Been thinking about the fat phobia struggle thread from a few days ago. Came across this video which gave a lot of “food for thought” about the systemic causes of obesity today. Food is engineered to be highly addictive, tweaking the interaction with all senses. Capitalism is a driving reason for the competition over our stomachs. This should occupy a larger part of standard leftist discourse due to its ubiquity and its ease of appearing natural and inoffensive.
My partner and I are far along that road, as well as the road to veganism. For us it was less a sudden departure, and more a slow journey into adventurous eating because we were bored with fast food and the food our families had always made. My advice is simply to remember that all tastes have to be acquired, and that takes time. Find people to go out together so you can try multiple things at once, esp people who already know what they like at a new place. Without one local Vietnamese place's veggie bahn mi I'm not sure we'd've ever acquired the taste for tofu, but now I can enjoy almost any of it.
Some simple recipe starters to cheaply move away from the American diet at home when you're looking for something simple: In a rice cooker, combine 3/4 cup dried green lentils and 1 cup brown rice, thoroughly washed, with 500ml of water with seasonings of your choice. Turn on rice cooker and enjoy in ~15 minutes. Also combines well with 1 can diced tomatoes and chilis (like rotel)
Heat 1 can of drained chickpeas on a plate covered with a cloth/paper towel to prevent popping for 5 minutes in a microwave, transfer into a pan with hot oil and cook over medium-high heat until at desired texture, being sure to season while in pan as desired. Place cooked chickpeas on tortillas with steamed corn, some salad greens (shout out to cheap coleslaw mix), chopped fruit, or anything else you can think of to give more texture and finish with any sort of sauce. Wrap and enjoy.