Please, Don't Be A Sheep

Have you ever gotten into an argument with a friend or family member in which you knew you were SO right (not even the slightest question in your mind) yet they kept regergetating the same tired argument that made no sense?  And this argument escalated so much that you began to question your reasoning for even having them as a friend (or your genetics)?  You keep laying down facts backed up with DATA, and they are so emotionally tied to what they "feel" is right, you might as well be talking to a wall?  You explain the same concept in mulitple ways because your understanding of it is so far above and beyond what they think the actual issue is?  Does any of this ever happen to anyone else?
 
Some douche's with the U.S. News recently published an article about the top 20 diets, ranked.  The whole article was incredibly oversimplified (big print, pictures), teeming with mis-information, and frankly, representative of EVERYTHING that is wrong with America today.  1) people in powerful positions (lobbists) taking advantage of the fact that the majority of americans will not do their own research, and take the opportunity to mislead the country 2) major media outlets afraid to print what might be true for fear of reprocussions from people with money 3) "educating" people with the SAME diet information over and over, expecting something to change, yet the obesity and diabetes rates continue to skyrocket!
 
I feel like I'm in one of those arguments mentioned above with government nutrition guidelines, and the "experts" that mindlessly teach/promote them. 
 
First, take a look here (I apologize you have to copy/paste link because I'm still blogging from my phone) and you can see the top 20 ranked:
http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-overall-diets
 
Some DASH diet is #1 (never heard of it) and Paleo ranks (#20) with many common diets falling inbetween.  Not surprising, given the lack of effort people put into actually LEARNING about the science of a diet.  People (sheeple?) just want to be told what to do, and not do their own research, or pay attention to things that might not be working for them.  That is a rant for another day. 
 
Take a look now at the bottom of each mini-description, where people have voted on whether or not the diet has worked for them.  18 out of the 20 diets have more people saying they DON'T WORK then they do.  The only diets that have more people saying they DO work are The Paleo Diet, and Weight Watchers.  That information right there should speak VOLUMES about the diet.  Not only that?  The ratio of people who say that Weight Watchers works for them is roughly 2:1.  The ratio of people who say the Paleo Diet works for them?  40:1.  That's right, of this small sampling of people that decided to read and comment on this article, 40:1 have experienced success with Paleo.
 
Now, another pet peeve of mine is: how many people that need to make this correlation are going to make this correlation?  Not nearly enough, and that saddens me to my core.  Saddens me for them, saddens me for this country, and especially saddens me for the so called "experts" that publish this garbage thinking they are giving out real scientifically backed up data because its what "the government recommends" when it is proven over and over by people LIVING it, that it does not.
 
So, on that note, here is an excellent rebuttal to this ridiculous oversimplifcation and denouncing of the Paleo Diet (taken from Everyday Paleo, written by Robb Wolf):
http://robbwolf.com/2011/06/11/us-news-best-diets-rebuttal-2/
 
Spread the word people!  Pay attention to your body.  Do your own research.  Do not take every piece of diet/nutrition information at face value.  If something isn't working (eating less, moving more, ahem), try something new.