The National Health Commission Office (NHCO) has introduced a food and health programme at Phra Pariyatti Dhamma General Education Schools nationwide after finding almost one-quarter of novices were overweight.
Prateep Thanakijcharoen, the NHCO secretary-general, said his office launched the project with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences of Chulalongkorn University and six other organisations to prevent child obesity among 33,000 novices. "We want them to understand food nutrition and maintain a healthy routine instead of choosing only food they prefer such as sweets, snacks or deep-fried food," he said.
The Thai Health Promotion Foundation's chief executive officer's assistant, Prakasit Kayasith, said a survey showed that 22% of novices are overweight, compared to 18% of boys in the general population. Obesity in novices comes from a preference for high-calorie and high-sugar foods. As monks are not allowed to eat after midday, they tend to drink sugary beverages such as sweet milk, soft drinks or sweet green tea in the afternoon.
The foundation and its partners introduced four types of learning to educate novices about healthy food. They comprise infographics, animated graphics, a set of 10 books about food nutrition and exercise, and an app to provide a better understanding of food choices.
The learning methods will be used in classrooms for 33,000 novices, starting in December, Mr Prakasit said. With a better understanding of food, the number of overweight novices will fall, said Prof Jongjit Angkatavanich from Chulalongkorn University and the manager of the programme.
The app will also make it fun for novices as it can be used to record the food they eat and how much exercise they get to win a reward.