned eating as a pleasure for us, He would have had us enjoy it a longer time and not merely the brief moment when we are swallowing. 
 
And yet for the sake of that brief moment when we do experience pleasure, countless dainties are prepared, the sea is sailed from end to end, cooks are more in demand than farmers; some even squander the value of their estates to spread their tables, though their bodies are not at all benefited by the costliness of the food. 
 
If I think about it from the order of Nature, and not from the order of my preferences, it suddenly seems quite ridiculous that I would eat and drink, putting substances into my mouth and then swallowing them, in order to gain a few seconds of pleasure here and there. And yet I have spent so much of my time doing precisely that, working for hours and days just for the sake of a single taste. 
 
That taste is soon gone, of course, and it is no wonder that I go through the whole process over and over again, much like a drug addict hunting for the ecstasy of that first hit. What a waste. 
 
Another way I knew I had finally found my better half was when she explained to me that gluttony for food is much like lust for sex:
 
“Some people chase after the perfect taste, and they never find it. Other people chase after the perfect orgasm, and they never find it. There is no such thing, because what is perfect in eating and what is perfect in sex is never defined by a mere moment of pleasure. What were they made for? Health and Love. Those don’t just come and go at a moment’s notice.”
 
I do worry that they don’t make women, or men, like that anymore. 
 
I did pause for a bit when I first read this passage, wondering why Musonius says that the act of swallowing is what provides gratification for the glutton. Surely it is in the taste buds, I thought, not in the gullet? 
 
Still, I only need to look at how we all tend to eat. There is as little chewing as possible, and even when we do so it is frantic and rushed. There is very little sense of savoring the subtlety of flavor, only the urge to stuff more and more into our mouths. 
 
I will gladly defer to the expertise of the psychologist or the physiologist, yet I can’t help but wonder if the satisfaction of gorging comes from a feeling of power and control that goes with consumption, much like the satisfaction of sexual conquest comes from a feeling of power and control that goes with consumption. 

Written in 5/2000