Meat, essential for "growing well", as Julien Denormandie, the Minister of Agriculture and Food, says?
Or “hackneyed clichés”, in the words of Barbara Pompili, the Minister for the Ecological Transition?
For several days, the decision of the ecologist town hall of Lyon to impose a single menu without meat in school canteens has been controversial, including within the government.
Specialists in dietetics say that meat is not essential for the growth of children.
As long as you are careful.
"It's a diet that requires a little knowledge, you have to learn about what you are doing", explains Monique Lasry, dietician nutritionist.
Eggs or soy, for example, for protein;
legumes and starches to get all the essential amino acids;
or vitamin C to increase iron absorption, the iron from plant products being less well absorbed than that present in meat.
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So what could an ideal menu look like, which would appeal to the child on the one hand, and which, on the other hand, would be complete for his health?
In the kitchens of Soya, a vegan restaurant in Paris, the manager and the cook offer us a recipe for couscous without meat, "certainly one of the favorite products of the children" who come to eat here.
