A child could not "grow well" without meat.
This is the affirmation of Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture and Food, who reacted on Sunday to the establishment of a single menu in school canteens in Lyon (Rhône).
"Let's just give (children) what they need to grow well," the minister posted on Twitter.
And to add: “Meat is one of them.
"
The origins of the controversy
It is against a background of controversy that Julien Denormandie posted his message on Sunday.
The day before, Gérald Darmanin had already cracked a tweet to castigate the decision of the town hall of Lyon to set up a unique menu without meat in its school canteens in order to respect the reinforced health protocol by making the service more fluid.
The Minister of the Interior had spoken of an "unacceptable insult to French farmers and butchers", denouncing a "scandalous ideology".
Let's stop putting ideology on our children's plates!
Let's just give them what they need to grow well.
Meat is one of them.
I seized the Prefect of the Rhône.
https://t.co/Kiw0v5ZaNC
- Julien Denormandie (@J_Denormandie) February 21, 2021
A similar measure had already been taken during the first deconfinement in Lyon, at the time by Gérard Collomb, to offer a unique menu without meat.
But since then, environmentalists have won the last municipal elections and their opposition sees it as a way of promoting vegetarianism among children.
"We are not in an operation to promote vegetarianism or veganism since we are going to offer animal proteins to children every day", defended Monday the mayor of Lyon, Grégroy Doucet, questioned during the city council.
"This single menu, which is not a vegetarian menu, is the only one that does not exclude any child," explained his assistant in charge of Education on Friday on Twitter.
The question of animal proteins
In her Parisian office, Corinne Chicheportiche-Ayache receives more and more children who no longer want to eat meat.
The nutritionist tells the story of this eight-year-old girl: “Overnight, she no longer wanted to eat meat or fish, and her parents were confused.
»Can we" grow well "without eating meat?
"Absolutely", answers the specialist.
Nutrition is a question of balance: the body needs proteins, among which we distinguish between animal and vegetable ones.
“These proteins are essential because it is from them that the body makes everything: muscle tissue, bone structure, antibodies against infections, etc.
»Explains Corinne Chicheportiche-Ayache.
Of these proteins, the human body uses about twenty amino acids, of which a little less than ten are essential.
Animal proteins have the advantage of bringing together the vast majority.
Animal protein without meat?
While animal proteins are found in meat and cold cuts, they are not the only ones to contain it.
It is found in fish, eggs and even dairy products.
A vegetarian will stop consuming fish and meat, but will continue to consume eggs and milk, while a vegan will simply stop consuming animal protein.
A vegan will go beyond food consumption.
"There is no reason that a diet without meat, but based on eggs, fish and milk does not hinder the growth of the child", specifies with the Parisian Corinne Chicheportiche-Ayache.
The nutritionist even points out, conversely, the excesses of a hyperconsumption of animal proteins - when a child eats meat at noon and in the evening for example: "It is not good for health and it can be a problem. obesity factor.
"
On its Mangerbouger.fr platform, the National Public Health Agency puts meat, fish and eggs at the same level, which it recommends alternating.
"Vegetarian diet and nutritional balance can go hand in hand provided certain rules are applied", she specifies, however, on the same site.
A danger in not eating meat?
"A child can very well grow up without meat," says Elyne Etienne, the manager of Végecantines, an association that campaigns for vegetarian meals at children's tables.
"The idea is not to impose a diet on children, but to show them, to make them understand that there are other things for them to make their own ideas and their own choices", explains Elyne Etienne.
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Few studies have been carried out in France on the subject.
In the United States, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics decided the issue in 2016. “Vegetarian diets, including vegans […] are suitable for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, breastfeeding, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood and for athletes.
A few years earlier, this same institution had noted that the growth of a child and an adolescent was similar, whether vegetarian or not.
Corinne Chicheportiche-Ayache agrees, but notes that it is however important to combine this diet with “vegetable proteins”, which one finds in soya, seaweed, cereals or pulses (foods not always obvious to feed the children).
"There must be a principle of equivalence", indicates the nutritionist.
And the professional to alert on the risk of iron deficiency, in a meatless diet, if it is not brought by other foods.
Earlier societies that ate ... little meat
"European societies are more originally vegan with a minority consumption of meat," reminds the Parisian Christophe Serra-Mallol, head of the Sociology and Anthropology of Food course at ISTHA in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).
For eight centuries, what the average Frenchman ate was soup, in which very rarely was a piece of meat put.
"
It was only in the 20th century that meat, which was then produced by the nobility, arrived in homes.
“The government has long had a
meat policy for everyone
, because it was a guarantee of success,” notes Christophe Serra-Mallol.
And the professor continues: “We have reached levels of consumption, in France, which are well above what is recommended by doctors.
"
Could man have arrived here, even without meat?
“Objectively, there is no scientific basis for Julien Denormandie's statement,” explains Christophe Serra-Mallol.
And the researcher clarified: “We have here a minister who first defends French agriculture, and therefore meat, before defending food.
"