U of G prof reveals changes in the link between pleasure and eating

by Antik Dey

University of Guelph Professor of Italian studies, Mary DeCoste, discovered that Catholic Europeans were not allowed to enjoy their food until the Renaissance. This shift put new emphasis on cooking, making the meals healthier.

“For me, the most interesting contrast with the Middle Ages and today is the idea of pleasure,” said DeCoste. “The medieval notion of gluttony included the idea of taking too much pleasure in food as being sinful.  Today, if we say someone is a glutton, it basically means that we think he or she eats too much, even if that person eats without pleasure.  In fact, I would say that now we sometimes think of gluttons as eating compulsively and thoughtlessly, with diminished pleasure.”

According to DeCoste, during the Middle Ages, the church considered gluttony as one of the Seven Deadly Sins for its ability to divert people away from a spiritual focus.

“Christians were expected to devote their attention to God,” explained DeCoste. “Pleasure in food was considered a sensual pleasure at the expense of devotion to God.  For this reason, gluttony was often linked to sexual sensuality, because it consists in inordinate sensual pleasure.  Gluttony and sexual sins were closely linked in the medieval imagination.”

Those who were faithful to the Church developed strategies to diminish the pleasure in eating, while others, who were wealthy, did not hesitate to sin and enjoyed their food.

“People who could afford [it] ate lavishly prepared meals, while the poor made [what] they could,” explained DeCoste.

According to DeCoste, historians are not quite sure why people began to take pleasure in eating during the Renaissance. However, she revealed that there was a cultural shift in the beginning of the 16th century in Italy that resisted Church’s thinking on the matter.

“Intellectuals began to promote the idea that it was healthy to take a moderate degree of pleasure in meals,” said DeCoste.  “The intellectual movement known as “humanism” saw groups of thinkers, writers, musicians, etc., all of whom were rich, meeting for meals and paying attention to the aesthetics of the table, like table linens, cutlery, dishes, etc., and the importance of conviviality.” 

Because the Renaissance brought a shift that made it acceptable to enjoy food, a new emphasis on cooking was born.

“Changes in cooking style in Europe emerged in France, not Italy, over the course of the 16th century,” explained DeCoste.  “Less sugar and fewer spices such as cinnamon and cloves were used in favour of a cooking style that allowed subtler flavours to come through.  In other words, cooking became lighter and fresher rather than smothered in strong, cloying sugar and spice.”

DeCoste conveyed the message that by preparing a meal from scratch does not only add to the pleasure of eating, but it is also healthier.

“I like the notion that taking pleasure in food is healthy,” said DeCoste. “Eating and taking pleasure in eating should not be associated with guilt.  I think we need to de-couple the association of eating and guilt.  I think that if we concentrate more on the pleasure to be had in eating, we might eat less and better.”

But DeCoste warns that like the Middle Ages, our current society has taken the pleasure of eating for granted by choosing not to take the time preparing a meal from scratch and eating it slowly.

“I think in Canada, most of us eat in a hurry, lots of fast food, and prepared meals,” explained DeCoste. “There is, of course, resistance to this, which I find encouraging.  The Slow Food Movement, of which there is a chapter in Guelph, the Guelph Farmers’ Market, and restaurants that promote local food.  I think that taking pleasure in food reminds us to be grateful for what we have to eat, to be mindful of where our food comes from, and to see our meals within a larger environmental and social context.”

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