In a celebrated passage of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Augustus Gloop becomes the first of four children to suffer an unfortunate accident at Willy Wonka HQ. Unable to control his sweet tooth, he proceeds to drink straight from a chocolate river – and, as fate would have it, tumbles right into it. He is hardly the only character to fall headfirst into a stream (his blind adoration of all things sweet and fattening feels rather like that of the Greek figure of Narcissus, in love with his own face) – and if we take Roald Dahl’s tale to be cautionary, Gloop is also not the first to fall prey to basic appetites. We all do it – this time of year, especially: with advent calendars, Christmas pudding, chocolate logs and endless boxes of Quality Street providing ample delectations in the sweet and fattening department and making Gloopean fiends of us all.
Why do you feel less full after pudding than before it?
