Should gluttony have a place at the table?

I was at the airport last week waiting to board my flight. There were three men sitting across from me on different sides. They were all eating. One ate a personal pizza from the box, the other had a burger in one hand and fries propped up on his roller bag, while he watched a movie on his phone. The third man had ear buds in and a large bag of combos. Every few minutes he held up the opened bag to his mouth and shook a portion of cheese filled pretzels down the hatch.

This was all normal. Nothing was out of place.

On my trip a friend asked me how to figure out what to eat in order to lose weight. I told her to try 8 ounces of vegetables, 4 ounces of protein and 2 ounces of fat at lunch and dinner, then see how she feels. If she still felt hungry, she could adjust the meals.

“So I have to weigh my food?” she asked, alarmed. “Yeah,” I said bluntly. “Or you can just keep doing what you are doing.”

Somewhere a siren sounded. Weighing food is not normal. What is acceptable is eating mindlessly out of a bag. Letting our kids watch us eat scraps off their plates after we already cleaned our own. Using food as entertainment while we watch TV and snacking between meals to keep hunger at bay.

What is normal is cooking a bounty of food for Thanksgiving, and also having a table of appetizers beforehand in…