In Montreal they all compete on the price of the thali. It’s generally $5-6 for lunch or dinner, and has 3-5 dishes, bread and rice.

Thalis are usually really expensive in the US—at the decent place in Greensboro it’s something like $15.

Eating lots of fat, particularly saturated fat, and cholesterol will have large negative effects on your cardiovascular health. Eating lots of anything will make you obese, which will probably make you less likely to exercise, not to mention generally less healthy.

The truth is most likely something like this: eating a lot of anything will have negative impacts on your health; refined carbs are probably the worst thing you can overindulge in, followed by saturated fat. Reducing calories, especially from those two categories, is a good idea for almost everyone. Increasing consumption of natural things of varied colors is almost certainly a good idea as well. Figuring out the best strategy for each individual is hard, but it’s invariably very different from the diet followed by most Americans.

Additionally, I think that a lot of people find that it’s just really hard to reduce calories without reducing the amount of refined carbohydrates.

at being able to find something I like at almost every restaurant. The only real problems I have are the completely meat-centered places (burgers, barbecue, etc.), fast food, and the more backwards chain restaurants. Luckily, non-relatives I know generally don’t eat at the latter two categories, though; I’m usually able to deal with it when relatives insist on such places.

after they turn vegetarian. It isn’t just a matter of there being non-meat food around, we generally hang out in places that cater somewhat to those crowds. It’s like, if there is a food product containing meat within 10 feet of them, they have to go through this gigantic rigamarole of asking whether there’s meat in it, and then explaining that they can’t eat that because they don’t eat meat, they’re vegetarian. After about 3 months they turn back into normal people, who don’t comment on the foods they can’t eat, they just don’t eat them.

Also, when I was a freshmen, a girl on my floor was a vegetarian, but she hated vegetables and fruits. Every night for dinner she had some combination of macaroni and cheese, fried potatoes and bread. Her skin was close to purple, she was so poorly nourished.