page_title: Vegetarianism
section_title: Jainism
hierarchical_section_title: Vegetarianism / Religion and diet / Jainism
caption_attribution_description: English: An illustration indicating why Jains are vegetarians. Due to the practice of the value of Ahinsa (non-violence), Jains attempt to avoid inflicting of pain in their diet practices. Increase in the number of senses may contribute to increase in sensory acuity, and thus Jains prefer eating foods made from creations that have a lesser number of sense organs (such as plant-based foods).
context_page_description: Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat, and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter.
  Vegetarianism may be adopted for various reasons. Many people object to eating meat out of respect for sentient life. Such ethical motivations have been codified under various religious beliefs, as well as animal rights advocacy. Other motivations for vegetarianism are health-related, political, environmental, cultural, aesthetic, economic, or personal preference. There are variations of the diet as well: an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet includes both eggs and dairy products, an ovo-vegetarian diet includes eggs but not dairy products, and a lacto-vegetarian diet includes dairy products but not eggs. A vegan diet excludes all animal products, including eggs and dairy. Avoidance of animal products may require dietary supplements to prevent deficiencies such as vitamin B12 deficiency, which leads to pernicious anemia. Psychologically, preference for vegetarian foods can be impacted by one's own socio-economic status and evolutionary factors.
context_section_description: Followers of Jainism believe that all living organisms whether they are micro-organism are living and have a soul, and have one or more senses out of five senses and they go to great lengths to minimise any harm to any living organism. Most Jains are lacto-vegetarians but more devout Jains do not eat root vegetables because they believe that root vegetables contain a lot more micro-organisms as compared to other vegetables, and that, by eating them, violence of these micro-organisms is inevitable. So they focus on eating beans and fruits, whose cultivation do not involve killing of a lot of micro-organisms. No products obtained from dead animals are allowed, because when a living beings dies, a lot of micro-organisms (called as decomposers) will reproduce in the body which decomposes the body, and in eating the dead bodies, violence of decomposers is inevitable. Jain monks usually do a lot of fasting, and when they knew through spiritual powers that their life is very little, they start fasting until death. Some particularly dedicated individuals are fruitarians. Honey is forbidden, because honey is the regurgitation of nectar by bees  and may also contain eggs, excreta and dead bees. Some Jains do not consume plant parts that grow underground such as roots and bulbs, because the plants themselves and tiny animals may be killed when the plants are pulled up.
caption: The food choices of Jains are based on the value of Ahimsa (non-violence).
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}