t has long been a spiritual

retreat for the rich and

famous -from V l ; t W
Putin to hince Charles
-but now Mount Ahos
-and its communityof Greek
orthodox monks are king
hail@ as a medical miracle.
Their pared-down,rustic
Meditenanean diet,togethefwith a reliance on home-grown
seasonal produce, has led to
an extraordmmly low rate
of cancers,heart disease and
Alzheimer's among .themonks.
So what can we learn from
an all-malebastion whose
lifestyle has barely evolved since
923AD?We went in search of
the secrets of the Mount Athos
regime, fkom coolung principles
to philosophies, to see what we
could bring back home.
Here,in the first of a two-part
series,we analyse the monks'
nutrition and lifestyle.In
tomorrow's Observer,Stephen
Moss samp1esthe monastic
routine plus five exclusive
Athos recipes.
'

Exclusive recipes from Mount

Athos,free with the Observer

r
Secrets of
1.

the Mount
Athos diet

The monks' exceptionally healthy diet is governed

by a series of rules and principles,much of it
centred on a philosophy of strict moderation.
Helena Smith reports on a land without butter
or the Mount Athos monks, meals
are sacred afFairs - an extension of
their communion with God. Fasting

Mood and place is aiso very important. When

we eat we are very calm, there is total silence
except for the elder who may read from the
scripturesor say a prayer." The cook's mood,
he says, is similarly important. "I love cooking
not because I want to please or be flattered but
because I love the people I am cooking for."

r n M More than 200 days of the year are designated

as "abstention days", including Mondays,
Wednesdaysand Fridays each week and
lengthier religiousholidays. On these days,
the monks eat only one meal, usually at
sunset. Dairyproducts,wine and olive oil
are forbidden. That leaves fruit, veg, bread,
and lots of 1entils.my in very special
circumstancescan fasts be flouted, for
examplewhen a monk is so ill that he has
been *blessednon his sickbed.
On non-fast (or feast) days - Tuesdays,
Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays - the
monks eat two meals with wine: one after

t
I

churchataroundgamandoneafkrvespets
at around 4.3opm. The pations are small
by western &mda& - themonks can have
topups from the containers on the table, but
they rarely do. Plus, eating time is limited to
mund 20 minutes, and once the atbit rings
a bell the monkshave to stop. In a community
that seesi n m u d d o n as the causeof
disease,thektrnuyof enjoyinga second plate
is pemitted rarely.
W t h the exception of one or two tubby
monks. thev show areat self-mtdnt."
o
d h e r stephen Moss, who &ted
Mount Athos. "They know how much they
need to get by and they don't eat a sliver of
broccoli more."
The monks believe that fastingbrings them
cl&r to God.Abstaining from rich, oily foods
for more than half of the year is r e g a d d as the
ultimate form of self-conkol.
"Too much food, like too much sleep, is
not only bad for the body but the mind," says
Brother Mobis, a leading spiritual 'gure on the
fasting days a monk prays more
Mount.
because he is 6Ued with enthusiasmand has
a higher purpose. Monks don't fast because
they care about their physical health, or worry
about getting cancer, or want to live long and
good lives. The fmgality and simpliaty of the
food they eat, natudly, has a good effect on
their health and helps keep physical damage
at bay. But they do it because they reject
everythingthat is superfluousin life, and
in cutting out their own desires, they come
closer to God."

All the vegetables and fruit eaten on Mount

~ t b o is
o himegrown in the monastery

1 gardens, which means that not only is the

monks' diet organic(no pesticides are used)

it is also entirely seesonal.Vegetables are
cultivated in flat plots close to monasteries
and cells. Depending on the season of the
year, the gardens are brimming with beans,
auberghes, courgeut'es, cauli3owen, lettuces,
tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, beetroot and

r-

peninsula by fishermen-monksand eaten

stewed, fried or grilled.

