Remove meat and dairy from your plate to go vegan diet, good or bad idea? Before you start, you weigh the pros and cons.

Praised by people who refuse any animal exploitation, the vegan diet, and more generally the vegan lifestyle, is becoming more and more followers.

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The principle ? Completely to ban the food of animal origin of its plate ... but also all the products of animal origin of our everyday life, from the wardrobe to the cosmetics. Exit therefore the beauty products whose ingredients are tested on animals, ditto for leather goods made of leather.

Vegan Eating, a matter of commitment

If the vegan way of life can seem very difficult to follow, there is no doubt: it seduces by its aspect "healthy", more respectful of the environment and not violent towards the animals. Latest figures released by the magazine Véganes: nearly 1% of the population of the United Kingdom said to have adopted this lifestyle.

Be careful, however, if the dosages between different families of food are not respected, and if one does not take dietary supplements, this diet can cause deficiencies "including calcium, vitamin B12 and iron essential to the good health of the red blood cells - or in amino acids, which one finds in less quantity via vegetable proteins than via animal proteins ", underlines Caroline Gérardin, dietician and nutritionist in Paris.

Hence the importance of beginning your food transition with a health professional, and to learn well before taking the plunge.

Marie Lafôret, author of many books on the theme of veganism herself became 100% vegetal in 2009. "I was a vegetarian for a little over a year when I realized that my choice involved all the same to kill and make animals suffer, "says the young woman.

She believes that the right of animals to live and not to suffer must be more important than our food or clothing taste.

"I took a vacation to" try "a 100% vegan week, telling myself that if I could be vegan a week, then I could be vegan the rest of the time! I found this experience so conclusive that I continued. "

A transition that was so smooth, without sudden change overnight.

The author continues: "I think there are actually two transitions: a" mental "transition where we learn, watch documentaries, videos, where we reflect and draw the consequences of all this and the "concrete" transition where we will apply on a daily basis, "even if" eating and buying vegan products can also require a little research and a time of adaptation that will be different for each person. "

However, the nutritionist believes that this diet is to be avoided in children. "At this age, if we deprive children of nutrients essential for their growth, they can develop cognitive performance disorders, iron deficiency, copper, calcium ..." Caroline Gérardin warns.

Hence the importance of supplementing their needs for vitamin B12, iodine, vitamin D, iron via food supplements such as VEG1, at a rate of half a day per day for children under 12 years.

In 2016, Italian conservative MP Elvira Savino tabled a bill that would make her vegan diet subject to jail if the project were passed.

A project also strongly criticized at the time by the International Vegan Rights Alliance (IVRA) - an international network of vegans working together to campaign for the international implementation of the rights of vegans - which considered that this measure is a attack on human rights.

Veganism: where to start?

Becoming vegan means completely revising one's way of consuming, and one's way of life. In other words, you do not buy any more leather or fur clothes, you stop eating honey or eggs, you do not eat dairy products anymore - with the exception of soy milk, almonds, coconut, etc. - and products containing a single ingredient of animal origin are dropped.

If, however, some people want to get started, you must still refer to a general practitioner or a nutritionist before taking the plunge. Let's not forget that this is a very special diet, which may not be suitable for all conditions.

Caroline Gérardin advises against elderly people because of their age and their more fragile constitution. "The metabolism changes with age: it slows down in the elderly, so cells take longer to renew themselves."

Marie Lafôret, advises to contact a vegan community (an association, a group of people, a forum, a Facebook group ...) before launching. "It helps us to feel surrounded by people and to put all our questions to people who are already passing by, especially since we now find books and websites that deal with the subject" becoming vegan "and can be very useful, "she adds.

Vegan diet: good dosages are essential

To avoid being deficient as much as possible, it is advisable to adjust one's diet, and to correctly dose the different foods consumed.

For example, Caroline Gérardin advises mixing cereals and pulses as soon as possible, in order to assimilate good quality proteins. "You can combine rice and lentils, semolina and chickpeas, corn and kidney beans, making sure you consume more cereals than pulses."

A combination that does not avoid vitamin B12 and iron deficiencies.

The goal: to ensure a good supply of proteins, essential in the manufacture of transporters responsible for transporting the nutrients guarantor, among others, the solidity of the bones, the digestion, the cellular renewal or the beauty of the hair and the skin .

In her book "Cuisine vegan for beginners" (Editions La Plage), Marie Lafôret gives tips and tricks so that everyone can navigate the vegan kitchen. An editorial choice based on his experience feedback as vegan: "When I became vegan there was no book available on vegan cuisine.After launching my blog, I was contacted by publishers to publish books on the subject, I saw the opportunity to bring the vegan cuisine out of the straitjacket where it was at the time and to show that eating vegan is not only easy but also very greedy. "