The Instructor 2.1.15

Costliness is suited not to solitary enjoyment but to sharing with others. So we must guard against foods that persuade us to eat when we are not hungry, bewitching the appetite. Is there not, even in temperate frugality, a healthy variety of foods? Bulbs, olives, some vegetables, milk, cheese, fruits, and all kinds of cooked dishes without sauces. And if roast or boiled meat is needed, it may be taken. “Have you anything to eat here?” the Lord said to the disciples after the resurrection. “And they” (having been taught by him to practice frugality) “gave him a piece of broiled fish; and he ate before them and said to them,” says Luke, what he said. Besides, those who dine according to reason should not be kept without their share of sweetmeats and honeycombs. Of foods, the most suitable are those that can be used at once without fire, since they are also readier; and second, as we said, the cheaper ones. But those who stoop over steaming tables, nursing their own passions, are led by a most dainty demon, whom I would not be ashamed to call a “belly-demon” [and] the worst and most ruinous of demons. He is very like the one called a ventriloquist (“belly-speaker”). It is much better to be happy (eudaimōn, “with a good daimon”) than to have a demon as housemate; and happiness is found in the practice of virtue.