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Re: Dietary Customs of Jains
>I am interested in the dietary customs of followers of Jainism. I will be
>hosting Jains in the near future. As a follower of the dietary customs of
>Judiasm, I am sensitive to making guests of other religions feel comfortable.
>I would appreciate a response to the following querstions :
You essentially have two choices here, depending on what
information you can make available to yourself.
a) try to find out directly what the people will or will not eat.
This is probably the best, since there are various branches of
Jainism that differ in philosophy, and individuals can vary
greatly, choosing to follow or not follow whatever they wish.
b) aim for the lowest common denominator. This is the "safest" bet,
but can be a bit tricky with Jains, for reasons I'll explain below.
>Do Jains eat eggs? dairy products? fish?
Traditionally, Jains tend to eat in a way that avoid killing as much
as possible. In fact, I was always under the impression that Jains did
not kill in order to obtain food. They almost always eat what
are biologically classified as fruits - the seed-bearing parts of
plants. This would include vegetables such as squash, for example, but
would not include things like potatoes, which are roots, I believe.
They also do not generally eat things that grow underground. I always
thought that the rationale was that things that grew underground were
not fruits, and would involve killing the plant in order to eat them.
However, I have been told recently by some Jains that the logic behind
this is not eat what is meant for other life forms. So, in their logic,
potatoes are meant as food for worms, bugs, etc, so they do not eat them.
Dairy is OK, I think, but be sure about what's in it. I've met Jains
that are very particular about ingredients. Many cheeses are made with
rennet, an enzyme often obtained from the stomach linings of veal calves,
so some Jains try to find rennet-free cheeses. Likewise, sour cream often
contains gelatin, which I'm sure you also avoid, since it's non-Kosher.
Now, the part of the dietary restrictions that I don't fully understand
is on why certain "fruits" are avoided. Eggplant, I'm told, is not eaten
by many Jains. The logic is that it has many so seeds, and each seed is a
potential life, so the cost of eating eggplant is too high.
Eggs and fish, two things that you specifically asked about, are off
limits, I think. Onion and garlic are also off-limit, since they grow
underground. Ginger, I think, is allowed, but I'm not sure about the
reasoning behind it - this might just be a commonly accepted exception.
>Is it important that eating utensils and plates never had contact with meat?
It might be, but I'm basing it more on the dietary customs in Hinduism
than any knowledge I have about Jainism. I've been to (Hindu) houses where
there was a "meat" set and a "clean" set of dishes, and only the latter
was used for religious events, etc.
-Vivek
