"Gluttony" is defined as "habitual greed and excess in eating." Such people are called "gourmands" or "trenchermen," as well. According to the CDC, over 70% of people in the US are considered "overweight" or "obese." In a New York Times article this past weekend, there was a report that over 40% of Americans considered themselves to be overweight.

I bring this up because I'm increasingly seeing not smaller portions in restaurants but larger ones, dishes that would give a hibernating grizzly bear some pause before trying to digest them at one sitting. ("Do I have time to eat this before the frost sets in?") The famous philosopher Miss Piggy, of Muppet performances, observed, "Never eat anything you can't lift."

I've told several restaurant owners I know that they could reduce the sizes of the appetizers, entrées, sides, and desserts and not reduce their prices at all. They won't listen. They tell me that their patrons expect huge helpings, as if it may be their last meal. Yet we see diners leaving restaurants precariously balancing "leftover packages" that are soon going to require wheels on them, like airport luggage. (After a while, untouched for a week in the refrigerator, the contents break through the containers and begin to take over the adjoining shelves, like The Blob or The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This requires professional removal by a disaster recovery team and the purchase of a new refrigerator, after the HVAC people are done.)

Perhaps the restaurants' helpings are meant to be usufructuary, but I doubt it. I think they are propelling the gluttony bandwagon. We are all at fault.

I would elaborate further, but the crumbs from my third cinnamon donut are falling on the keyboard and the keys are sticking.