Oh I wasn't trying to say that other protein sources are bad (quite the contrary in fact, beef and pork and fowl are very good for you), I was just trying to say that if heart disease is a concern there is evidence that you would be well served by increasing fish & soy consumption slightly.

I don't do all of what I wrote, either, especially the exercise part . But even if people just *tried* to live sensibly it would make a world of difference. If people made an effort to eat low or adequate cal, and to eat healthier food choices, we wouldn't have the epidemic diseases we do.
But people don't want to put in the effort. They want to smoke, they want to binge eat, they want to eat take out, they don't want to have to plan or think about their meals, and they tend to resist change. I notice some people find the concept of change very disturbing... these are the types who won't eat anything if it's "healthy" or advertised as such, not because it actually does taste inferior, but because they perceive that change is bad, especially changes that they perceive as being "forced" on them due to circumstance.

Let me relate to you a story about my mother. My mother is about 60 pounds overweight. Sick of being overweight, she attempted to try Atkins (it was an ill fated venture for numerous reasons, but that's for another story).
When she was preparing her meal one day, I noticed she slathered on a huge amount of processed cheese sauce over her veggies. Now processed cheese sauce is junkfood in the purest sense - loaded with salt, virtually no vitamins and minerals (other than sodium), loaded with calories (and those calories come from pretty inferior sources of fatty acids too btw).

I proceed to then advise my mother (as best as I could without sounding like a food-nazi nag) that she would probably lose weight faster if she used less empty calories & refined food dressings on her food. I also told her that in my own weight loss journey I've discovered that only a surprisingly small amount of dressings and fats are needed to make veggies yummy (if I were to eat the recommended portion size of cheese sauce my broccoli would taste sickeningly salty).
Her response? As well as becoming offended (despite the fact I tried not to offend her), she said she was absolutely certain that reducing the amount of dressing she was eating would "make her food taste bad" and it was a compromise she was unwilling to make.

It then struck me quite poignantly that people have a violent negative reaction to a perception of forced change. People find it incredibly unpleasant even if, in reality, there is nothing objectively unpleasant about the changes. Does eggplant really taste worse than lasagna noodles? Of course not, but if you ask a lot of people they would most certainly say "YES". People hate change, and they hate change being forced on them.

I think resistance/intolerance for change is a prime reason people fail to lose weight or keep it off. It's this simple: your old lifestyle made you sick and fat. If you want to be thin and healthy, you need to be open and tolerant of lifestyle change. People just won't hear it. They want to believe that eating a product which says "zero carb" or "magic fat burner" or "magic heart disease pill" will solve all their problems. These things are tools, and like any tool their success or failure depends on the user. If people were more open to new experiences I don't think people would find the prospect of changing your lifestyle unpleasant.

My own mom refused to make a lot of lifestyle compromises during her weight loss journey (for example, she kept eating the "net carb" bars and candy despite my urgings for her to avoid them early on, she refused to limit portion size in any shape or form as well despite the fact I told her she probably wouldn't be hungry with slightly less, among other things). Of course when she didn't see results, she wound up quitting and blaming the diet for not working for her. Sigh.