This should be a rhetorical question...

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Amras Oronar

And af course, people living in that days had too do a lot more then people nowdays. Overweight wasn't really a problem untill cars and stuff (1900+?) came arround I believe.

What about Friar Tuck? And Hobbits lazy? It takes a lot of work to make all that food and ale you know. And to harvest pipe-weed. Hobbits were just too short for their weight.

Seriously, this thread is a sign of the times, equating sin with things like eating, drinking and smoking, when sin used to be things like lust and avarice and blasphemy. I doubt Tolkien would have thought food, drink and smoking were sins as he was a committed smoker, enjoyed a beer (the Inklings used to meet in the morning, and morning drinking would alarm today's health freaks) and loved his food. The only thing keeping him from being very overweight will have been that he rode a bike and walked a lot, and he was not slender anyway.

Gillian McKeith would've had a field day with him and he'd be classed as an incredibly evil sinner by today's standards.