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Figs are a delicious fruit that is often eaten dry in India. Figs are known for their nutritional benefits, including promoting gut health, strengthening muscles, and improving energy levels. However, some people fear that this “fruit” is not a vegetable. Sounds strange, right? How can a fruit that grows on a tree not be vegetarian? This confusion is caused by the unique process of fig fruit formation. Read on to learn more about the origins of figs and decide whether you want to call them vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Figs begin as closed, upside-down flowers. This shape prevents the wind and common pollinators such as bees from spreading fig pollen. Here, pollinating bees help the fig tree turn flowers into fruit. The female bee burrows into a small hole in the fig flower and lays eggs. In the process, his antennae and wings are broken and he can no longer get out, so he remains in the mud and soon dies.
The fig digests the bee's body using an enzyme called ficin, which breaks the body down into protein. The eggs hatch, the larvae mate and leave the fig. Every time a fig is consumed, a bee inside may have died and produced fruit. However, it attracts dead bees, so even if you bite into the fruit, you won't eat the dead insects. According to this nutritionist, pollination is a necessary natural process for fruit formation, and the role of bees, bees and insects does not make the fruit (in this case figs) a non-vegetable product. According to Beauty Without Cruelty India, an animal welfare education charity, figs grown and sold commercially in India are usually parthenocarpic, meaning they are not pollinated by fig bees. The fig species that fall into this category are Puna, Kunadria, Mission, Kaduta and Brown Turkey.
Although many consider figs to be non-vegetarian due to the manufacturing process, some vegetarians argue that figs are still fit for consumption. Because while veganism is a movement against the exploitation of animals, pollination by bees and figs is a natural process that does not involve human exploitation of animals.
