Article February 16, 2015 Issue

Temperance: What does it mean?

Martha Sarvis

One day I was lamenting to a church friend about my weight, and she suggested that I work with the idea of temperance. I have to admit I had always associated temperance with drinking little or no alcohol and hadn’t considered it in relation to food and eating. I thought: “I’m temperate! I don’t drink alcohol. Check! Got that one covered, let’s move on.” But our discussion prompted me to do some study of the word.

When I looked up temperance in a dictionary, I found a reference to alcohol, but also this: “the practice of always controlling your actions, thoughts, or feelings so that you do not eat or drink too much, become too angry, etc.”

I started eating less and not feeling deprived.