Highlight: Everyone can live longer if they pay attention to their lifestyle and try to live as monks do.

People may have often heard that Buddhist monks on average live longer than others, and this is scientifically proven. However, the reason that monks can live longer is not because of their identity as monks, it is because of their lifestyle. Everyone can live longer if they pay attention to their lifestyle and try to live healthier. Apart from practicing martial arts, the secret of monks- some of the healthiest people on the earth- is eating healthy. Why is eating healthy important? Studies show that a healthy eating style can significantly lower the risk of having diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Also, for some people, eating healthy will lead to emotional health since they can feel good about themselves. Finally, for people who are interested in losing weight, there is nothing more effective and impactful than eating healthy.

How do you eat healthily? Many studies have shown that following a Mediterranean-style diet, also known as the martial arts diet, is good for us. In the martial arts world, a balance in what you eat impacts how you perform, hence it is an integral part of martial art practice. There are both traditional and modern types of martial arts diet-called Shaolin temple diet and Shaolin warrior monks’ diet.

Traditional Martial Art Diet: Shaolin Temple Diet

Shaolin temple diet is the eating style of Shaolin monks and it is a vegetarian diet that relates to Buddhism. This is because Buddhists do not kill animals. Alcohol as well as stimulating spices or odiferous food like ginger, onion and garlic are forbidden because they can excite emotions.  Let’s look at the example of the Shaolin Temple Diet:

Breakfast

In a Shaolin temple, all monks get up at around 5am and have porridge as breakfast. The most common porridge is called Eight Treasures, which contains red beans, pine nuts, walnuts, peanuts, rice, hawthorns, Chinese dates and millet. This breakfast is very good for organ health.

Lunch

Rice, tofu and five to six types of vegetables are normally served for lunch from 11:30 to 12:30 am. The food is either raw or steamed and as mentioned, no spices and odiferous food are added: the simpler the meal is made, the better. Water or tea is not served in order to improve digestion.

Dinner

Dinner is served around 5:30 pm and it is mainly high carb food such as noodles and bread make from black or yellow wheat. This is because carbs are the primary source of energy for our body. In fact, little to no carbohydrates will be stored as fat if we have enough exercise, according to a report from Columbia University.

Modern Martial Art Diet: Shaolin Warrior Monks’ Diet

Shaolin warrior monks are monks who practice martial arts but not Buddhism, and they eat meat because meat is high in many nutrients that can provide energu. If you want to follow martial art diet but do not want to stop eating meat, the shaolin warrior monks’ diet could be a great option.

Written by Bota @ InteractChina.com

Posted by Yuqing@ InteractChina.com

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