By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
July 23, 2004 � The jolly image of rotund Friar Tuck could be only partially true, according to a recent study of skeletal remains from monks that lived during the Middle Ages (476-1450 A.D.) that revealed most monks were overweight, but perhaps not entirely jolly because they suffered from conditions associated with obesity, such as arthritis.
The findings, presented last week at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds University in England, shed light on the monastic lifestyle from that period and could help to explain the development of civil unrest against monasteries toward the latter part of the medieval age.
Philippa Patrick, author of the paper and an archaeologist at University College London, made the determinations after analyzing the skeletal collections of the Museum of London, which include remains of medieval monks from St. Mary Graces Abbey, Tower Hill, St. Saviour's Abbey, Bermondsey and Merton Priory.
Patrick, whose study was funded by the U.K. Arts and Humanities Research Board, told Discovery News that by the time most monks were 45 and over, they were three times more likely than the overall population to develop a condition linked to obesity known as DISH, diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. DISH affects a victim's spine with lesions, making it harder for the person to walk and move.
The monks also were three times as likely to suffer from weight-related forms of arthritis.
"The biggest difference was in terms of osteoarthritis of the distal interphalangeal joints (the fingertips essentially) which is strongly linked with obesity in the clinical literature," explained Patrick. "Monks were six times as likely to develop this condition than their secular counterparts."
She said the monks' sedentary lifestyle coupled with overeating led to the weight gain. Obesity was unusual during the medieval period, during which time many people suffered from poverty, malnutrition and deadly plagues.
"(The monks') diet has been classified as 'a form of high class diet,' that would mean very few people � only the upper echelons of society � could have managed to match the monks in terms of quality and quantity of their diet ... but the inactivity probably didn't help either," said Patrick.
She added that the monks ate animals and birds that they raised and used for secondary products, such as milk, butter, eggs and cheese. Monasteries also had extensive complexes of fishponds to supply fish. The monks ate fruits and nuts, but vegetables were limited mostly to beans, peas, onions, garlic and leeks.
While monks were expected to donate up to a third of their daily food as alms to the poor, this did not always happen.
Patrick said, "... In 1432, the monks of Peterborough were reprimanded for taking the alms food to another room and sharing it out amongst themselves."
The middle classes in the 14th century, after the Great Famine and the Great Death, criticized monastery excesses. Thereafter, Patrick said gluttony became a common accusation against certain members of religious orders and monasteries, many of whom came from wealthy families.
Tony Waldron, a professor of archaeology at University College London, read Patrick's study and came to similar conclusions in his own research on monks.
In a paper for the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Waldron wrote, "DISH seems to be related to obesity and type II diabetes and is probably a multisystem hormonal disorder. DISH occurs frequently in human skeletal remains, particularly in those recovered from monastic sites."
Patrick believes that people today who eat high fat diets and lead sedentary lifestyles could learn lessons from the medieval monks.
"Monks weren't eating fast food and sitting in front of the television, but in a way the unbalanced diet and relative inactivity are comparable," she said. "I wonder whether seeing some of these skeletal lesions might put a few people off their food and decide to pursue a more healthy lifestyle?"