Morning Star and Veggie Patch make good (at least, in my opinion) substitutes, Quorn Turk'y roasts are also really good, I would expect that if the slices weren't round you could fool some people into thinking it's real turkey. With these kinds of things you can get sufficiently close to meat flavors, usually quite good protein levels (since they are designed for people who don't often get much protein in their diets) while cutting off huge amounts of fat and other undesirables compared to their real counterparts. Sodium is the main thing to watch out for with substitute products (but nothing alarming unless you totally gorge on chik'n patties, which would defeat the purpose of trying to eat healthier). Depending on product most of the choices won't be kinds that can fool meat eaters, but the flavors are good for what they are even if they aren't 100% accurate. Those alone won't be healthy, but they'll give you a lot of protein.
I also found that as far as the green veggie stuff goes (the part that carnivores usually complain about), the more I gave it a chance and tolerated the "ew" flavors, the more I found that they are actually pretty good. I think it is partly because when you transition from junky foods to healthy foods, you expect everything to taste like junk, and when it doesn't you assume it tastes bad. But it's all about experiencing the new flavors for what they are, not for what they aren't. Now I think junk foods taste terrible, even the things I used to like a lot, but as far as I care it's best that way. But since I don't know you, maybe you don't even have that problem.
Depending on how far you want to take it, if you don't eat it already it might be worth looking into salmon. It's extremely healthy for you if it's low on PCBs and mercury (salmon are usually rated 'very low' on mercury, so it's mostly PCBs you have to be conscious of, and usually they are only high in farmed salmon from what I've researched in the past). There will probably be more emphasis on doing your research when it comes to fish, like always checking labels, or being aware of which companies use which practices and how that translates into pollution content in the fish. You have a safe tolerance of about 2 parts per billion of PCBs, but they have a half-life in the body from 2.6 to 8 years, so they should be a serious consideration. It's also worth noting that depending on how you prepare it and what method you use to cook it, you can reduce your exposure to toxins (for instance, I've heard that as much as half of the toxins can be in the skin, so removing the skin from a fillet before cooking could be worth the extra time). That aside, if you can get clean-enough salmon (none will be entirely clean thanks to human irresponsibility), and are okay with eating fish, then they can be a fantastic alternative to meat that had legs.
Last edited by Deuterium on 27 Jul 2011, 5:40 am, edited 2 times in total.