Jain diet chart, 4 sample days

What a Jain day leaves out

A Jain day here has:

• no meat, fish or egg
• no mushrooms
• none of the roots and tubers: beet root, carrot, colocasia, lotus root, potato, radish, sweet potato, tapioca, water chestnut and yam
• no dish with onion, garlic, ginger, beet, carrot, radish or potato in an ingredient name, so onion, garlic and ginger cannot slip in through a shared dish

That is the rule the sample plans use, checked dish by dish. Families follow Jain rules differently, so tell Puja how yours does.

Dinner time: dinner is at 6:30 pm because many Jain families finish eating before sunset (chauvihar).

• From October to February the sun sets before 6:30 pm in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, so in those months move the evening snack and dinner earlier.
• If your family eats after dark, the same plates work at your usual times.

What is left is still a full day

• Dishes: the 4 sample days, each at three calorie levels, are built from 26 everyday dishes, 7 of them Jain versions of dishes that normally carry onion or garlic.
• Protein and fibre: protein runs from 55 g to 83 g a day and fibre from 33 g to 70 g.
• The chips: the small number on each chip is the protein in that day, and the lower calorie days carry less of it. The protein calculator gives your own number.