They had no possessions and survived on a meagre diet of tiny helpings of rice, lentils and wild plants.

Lunch was a selection of delicious fresh salads, rice dishes and pasta, served buffet-style so you could eat as much as you liked — no meagre diet rations here.

Meals also punctuated the day, although it was a meagre diet.

In the developing world, the poorest struggling to eke out existences are being forced to cut back on meat to afford a meagre diet of rice and vegetables.

It prescribed hard manual labour, silence, a meagre diet, isolation from the world, and renunciation of most studies.