Healthy foods for Monks.

[madusa]

I am not sure if this had every been done before so I am really curious. I wish to find people who share the same desire to help improve foods offer to monks. It will be a non-profit organization. This organization will give free cooking lessons on foods that are low in glycemic index . Desserts that are low in sugar content.

Quite a lot of older monks suffer from diabetes because of the foods they consume daily. The younger monks are also on the road to diabetes.

I had seen foods eaten by monks when I was on a 30 day meditation stay at one of the temples. I feel sorry for the monks because diabetes is very difficult to reverse once it got a strong hold on you.

This organization that I intend to set up with the help of fellow Buddhists will also cook and sell these healthy foods so that lay person can buy and give them to the monks on alms round.

When average Thais in towns or villages acquire knowledge of glycemic index and understand how sugar affect the human organ and the brain they could improve the quality of foods offer to the monks.

I am willing to spend time to help set up the organization for free ( provided the organization get the permission for me to do so).

I look forward to any good comments.

"Diabetes the silent and insidious killer" (insidious= seemingly harmless but have grave effect).

 

 

[cooked]

Somewhat cynically, I doubt that you will have much success. This has to come from the Thais themselves a nd that means that you would have to educate 66 million Thais to change their eating habits.

I do rather object to your excluding the general population from your project, good luck anyway.

I can't even change my family's eating habits, let alone those of others.

[connda]

The issue nowadays is that this isn't like 50 or 70 years ago when monks in poor villages could barely find enough food to eat.  I doubt if any village in Thailand has food problems, and as such most monks gather so much food in the morning that they need a civilian to help them haul it back to the wat.  Then what do they eat?  The healthy vegan food you made them - or - the type of food they've eaten all their lives and which is probably not the best for them.  The fact of the matter is that most monks have a choice of what they eat, and they often will go with what tastes good as opposed to be the most healthy for them. Really - if you could only eat between 6 and 12, or if you were a forest monk and only eating one meal a day, what would you choose to eat?  And I'm assuming that most monks are neither liberal, university educated, or particularly sophisticated in a new-age, post-modern sort of way.  Keto - vegan monks who have a good understanding of current trends and scientific literature in the field of nutriention?  ?  Probably not a lot out there. 
The excess food collected during morning alms rounds goes to the village poor and the animals living at the temple.  No doubt, the dogs and cats at the temple and the poor in the villages will be very healthy after you implement your program! 

 

So to the Op.  Kudos for your intentions.  However, the fact of the matter is  -  you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. 
Your 'healthy foods for monks' initiative will have to be paired with a 'healthy eating for monks' educational program to be successful.  And best of luck with that! 

Edited September 16, 2018 by connda

[prakhonchai nick]

Let them feed themselves!

 

[Spidey]

31 minutes ago, connda said:

Your 'healthy foods for monks' initiative will have to be paired with a 'healthy eating for monks' educational program to be successful.  And best of luck with that! 

Would be more beneficial if you instigated a "Keep them away from your kids" program.

[Formaleins]

If you go to your local gardening shop, you will find loads of suitable food for monks, it is extremely cheap too. You can buy it in large sacks, usually 50kg at a time. Look out for the numbering system, they mark it on the outside of the bags, usually something like 15-15-15, or 0-0-46.

This lets you know the Fibre content, vitamin C and Protein levels. The vegetarian monks prefer 20-20-0, i.e. 20% Fibre, 20% Vitamin C and 0% Meat product.

 

Good luck.

[MikeN]

There is actually a program about this running already, I have read several stories about this in the news .....unfortunately in the unquoteable and unlinkable  paper, so you will have to search for it yourself. 

I am sure Mr Google will help you if you type in “improve monk diet in Thailand”. 

[tutsiwarrior]

we just had some monks out to the house to chant for my wife's '100 day death anniversary' ceremony and judging by the spread laid out for them afterwards they eat well...their wat is out in the village where my wife grew up and judging by the number of funerals that I've attended locally they do quite well...me and the mother in law together had to distribute the rice in ceremonial silver bowls, etc...

 

but I havta admit that a couple of them didn't look well...I wonder if the food revived them...

 

 

[grumbleweed]

 

If they want to avoid diabetes they should adopt a more active lifestyle as opposed to their pseudo symbiotic parasitic existence

 

1 hour ago, Formaleins said:

The vegetarian monks prefer 20-20-0, i.e. 20% Fibre, 20% Vitamin C and 0% Meat product.

 20% vitamin C?

