My Dad just sent me this in an email, how should I respond?

Take particular note of essential amino acids where low intake is a health issue; 
http://www.realtime.net/anr/aminoacd.html
Types of protein

Protein plays an essential role in building and repairing your body. But whether it helps a fingernail to grow or heals a sore muscle, for example, depends on the make-up of the protein.

Proteins consist of smaller units called amino acids, which can link together in many combinations to form chains. Some amino acid chains are created by your body, but those called essential amino acids must come from your diet. Although all animal and plant cells contain some protein, the amount and the quality of the protein varies a lot.

High biological value foods contain enough indispensable amino acids for an adult diet and are considered to be good quality protein. Meat, fish and eggs sit in this category.

Low biological value foods don't contain enough indispensable amino acids. Plant foods, such as pulses (dry legumes) , nuts and seeds, are in this group.
Advice for vegans and vegetarians

Some plant foods are low in one kind of amino acid whereas other plant foods are higher in that amino acid. By eating a well balanced diet that contains a variety of foods you can get all the amino acids you require. Previously it was thought that for vegetarians to obtain enough protein different plant foods had to be combined in the same meal in order to balance the amounts of amino acids, known as protein combining. Now it's believed that this isn't necessary and that eating a range of plant foods over the course of a day will provide all the essential amino acids the body needs.

Foods such as eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, pulses, vegetable protein foods and soya products all contain protein. There are also small amounts in grains and dairy products.
Did you know...?

Eggs contain all eight essential amino acids, making them a perfect source of protein. However, you'd have to eat at least eight eggs a day to get all the protein you need. Be sensible; include them as part of a balanced and varied diet.
How much is enough?

Health professionals recommend that protein makes up ten to 15 per cent of your diet. They suggest men eat 55.5g protein a day and women eat 45g. In real terms, eating a moderate amount of protein - in one or two meals every day - should give you all the protein you need.
The need to eat protein every day is worth emphasising, because your body can't store it - you can't stock up on it by bingeing on protein once a week, for example.

Eat organic, pasture-raised, beef and lamb - this will help you avoid residual pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics in conventionally raised cattle. Do you know that the hormones injected in cows to promote rapid weight gain have exactly the same effect on women who eat meats with steroids?…

Fun research=

Dads Misc characterisations; plagiarised

Stuff Veg*ns and Animal Rights Folk Like

* Buttons, patches, stickers and pins declaring their position on topics such as fur, animal testing, eating meat, etc. Quite often worn on either a tote bag or a messenger bag.

* Showering … haha, just kidding. They don't shower as often as their counterparts.

* Arts and crafts.

* Animals - duh. But pets, too. Cats and dogs, but weird ones especially. They might have a bunny that hops freely around their apartment, a chicken roaming their backyard, or a piglet that sleeps with them. All rescued, of course.

* Telling other people what they cooked for dinner last night.

* Fresh, local, natural foods such as fruits and vegetables.

* The color black, hooded sweatshirts, dark-rimmed glasses, and big combat-type boots. Though now there are more and more "lipstick vegans."

* Making new, cooler clothes from old ones.

* Pamphlets.

* Playing the guitar, learning to play the guitar, or at least talking about how they have always wanted to play the guitar.

* Frugality.

* Reading novels … and then telling you which ones you should read.

* Childhood nostalgia: strawberry shortcake, building snowmen, coloring books, cartoons, etc.

* Hummus.

* Meeting other vegetarians.

* Dreadlocks, uneven haircuts, and other self-styled 'dos that require little to no maintenance.

* Traveling. Economcally.

* Indie entertainment - the less popular, low-budget movies, music, and places.

More Dad stuff;

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html

Building a Better Pyramid

If the only goal of the Food Guide Pyramid is to give us the best possible advice for healthy eating, then it should be grounded in the evidence and be independent of business.

Instead of waiting for this to happen, nutrition experts from the Harvard School of Public Health created the Healthy Eating Pyramid. It is based on the best available scientific evidence about the links between diet and health. This new pyramid fixes fundamental flaws in the USDA pyramid and offers sound information to help people make better choices about what to eat.