Paula Deen: I Have Type-2 Diabetes
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Courtesy of Creative Commons
The announcement comes after a week of speculation that the disease has left the fairy godmother of soul food (and holder of the craziest blue eyes this side of Michele Bachmann) unable to eat her own high-calorie food.
In an interview on NBC's Today Show, Deen says she discovered she had the condition during a routine physical three years ago. Her revelation was coupled with an announcement that she would become a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that supplies her diabetes medication.
Deen has been a favored target of criticism by advocates of healthy, moderate eating. Scabrous TV personality and scourge of the Food Network, Anthony Bourdain, has anointed Deen no less than the worst person in America.
"Don't tell me that is fucking down home cooking, putting a bacon-cheeseburger two eggs between two krispy kreme doughnuts. That is just no kind of southern cooking," he said on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast.
In an interview Monday, Bourdain expressed sympathy for Deen's condition, saying "diabetes is no laughing matter." He also said that pitching her food while she knowingly had the disease was in poor taste.
In a preemptive rebuttal to the inevitable tidal wave of queasy schaudenfreude, Deen maintained that she has always advocated eating her deep-friend delights in moderation. And her son Bobby has his own cooking show "Not My Mamma's Meals" which highlights recipes whose caloric intakes are more appropriate for animals not storing fat for winter survival.
Defenders point to a strain of class-warfare and elitism in the criticisms of Deen, saying that plenty of high scale restaurants have been swept up in pork-fueled high-fat crazes with impunity. Also, type-2 diabetes is a debilitating disease that can lead to blindness, loss of limbs, and death. So, like Bourdain said, it's not really funny at all.
Deen says she plans to use her celebrity and position to advocate for diabetes, adding to her list of endorsements which include pork products, kitchen utensils and mattresses.
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Comments
Paula Dean says she waited so long to tell her fans because she did not have any advice to offer them at the time. How about recommending a healthy, plant-based whole foods diet? What a selfish woman -- first, getting rich promoting a diet that helps cause diabetes and then getting richer selling a drug that treats it. Too bad the fruits and vegetable industry doesn’t have the funds to sponsor a big name like Paula Dean to tell the real truth: the medical literature proves that Type 2 diabetes can be prevented, managed, treated, and even cured by a plant-based, whole-foods diet. See the numerous studies for yourself at nutritionfacts.org. It's a non-profit, science-based website that keeps up with the latest in nutrition research. It's run by Dr. Michael Greger, MD, whose life mission has been promoting good health and reducing a world of suffering. Unlike Paula Dean, he is not peddling products. The only thing he sells are his DVDs, which are collections of his free online videos that review recent medical studies, and even then, all proceeds go to charity. I just love the website, and I cannot say enough good things about Dr. Greger, who seems to be the exact opposite of money-grubbing disease-promoters like Paula Dean.