Alcohol is readily availableon the Mount

because it is all home-brewed,and the

monksdonottumtheirnosesupatit.The
consumption of wine remains an important

part of the liturgy in church d c e s and

aid to digestion.
many view it as an essential
'
" Jwas
In earlier times, when
widespread, storiesof drunk monks were
legeadary. However, thephilosophy of
by most of the monks,
moderation is obse~ed
particukrly the younger generation, who ofken
akemateit with raki, & l d firewater. At
meals, monks rarely drink more thanone glass
of red wine.
Most days on Mount Athos will start with a
cup of mountain or sage tea, both made from
indigemus plants. Turkish-style cups of sweet,
gtainy coffee are also allowedand monks will
Frequentlysavour one in theafternoan, or
before goingto work. On fast days, however,
most try to abstain from tea and coffee. Sweets
are a much enjoyed part of the Athos diet, from
the traditionalCreek sesame flour and honey
confection, halva, to loukoumi - a kind of
stidrqrturM d-t.
Most meals end with a
cake, baklavaor oat-styleb i t of some kind

favounlte oily dishes

stew),or chickpea patties
tomorrowSObserver).
daysiscaughtdfthe

Forhe~tpart,fdiscookedinhuge
cauldrons, pans Paas nays in wood-burning
ovens.Onfapt&ys,whendiveoilis
forbidden, ingredientsare often stewed or
fried in ;tahiniinstead. "But butter is out," says
Brother Epifanios, "and so are matgarha, rich
aeamand sauces likebechamel. In 35 years
of cookingI've never once put them in any of
my dish@s."
Spice8are used abundantly. Brother
Epifaniosis~yfond~Nminwhose
nwritshefirstdiscEnreredatStGath~s
momstayintbeSinai.%~wondersfor
the digestion," says the chef, who oa Feast
dayshas t o c a t e r f w u p t o 3 , o w ~ e aat
the.'TindudecumininIleorlyev~I
cooknowaadthemonkseeemtoubett;"
hdw,celery,dill, f-el,
-tic,
~regan~andrnlnt~~~llgus
seagonfoods.

'Intoday's world people want

to eat and eat. They have made

a living of eating,whereas we
should only eat what we need'

tmlrrLn$rPblJ
No ralldagis permitted during meals, even a
whisperedre~uatforthesalt
tobepassed.
Wtead, everyone Ustensto a monk reading
1hTheLivesofrheSaints.Th9monks
explain that the meal is an integral part of

A layman called Christos,an air tiai3c

contrdler in Themb&iwho has visited
the Mmm, noted: "3ust two meals seems
towork,Tkyaretherightporti~l~~,soyou
don'tf&dovemdkd. The food is a bit cold,
but actually I don't care too much about this. I
like thewhole atmospherewhen we're eating
-theorder, peoplecombginalltogether,the
prayer, listening to a monk giving a reahg."
%tt to live, don? Mve to eat," says grother
Ephraim at the Skete d St Andrew. "In today's
society, people want to eat and eat. They've
made a living of eating, whereas we should
only eat what we need, which is h t a tenth
of what we eat anyway."
WZlat Stephen Mcws didn't do on Athos was
experieme~~o~ccooldngona~tday."I
wasthereattheendofchristrnas-&re8
accm&gtotheJullancal~dar,~whlchtwo

weeksbehindthoseduswbadoptedrtte

GregortaPlversionzicoupledcentwiesago.
Usually,they fast on Mondays, Wedn&ays
and~days,andonthosedaysth@y~
fish, all dairy products, eggs,wfne &ad ollw
oil - though,oddly, they are atlowed to

~ ~ s h a u t d g o t o t h e o t h e r ~ e . " eat olives."

f
e ~dott ~h e r ~ e b e i B g m a k f n s a @ ofood,
co=u4@m#~-.

iracle on the mountain

Mount Athos monks are
on earth. Helena Smith ts' extraordmary fin-

lained of ditiicultiesurinating,a
often assodatedwith v r m e
decade later,11 had dkeloped
cer - four timen h e r thanthe

