I always thought that heart disease was something I might one day have to worry about but could ignore in the meantime while I enjoy eating what I want. But I'm only 46 now and over the last year I've been experiencing increasing tightness and discomfort in my chest and strong heart arrhythmia. That's what motivated me to take a closer look at my diet. After only three weeks of eliminating animal products from my diet those symptoms have disappeared.

As for growing obesity, there is a lot of evidence that points to toxins in our food as an important factor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQBdS9cN0I

Most of these toxins are concentrated in animal products.

People are also eating a lot more cheese which contributes to obesity:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/now-is-th...

Of course refined carbohydrates and sugars are also a big problem and they should be scrupulously avoided.