Paula Deen Has Diabetes, But There’s No Reason To Change Her Diet

The host of her own Home Cooking Show has announced she has been living with Type II Diabetes for three years.  But it had probably had nothing to do with how she eats.  Darn genetics!

Articles in the NY Times, the Chicago Tribune and MSNBC.com all featured pieces about how she’s said that her diagnosis is not going to change how she cooks (even though the Chicago Tribune article discussed her lightened up version of her ‘Gooey Butter Cake’), because she enjoys ‘a little of everything in moderation’, and she has no plans to ditch her deep fryer.

Plus, why change one’s diet when they can just take a pill like Victoza, from the company she represents, Novo Nordisk?  That’s the thinking, right?  Eat horribly, get ill, don’t change your diet and certainly don’t add exercise… just take some medications!

(I hope you know my writing well enough by now to realize the sentence above smacks of sarcasm.)

Chef Anthony Bourdain commented that in his opinion, she’s the ‘worst, most dangerous person in America who revels in her unholy connections with evil corporations and is proud of the fact that her food is bad for you’. I’d have a hard time disputing that.  What an amazing opportunity someone in that position has to reach millions of people in a good way, and what a shame to see such a poor choice of the message to send made instead.

She replied by stating that her cuisine was for ‘regular families who worry about paying bills and feeding their kids’.  Great way to further promote the idea that those on a budget have no hope of attaining healthy foods.

Granted, many Americans cannot afford the ‘$650 bottle of wine and $58 prime rib’ she referred to in her response to Bourdain, but why does that have to lead to deep fried, cheese-coated, cream and butter laden everything?

She does a disservice to Southern Cuisine, too, as pointed out by the piece in the times.  Rather, it tends to represent ‘cooking for convenience’.  As if the over 30% of our population needs more of a reason to eat refined/processed/toxic non foods after seeing them playfully presented in their own living rooms, courtesy of Paula’s cooking shows broadcasting over their televisions.

What if there were a show that taught people how to eat healthfully (Paleo) that was not only delicious, but doable on a budget?  (Hmmm… wheels in head are turning!)

What is it going to take for us as a whole to wake up and stop allowing the nonsense to be presented as common knowledge.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

If you eat real, fresh food, and you move and you don’t eat pretend/non food, you will be far healthier (and you won’t likely become diabetic!).