Careful what you give to Monks in the morning 
''Every morning at dawn, the food is dished out to Thailand’s monks in abundance: donations of sticky rice, cakes, noodles, sweet pudding, dumplings, shop-bought snacks and Thai desserts coated with condensed milk and coconut cream. Yet the traditionof giving food, known as alms, to the monks every morning as a way to accumulate karma for this life and the next has precipitated an obesity crisis amongst the clergy.
Contrary to the well-known depiction of a Buddha as a man with a vast round belly and several chins – taken from the Chinese folklore of an eccentric 10th century monk – until recently the 300,000 monks in Thailand have traditionally kept trim and healthy by fasting after midday. While they still fast, the food and drinks they consume every morning is so unhealthy the number of overweight and unhealthy monks now exceeds the national average, with a 45% rate of obesity, 6.5% rate of diabetes and extremely high rates of heart disease and high cholesterol.''
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/26/battle-of-the-bulge-thailand-strives-to-bring-monk-obesity-crisis-under-control
A few weeks ago on a 6 am early morning drive to a nearby town with my wife , along the way we passed several elderly looking women standing out side their houses, clutching what appeared to be bowls of rice . My wife said that these women were waiting for the arrival of the local Buddhist monks so they could offer them food and receive the monks blessing .
Surprisingly my wife made the comment that in her view , in the future once the current older generation of disciples has passed away the coming new young generation will not be as willing to stand in front of their house in the early hours of the morning to seek a monks blessing .
I did ask my wife why all these elderly people standing out side of their houses were only women . Not one man.
I’m still waiting for an answer.
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