Intro to my Lacto-Vegetarian, Jain diet

Food

Everyone loves it. But everyone eats differently for various reasons.

Growing up in a Jain family, I have been accustomed to eating a Lacto-Vegetarian diet.

In the western world, the word 'Vegetarian' means that you do not consume meat, but can have dairy, eggs and other non-meat products. This diet is technically a 'Lacto-ovo-vegetarian' diet, where the

Lacto = consumes dairy
Ovo = consumes egg
Vegetarian = does not consume any form of meat (red, poultry, seafood etc)

Hence by following a Lacto-vegetarian diet, I do not consume eggs but do consume other dairy products such as milk, cheese, yoghurt.

However, this becomes more complicated when you give this diet it's context which is: Jainism. Inherently, Jainism is more of a lifestyle, where there are certain morals that you live by, and the lay-man has the freedom to define their own boundaries and rules for what they can and cannot do.

The moral behind the Jain diet is 'ahimsa'. Ahimsa = nonviolence. Eat, so that the least harm is done.
All organisms in the world, from humans to animals to microorganisms are considered living and killing these accumulates 'karma' as a consequence.

So, how do we rank these organisms to identify killing which causes the most harm?

Basically, we humans have 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, feeling). We categorise all organisms based on the number of senses they posses. The organisms with the most number of senses are then removed out of the diet. Resulting in a Lacto-Vegetarian diet.

As you can see, animals are at the top of the 5 senses chart, and hence a vegetarian diet is formed. Now, this is where it gets complicated.

Eggs vs Dairy.

Nehal