Lacto vegetarianism

A lactovegetarian diet is a vegetarian diet which includes dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, and kefir but excludes eggs. The origin of "lacto" is the Latin word for milk, [lac, lactis]. Within Indian cultures this diet is often what is meant by the term "vegetarian."

Lacto-vegetarians choose to consume dairy products, but abstain from specifically eating eggs. Cheeses which include animal rennet and yogurts which contain gelatin are also avoided. This diet may be adopted by vegetarians wishing to lower their cholesterol levels, in view of the high amount of cholesterol contained in egg yolks that have been cooked beyond their natural cholesterol counteraction. Another reason would be to protest cruelty in the poultry industry. On ethical grounds, some people may oppose the slaughter of unwanted male chicks or risking the consumption of an unhatched animal.

Lacto-vegetarian diets are popular with many followers of Eastern religious traditions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. These religious traditions encourage preference of lactovegetarian diets because they come from life, the living, rather than from death or by taking life. They believe that life propels life.

The core belief of Eastern religious traditions behind a lacto-vegetarian diet is the law of ahimsa or non-violence. According to Vedas (Hindu holy scriptures), the life of all living beings is equally valued by God. Because it takes many times more vegetables or plants to produce equal amount of meat, many times more lives were destroyed and more suffering was caused, when meat is used as food. In case of Jainism, the vegetarian standards are even more strict. It is only allowed to eat fruits and taking of leaves from plants without causing their death. This further excludes from the diet vegetables like carrots, potatoes and peanuts. Although some suffering and pain is inevitably always caused to other living beings for our food, according to ahimsa every effort should be made to minimize this, to avoid karmic consequences and show respect for God's creation. In this sense overeating or obesity is one of the greatest sins.

Indian traditional medicine or Ayurveda is the root of Indian lacto-vegetarian kitchen.

The greatest proportion of vegetarians such as those in India or those in area of the classical Mediterranean, such as the Pythagoreans who were lacto-vegetarian.