What is a balanced meal??

Some experts describe it as specific percentages of fat protein and carbohydrate. Our grandmas might say it is a starch and lentils and two vegetables. Here are 4 basic rules I found, for perfectly balanced meals. A balanced meal:

1. Contains at least 2 food groups,
2. The meal includes a vegetable/fruit and a protein. A grain (preferably 100% whole grain) is recommended, but optional. Some examples of the protein, are beans, nuts, or dairy.
3. A little sugar and saturated fat is fine, but too much throws it off balance.
4. Eat appropriate portions to leave the table satisfied but not stuffed.

Some things we've been trying to do, are: include plant protein (as in, not dairy alone) at every meal. This's not hard when you have either lentils/beans/tofu/nuts/seeds with all meals. (Tofu, apparantly, is not good for boys - as it's a plant source of estrogen. That's according to Mothering magazine, and I find that the things they scare you about, scientific medical studies scare you about 10 years later - Mothering magazine is always ahead on the list of things to worry about!). Our strategy is to eat a handful of nuts/seeds if we're in a hurry and didn't get protein at a meal. Also, eating a sweet WITH protein is a good way to eat the sweet, according to my online acquaintance M. I've been trying to focus on this for my 7 year old who gets the "wanties" for sweets right after school.

We have a whole grain, veggies, dairy (fatfree plain Horizon organic yoghurt), lentils, and often fruit, most nights (specially for A).

The challenges for vegetarians, is to get adequate amounts (as defined by the U.S F.D.A) of the following:
-protein
-iron
-Vitamin B12
-omega 3 fats

Many vegetarians claim this not to be true. Most doctors don't seem to have studied much nutrition, according to registered nutritionists, who probably make this claim. It's hard to know who is right. My own research suggests these are clearly lacking in vegetarian diets, but I am not an expert researcher in this subject. My area is computer science, and I just enjoy studying nutrition as a hobby...

By the way, the strongest animal, the gorilla, apparantly lives only on green leaves. WOnder how it pays for these deficiencies...!! There's no B12 in any vegetarian source at all - so unless you have a B12 fortified cereal (or something else) or a multivitamin, vegetarians are not getting enough...