You knowledge of nutrition is about as good as mine is of the female mind

I think 20% of recommended daily intake per serving would be nearer the mark

[sead]

If any successful family mart and 7/11 will sell it 2 weeks after.

[Monkeyrobot]

The one with his own private jet has his own personal chef, maybe you could share nutrition ideas. 

[1sickpuppy]

it would help if you got them to stop spraying so many chemicals on there rice & vedgies, otherwise waste of time

[ReMarKable]

I wouldn't give a monk a satong. The last time my wife went to the local wat with traditional Thai food the monk told her next time to bring food from McDonald's.  Most of the time I see monks watching TV while the old ladies they hire clean the temple.  They are, in my opinion, at minimum worthless and at most, criminals and not worth your or my consideration.

[madusa]

On 9/16/2018 at 7:20 PM, ReMarKable said:

I wouldn't give a monk a satong. The last time my wife went to the local wat with traditional Thai food the monk told her next time to bring food from McDonald's.  Most of the time I see monks watching TV while the old ladies they hire clean the temple.  They are, in my opinion, at minimum worthless and at most, criminals and not worth your or my consideration.

Wow, wow, is that really true? They did ask for McDonald's? Little arse hole I must say.

There are good and bad temples in Thailand. Like some churches where the priests like to touch the penis of young kids. Same in thailand after all we are just human beings easily fall for temptations.

I read a good book written by a forest monk (translated from thai to english). He mentioned he was travelling with fellow monks near Laos when they saw young local girls(15 to 18) bathing in the river. He was so overwhelmed by his sexual desire that for the whole day he couldn't do any meditation the thoughts of those ladies came back to him over and over during his meditation...And he had to stand up and walked about even then he said he penis was sticking up and it was obvious because of the bulge on the robe. He was worried someone might see him in such condition. In thai he wrote: "Kamathan Tek" (meditation broken into pieces like a piece of glass. )

This author was one of the early monks who fought against the order of the Buddhist Council in Bangkok , the council back by civil servants with agenda tried to control them.

[madusa]

On 9/16/2018 at 2:03 PM, MikeN said:

There is actually a program about this running already, I have read several stories about this in the news .....unfortunately in the unquoteable and unlinkable  paper, so you will have to search for it yourself. 

I am sure Mr Google will help you if you type in “improve monk diet in Thailand”. 

Good of you to inform me of this. I google and found that there were some attempts in the early years to improve the quality of foods offered to monks apparently they failed miserably to say the least.

There is a guy on youtube (can't recall his name) who said the world governments had agreed to a depopulation plan and if people died of obesity or high blood pressure, heart attack is ok. So governments will approve all kinds of chemical added to foods, (e.g. like aspartame) and they will just let them die.

Now it seems to me he is right.

Just show me any foods in 7/11 that have no chemicals added I will give you US$100

 

[madusa]

On 9/16/2018 at 9:26 AM, cooked said:

Somewhat cynically, I doubt that you will have much success. This has to come from the Thais themselves a nd that means that you would have to educate 66 million Thais to change their eating habits.

I do rather object to your excluding the general population from your project, good luck anyway.

I can't even change my family's eating habits, let alone those of others.

You are right. I didn't google on this topic before I asked the question on this forum my big mistake. I found out after I google that there were quite a few attempts to get the monks to eat healthy foods but they all failed to inculcate the value of eating the right foods for good health.

A friend of mine after listening to me talk about healthy foods for monks said, "If you look carefully the Thais in general live a completely carefree life. They wouldn't bother with anything if it takes an effort to do so. Why do you think they will follow a good healthy diet is beyond my comprehension" .

My idea was shot down even before it was made known to the Thais.

[MikeN]

On 9/16/2018 at 2:39 PM, grumbleweed said:

 

If they want to avoid diabetes they should adopt a more active lifestyle as opposed to their pseudo symbiotic parasitic existence

 

 20% vitamin C?

You knowledge of nutrition is about as good as mine is of the female mind

I think 20% of recommended daily intake per serving would be nearer the mark

Obviously the earlier reference to farm supplies in 50kg sacks went over your head, or you are not a gardener, as he was being “funny” ,well trying to be. The 20-20-20 is actually the NPK ratio of fertilizers..........

[varun]

The healthiest food for monks is no food at all.

Don't waste one penny of your hard-earned money on these charlatans -

whisky-swilling, child-molesting and kickback-taking posers masquerading around in orange robes - a disgrace to Buddhism.