Your last point, that's not true at all. I can very easily drink alcohol with zero meat, just any other food will do.

Some meat is good for your health tbh, turkey york slices are pretty fucking healthy proteinwise and don't have much calories. If you want to lose weight fat and cereal are the first two that have to go. You can use some oil and eat some pasta once in a while, but given how caloric intense it is if you eat pasta you will just end up hungry, it fills the caloric budget way too fast. Whole cereals are indeed healthier than white rice and couscous mostly due to the river they have, but the calories per 100g will vary from 300 to 350 or so, it's still pretty expensive on the budget.