Eating disorders are described as “psychosomatic passions” in the Christian Patristic Tradition

Eating disorders (ED) are mental health disorders defined by abnormal eating habits that negatively affect a person’s physical or mental health. Bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED) are classified as overeating disorders (OD) and are associated with food addiction (FA), a behavioral addiction (not officially included as such in the DSM-5) characterized by compulsive consumption of palatable foods, despite its adverse consequences.¹-³ However, the existence and description of persons with ED or OD is not new. It is noteworthy that the Christian Patristic Tradition, centuries before the dawn of psychiatry, had included abnormal eating behaviors among the “psychosomatic passions,” i.e., bad habits which destroy the human body and soul and are created through multiple repeated falls into sin which urge the individual to commit the particular sin more and more.⁴,⁵ In other words, the ecclesiastical term “passion” to a certain degree embodied the meaning of the modern medical term “addiction.”

Saint Dorotheus of Gaza (c. 505-565 AD), known as Abba Dorotheus, had separated the abnormal eating behaviors into two categories: “binge eating” (Greek: γαστριμαργι´α) and “gluttony” (Greek: λαιμαργι´α).⁵ Although, in his view, these two categories were psychosomatic EDs motivated by the achievement of pleasure, the first category was characterized by an irrepressible morbid craving for consuming food beyond bodily needs, loss of control when eating, and continued consumption despite negative consequences (repeated overeating episodes), while the second category was characterized by a morbid desire for consuming palatable foods prepared with great care.⁵ Saint John Climacus (c. 579-649 AD), also known as John Sinaites, defines “γαστριμαργι´α” as “hypocrisy of the stomach, for when it is glutted it complains of scarcity, and when it is loaded and bursting it cries out that it is hungry.”⁶ He further characterizes it as “the deviser of seasonings, the source of sweet dishes, the father of fornication” and other passions, such as hardness of heart, sleepiness, laziness, and so on. He considered the nature of food as the doorway to this passion; habit as the cause of its insatiability; and repeated habit, insensibility of soul, and forgetfulness of death as its foundations.⁶ The same author also suggested tricking the resourceful abdomen by denying ourselves fatty foods initially, then the savory foods, and finally the palatable foods, but notes that “some who were servants of their stomach have cut their members right off, and died a double death” (probably referring to limb amputations in gluttonous persons who were obese diabetic patients).⁶ In modern medicine, the constant pursuit of pleasure through eating large amounts of food beyond bodily requirements (hedonic overeating, hedonic hyperphagia, or hedonic polyphagia), or through consumption of hyperpalatable foods, could be interpreted by the activation of the reward system (mesolimbic pathway) which regulates cognitive processes and plays a central role in the neurobiology of addiction.²

Based on the above, according to the Christian Patristic Tradition, one could place all known modern EDs which are characterized by repeated overeating episodes (e.g., BN, BED) under the umbrella term of “γαστριμαργι´α,” and those characterized by a morbid desire for consuming palatable foods (e.g., FA), under the umbrella term of “λαιμαργι´α.” However, as “passions”, all EDs in the Christian Patristic Tradition are motivated by the achievement of pleasure. It is remarkable that the Bible advises against excessive food consumption, i.e., beyond bodily requirements (see Wisdom of Sirach 18:30-32, 31:12-18, 37:29-31; Proverbs 23:1-3, 23:20-21, 25:16; Luke 21:34-36; Philippians 3:17-19). Also, the story of the Israelites who died from cholera in the Wilderness of Paran because of their excessive consumption of quails sent by God in response to their craving for meat to achieve the same pleasure from food they had experienced in Egypt as slaves, and which “manna” no longer offered them (see Numbers 11:4-13.31-35), reveals the deadly short-term consequences of hedonic overeating.⁷ Finally, the priest Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were punished by death by God for their gluttony (see 1 Samuel 2:12-17.34, 4:11).

References

• ¹
  Adams RC, Sedgmond J, Maizey L, Chambers CD, Lawrence NS. Food addiction: Implications for the diagnosis and treatment of overeating. Nutrients. 2019;11. pii: E2086. doi: http://10.3390/nu11092086
  » http://10.3390/nu11092086
• ²
  Wieland DM. Food addiction: a new mental health disorder? J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv. 2019;57:3-5.
• ³
  Jiménez-Murcia S, Agüera Z, Paslakis G, Munguia L, Granero R, Sánchez-González J, et al. Food addiction in eating disorders and obesity: Analysis of clusters and implications for treatment. Nutrients. 2019;11. pii: E2633. doi: http://10.3390/nu11112633
  » http://10.3390/nu11112633
• ⁴
  Savvas a Hieromonk of the Holy Mountain. Passions and depression. What they are and how they are treated. Kerasia: Holy Cell “The Presentation of the Mother of God”; 2012. p. 51-8. Greek.
• ⁵
  Larchet JC. Therapy of spiritual illnesses: an introduction to the ascetic tradition of the orthodox church. Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece; 2011. v. 1, p. 243-55.
• ⁶
  Saint John Climacus. Ladder of divine ascent (Greek: Κλ?μαξ; Latin: Scala Paradisi), Speech 14th. Patrologia Graeca (PG). 1864;88:864-72.
• ⁷
  Mazokopakis EE. The prevention of cholera in the Bible. Vaccine. 2019;37:4850.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  09 Mar 2020
• Date of issue
  Mar-Apr 2020

History

• Received
  10 Dec 2019
• Accepted
  12 Dec 2019