Thailand's Tubby Monks to Get Nutrition Lessons

Thailand's monks have been piling on too many pounds on their way to enlightenment. Authorities plan to educate the country's hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks about healthy eating following a study that found 45% of them are obese and 40% of them suffer from diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, the Independent reports.

The monks survive on food they collect from the public, but researchers found that much of the food donated to the men in saffron robes was too rich, oily, or sweet. Researchers found that in the evening, when monks are not supposed to eat, many of them drank several sugar-laden soft drinks. Inactivity made the monks' health problems worse: Apart from their morning walk to collect alms from the public, the only real exercise most of them get is sweeping the courtyards of temple. (More Thailand stories.)