Carthusian Diets

The Carthusian Order is a Roman Catholic sect of cloistered monks and nuns that dates back to 1084. Members of this monastic order live under a strict set of rules, which extend to their highly restrictive --- and exceptionally healthy --- diet. The Carthusian diet has remained more or less unchanged for centuries, and may be a factor in the longevity of the order's members.

The Carthusian Order

• The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, was founded at the end of the 9th Century by St. Bruno. The order's name is derived from the location of St. Bruno's first hermitage, built in a valley in the Carthusian mountains in the French Alps. The Carthusian Order is one of the strictest in the Roman Catholic Church. Each monk devotes as much as 14 hours of each day to prayer, and is allowed a half-hour of diversion each day to work in a woodworking shop. Monks sleep seven hours per day, half in the evening and half in the early morning.

Diet

• Traditionally, Carthusian monks and nuns eat twice a day. The Carthusian diet is frugal, and contains no meat whatsoever. The main meal typically consists of rice or beans, eggs or fish, fruit, bread and water or wine. From September until Easter, the second meal consists only of bread and water. In 944, Peter the Venerable described the Carthusian diet: "They always abstain from the eating of meat, whether in health or ill. They never buy fish, but accept them if given in charity. Cheese and eggs are allowed on Sundays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, they eat cooked vegetables, but on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they take only bread and water. They eat once a day only, save at Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany and on certain other festivals."

Health

• A 1950 article in "Time" magazine discussed the order, including an interview with Carthusian monk Father Thomas Moore, who was then 70. According to Moore, "We all lose weight on our diet. I've lost about 15 pounds since my Benedictine days. But we couldn't be healthier. Pope Leo XIII once ordered a less rigorous regime, but a Carthusian delegation, all 80 to 90 years old, changed his mind. If the delegation lived so long, the life couldn't be too hard, he decided."

Chartreuse

• Produced since the 17th century by the Carthusian monks of Vauvert, near Paris, the liqueur known as Chartreuse was originally intended as a medical elixir. The tonic's original recipe contained more than 70 percent alcohol until the monks toned down the alcohol content to about 55 percent in the 1760s. The liqueur's distinctive color comes from the inclusion of 130 different alpine herbs. Modern-day Carthusian monks also produce a special infused tea that contains such ingredients as pine cone, mugwort, peppermint and licorice.