the result of the very special

Sncethei96os,studieshaoe!~that
*IKedit~diete9nphyslcarztral
Foleinind
pndlower~af
card.iovasdardisease.*C)nNIm~~
hcnre@monestepfutherbyf~meat
a n d o n l y ~ e a W M , ~ ~
theyhaveavery~~ofgahuatedfats
andahighint.akeof81aaga-3bttyadds-bath
o f w b i c h ~ p f t t r t h e r t o ~ ~ ~
of cardkievasculiirdisease," S B . EWsapidm.
~
Monks speakof %I inaedde feeling of
lightness and freedom".
Records show that hearx &ease, cardiac
arrestsandstrokesarevirtually~ent
among the monks. The absenceof stress,
comDetitivenessd anxiet~around socialand
ecoiomic inseanity has a& been linked to
their mental wellbebg. Instead, monks derive
pleasure from the knowledge that they have
nothing and will have nothin$.
Thispartly accountsforthe astonishing
absenceof Alzheimer's disease also discovered
on the Mount. After subjecting more than
2.000 monks to repeated W s over a fiveyear period, Eur*
neurologists were so
startled to discovera "zero-incidence" of the
disease that they atended their study to
monwtedes and nunneries around Greece.
The resultswere equally mrprhbgonly two
nuns, both well into their Sos, showed signs
of vascular dementia, and no monk outside
thepeninsulaappearedaftlictedwiththe

disease at all.
"We had to ask why, and the answerM y
lay in the lack of worldly concerns their
spiritual life, d t y and diet," says Pro
S t a m Wyamiis, thepre-eminent Greek
newoh@ who led the study. "For A t h &
monks, in partieula, there is no such thing
as existential anxiety. These men& not
fear death. Instead, they face it with the
expectatitmof eternallife which is why, when
it does come, they ;uetotally euphoric."

Moderation
i

The Athos diet is e s s e n ~ 'M

y editerranean Ete':

he Mediterzanean diet, with its

reliance on o k oil, is not actually.
alow-fatdiet-iVsaemoder;te
fat" diet. But it is traditionally
assodatedwith a lower incidence

m&mdmhaW*M."We
x+mt&Ws a c a m a d h
n
r
t
r
n
ip
wrpae meala
~ , , " ~ ~ S T s ~ t o l ; o ~ o r f b u r

saajrllW~~@e&r~o%=o~two

!3oiol~eanweleam~oneof

philosophy of moderation in all things. Worth

remembering when ordering that takeaway.

4 Ewater-based
e Z & oil-coowith
techniques (steaming1
redudng monksaauscer rates
islikelyt0be~highimt;lkeaf
p h t foods, parthhly the wide

mmmn
P
./I

lliham!&s have about 20 minutes

k~~oeat~meals-affer

1
~

add tomato products.

boiling/bakingfoods) is an instant
wav to cut down on fat. The monks
use a lot of olke oil, but they never use butter
or cream, which are high in saturated fat,
associatedwith raised cholesterollevels.

watch your salt

The monks do not consumeany

processed food - often a source of
"hiddenn salt in western diets. The
absence of ready-meals means the
monks know exactlywhat's in their food and
how much seasoninghas been added. They
also use spices for seasoning, or add herbs
such as parsley, dill, oregano and mint. This
is a good way to add flavour and means you
don't have to add much salt when cooking.
The recent WCRF report confirmsthat salt
(and salt-preserved foods) are probably a cause
of stomach cancer.

rsnot just diet that makes

@e monks so healthy
- of -stress,
an outdoor
Be and the support of
a caring brotherhood
&play
I their part
a

I
1

L'

Jeremiah thinkslack of stress among

on Athos is the crucial reason why the
,&gUence of cancer is low. And scientists agree
himabout its importance. When they
zero incidence of Alzheimer's disease
had to ask why," says Professor Stavros
,a pre-eminent Greek neurologist.
e answer clearly lay in the lack of
' PBpldly concerns. For Athonite monks there is
-. gUCh thing as existentialanxiety."
not a lot of stress in our lives,"
Jeremiah. "People in the world
with making money, getting
and worryiug about what other
them. We have to do what we

Without the strains of employment (or

UWmployment), nor anxiety about career
)&&as, the monks are free to work short
-ktcreative - days. Most of the work is
-en
between loam and 2pm. The abbot
w which "obediences" the monks will
mdertake, and they have a changeover at the
h g h i n g of each year, though some monks
. Will do the same job for a number of years. One
- ;Wmk, a huge man with a jet-black beard called
- 3W&a Ioannis, heroically manages to combine
C
winemaking and beekeeping.

