As they stuff themselves with every imaginable variation on turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salads and pies, the term "glutton" seems rather apt. Like so much else in this country, excess is the order of the day.

Everyone knows obesity has become an epidemic in the U.S., food portions have risen dramatically and daily caloric intake has skyrocketed. According to the National Institutes of Health, a standard muffin 20 years ago contained about 210 calories. Today a muffin is nearly four times larger and contains 500 calories. Likewise, a box of popcorn 20 years ago was a mere 270 calories, compared with 610 calories per tub today. Dinner plates have expanded by as much as 3 inches.

But food is not the only thing that has been supersized. On average, an American consumes as much energy as two Japanese, six Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis or 370 Ethiopians, reports mindfully.org, a Web site of social research. Every day Americans eat 815 billion calories of food (roughly 200 billion more than needed) - enough to feed 80 million people - and throw out 200,000 tons of edible food.

Our houses - especially the bathrooms - have grown larger, even as our households are shrinking.

The sin in all this greedy consumption, according to the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, is not in the food, cars or clothes, but in the ravenous yearning for more.

"The vice of gluttony does not regard the substance of food, but in the desire thereof not being regulated by reason," Thomas wrote. "It is a case of gluttony only when a man knowingly exceeds the measure in eating, from a desire for the pleasures of the palate."

Mormon leader Brigham Young once said, "Excessive eating, drinking or exercise all tend to the grave."

Many Christians, though, seem less concerned about overeating or consuming than about sexual matters. They rail against adultery, divorce and same-sex marriage, while munching coffee cake and whipped cream in the church's social hall.

American evangelicals have many ways of thinking about gluttony. Many don't think about it much at all, says Marie Griffith, who teaches religion at Princeton. "For those who do, avoiding gluttony is typically seen either as a matter of obedient discipline or as a simple matter of health/fitness and treating our bodies the way God would want."

Some who practice mealtime restraint as a spiritual discipline are "perfectly happy with material wealth and do not have a lot to say against conspicuous consumption," says Griffith, author of Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity. "[It] doesn't always correlate with a concern about material greed."

Buddhists preach a "middle way" between asceticism and indulgence, allowing the necessity of eating but not allowing appetites to control the mind.

Jews don't, of course, go with the "seven deadly sins" model. But a 12th-century rabbi, Maimonides, said much the same thing about overeating.

"He talked of a 'golden mean,' that we should pursue moderation in all things," says Rabbi Tracee Rosen of Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City. "To live a good life, a holy life is finding a balance, not abstaining too much and not partaking too much."

Make no mistake, she says, Jews love food. But following Judaism's kosher rules is about recognizing the world's physical reality and choosing to be holy about it rather than animalistic.

"We have the ability to make choices, not just follow our instincts," Rosen says.

Still, sermonizing about gluttony would hurt rather than help one group of Americans - those with eating disorders.

"What people who eat uncontrollably need may be support and compassion - not shame. Compulsive eating is often a way of trying to find comfort, trying to ease one's suffering, and/or trying to escape the natural difficulty of life," says Michelle Mary Lelwica, assistant professor of women's studies at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. "When one is made to feel shameful about a behavior that causes one to suffer, chances are that the suffering will increase, and the real sources of the craving will not be examined."

It is the American culture, with its severely imbalanced approach to eating - indulge and refrain - that has created these disorders, says Lelwica, author of Starving for Salvation: The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems Among American Girls and Women. "We are constantly told to shape up and trim down, even as we are encouraged to supersize and enjoy. I think we carry these mixed messages in our bodies and spend a lot of time trying to compensate for the extremes into which we fall."

That could explain the apparent paradox in the fact of rising obesity, even as millions of girls and women are starving themselves in order to be thin, she says.

Gluttony and eating disorders are about excessive attachment to food. It becomes a kind of idol to be worshipped or feared, rather than a necessity or a gift from God. The best antidote for such "foodolatry" is a healthy attitude toward one's body and a spirit of generosity.

"Eating is a moral issue - but not because of how many calories we consume," Lelwica says. "The real moral issues have to do with how what we eat and how we eat connects us to the rest of the world - including those who do not have enough to eat, those who grow, harvest, and prepare our food, etc."

For David Pascoe, U.S. gluttony is an environmental disaster.

"If you think of excess of food consumption here, the water, energy and resources consumed in producing vast amounts of food, it is an abuse of the Earth," Pascoe says. "In this time of overindulgence, we need to consider how we use all the good gifts God has given us, whether they be our finances, family situation, food in our refrigerators, or the income to eat out or eat in with friends."

Pascoe recently returned from a service mission to Guatemala.

"I watched tiny 80-pound women carry 70-pound bags of firewood and produce to market," says Pasco, director of development for Salt Lake Theological Seminary. "If I asked them what the deadliest of sin is, I guarantee gluttony would not be it."

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* PEGGY FLETCHER STACK can be contacted at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. Send comments about this story to religioneditor@sltrib.com.