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Once the basics guiding the discipline of eating habits are understood all the other rules relating to food automatically fall in their proper place. There is nothing against adapting habits/rules depending on the social and other variables. Not eating at night, boiling and filtering water etc. never formed the basic conduct of the Jains. They are mere minor corollaries, and importance should be given to them only when and where necessary; no more, no less. These are basically circumstantial applications and should be much more pliable then their existing rigid and stagnated form.
From the viewpoint of individual pursuit of purification and liberation, the simplest and complete definition of Ahimsa conduct pertaining to food is that the food should be nutritious to the body without disturbing, at any stage or in any way, the mental equanimity needed on the path of purification.
AHIMSA: THE SCIENCE OF PEACE
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