:%Wethelurount Athos way

:ajeu Shah, director of the Stress Management

.'b k t y , likes to use the analogy of a

the weight of cars and trucks

over it. Keep increasing the
,he says, and eventually the bridge will
When we deal with stress there are
WQoptions: we can either reduce the weight
@n
aur bridge, or we can fortify our bridge so
%can take the strain. *For people who don't

want any weight on their bridge, thisis the

perfect life," Shah says of the monks. "There is
virtuaUy no weight on their bridge. V i y all
their decisions are made for them."
But the monks have also fortified
themselves with an excellent support network
in their brotherhood. And, of course, the
support of their faith.
Clearly, it's not easy to replicate the stressfree monastic Lifestyle. But there are p ~ c i p l e s
for dealingwith stress that the monks have
unconsciously adopted:
1) Simplifyyour life. lf you simplify it, you're
less likely to buckle under the weight of it.
2) If you can't simplifyit, get some support:
send the kids off to the grandparmts; delegate
to a colleague; relieve the burden by talking to
a professional; have a massage to give yourself
some time out.
3) Rev up your support mechanism: the monks
derive huge succour from their friendships.
"Most people don't have a support mechanism
in place so they try to manage too much by
themselves," says Shah.

ynme!Ifin the garden or allotment and you

wodtnaeicethesweatonyourbrav.
4)Dadtmakea~ofit.Leadhganactive
lifedghreyoumoreenergyandraiseyour
spirits,but you're more likely to mainGh it if
6%
part of $nu routine rather than a chore.

=onics
are laconicwhen it comes to
talking about sex. "Some people have a
uro~em.m e a m l e have m ~r0blemat
';aF ~ a t i eisid&,-a
r
youagUS~bornmonk. .
Women are not altowed to enter M.
There is a story, p o s s i i apocryphal, about a
igth-century foundling child who had bed
aLl his life on Athos, had seen IKI woman other
than the V i Mary, and was shoc%edlate in
life to discover that not all women had halos.
"Physical separation helps us to
concentrate," says F'ather Isidore. "Like a
scientist who sits in his laboratory and doesnPt
go to bars or discos,or like a sportsmanwho
gaesofftoiso~~camps."
Father JemnW adds: "S<Pmeonewho has
dedded to became a monk has dedded he's
not really interested in being mardedor having
a family. There's nothing wrong with that.'

The healthben-

of celibacy
Dr Luisa Dillner writes: The monks' health and
longevityis interesthg froma relationship
paint of view because it flies in the face of the

4statistics.
Figures from National Statisticsshow
that siagle men aged between 30 and 59 are
fait amount
more thantwice as likely to die as those who
are &ed. Studiesconsistentlyshow that
a l m a
leaving monks with a two- or
married men are less likely than single men
.
bur IIFalEf to get into town.
to have heart disease, get depressed, develop
cancer, catch pneumonia, or develop chronic
1 ' 6etfPsaataeIlabit
bronchitis. The monks,however, are not living
&tgwt Joarma Hall says the fact that*
the "single life" in that they are not alone: they
I
Otue~do~pouadawayontreadmih get succour from a supportivebrotherhood.
; o a ~ ~ g y m m e m b e r s h i p i s p r o o f t h a t By conmst, stressful mmbgesraise blood
~ ~ ~ B t P a w l w a I k f h m a t r u z y a g e a n dpressme(men's in pdcuhr) and h e r some
m y ~ o f M @ "So,. W e a d of pl&q to
biochemical markers of immunity.
iPaagff-a
fitness regime, incorporate
Does ceiibacy confer any health benefits?
Quite the opposite. A study in the British
geathi&mskem exercise into your daily life.
@ ~ b W t o s c h o o l a n d / o r w a ~ k p a r t o f Medical~ofovetloomenbetwgen
45 and 59 found that those who had he most
yeru -w.
orgasms Ctwo or more a week) had half the
23bWcupstalpsinsteadoftaking them.
death rate of those with the least (less than
31.J~ r t yback
c ~ into hoeing the garden: much
one a month).
oftbemonks' work is outdoor labour. Absorb

- L ammmteries
working in the fields, doing
W)9i(psi&th
e
- and the ones

&
-