Not at all shocking: Paula Deen expected to reveal she has Type 2 diabetes

[justiceischeap]

All of the high-calorie, butter-intensive, fatty foods Paula Deen has whipped up over the years may have finally caught up with her.

The 64-year-old chef is expected to announce not only that she has Type 2 diabetes, but also that she inked a multimillion dollar deal to become the new face of a Novartis drug used to help treat the disease, reports The Daily.

http://bit.ly/zNp9q2

I get wanting the fatty foods Deen has served up on her show and in her restaurants but she really is a billboard for unhealthy living. People love her, love her recipes and you have to wonder home much diabetes she may have introduced into the world with her popularity.

[Wistful Vista]

1. No surprise, she's had type 2 disgusting for years...

[11 Bravo]

38. Feel better now?

[Wistful Vista]

55. Yes. I was referring to her "recipes" that consist of sugar and lard and not much else.

Who the hell would want to eat the kind of crap she describes? Nobody with any brains, I wager.

[mrs_p]

2. Diabetes is a scary disease

I suspect her unhealthy living was a contributor. But, I wouldn't blame her for other people's conditions. Everyone knows excessive fat and sugar are bad for one's health.

[Ed Suspicious]

3. Just fyi, carbs, not fat is much more correlative to type 2 diabetes. Point taken, but while butter

may be hard on the heart and circulatory system, it's the body's inability to process sugars and simple carbs (that rapidly become sugars during digestion) that is the real problem in diabetics. (although belly fat may be a factor in insulin resistance.)

[justiceischeap]

5. I guess I need to start doing sit-ups to get rid of my belly fat. :)

I can never remember how hereditary diabetes is passed. My dad's mother had it, so does that mean I'm prone to it?

[obamanut2012]

12. Sit ups won't work

You can't spot reduce.

The only way to get rid of that is cardio. It does work, and it works relatively fast if you exercise consistently.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Try probiotics.

Truly unbelievable testimonial here. I think I was heading for DB2, being trapped in a cycle of hypoglycemia and insulin resistance, but when I began to take probiotics, it completely changed my metabolism and now I'm losing small amounts of weight with very little pain. I think the probiotics are helping me metabolize my food better which is cutting back on cravings. Without the cravings I can faithfully stay on a protein based diet better than I did before. And then, of course, add exercise to the formula and voila! Weight loss and sugar stability. Win-win.

[GoCubsGo]

20. Interesting...

I have always been skeptical of probiotics. I tend to consider them just another fad, like raw food diets. I guess that comes from the ads that push these products as relief for gastrointestinal difficulties, which can often be prevented by eating less fat and more fiber. I always forget that one's gut flora play a role in digestion, and consequently one's metabolism. I'll have to give that a shot. My carbohydrate consumption is stress-related, as there is a link between carbs and serotonin production. For people like me, eating excess carbs is essentially self-medication. Maybe this will help in that regard.

[Doremus]

22. Wow does that explain a few things w DH & I

Being self employed is so stressful at times. Our health is paying the price I'm afraid.

[kestrel91316]

39. Never underestimate the potential role of our natural microflora.

They evolved along with us because it was beneficial for both of us to do so.

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. Been there, done that.

I used carbs to help stabilize my low blood sugar problems. And then, as I gained weight, the excess fat was pushing me towards insulin resistance. It's so nice to be able to describe exactly what was going on, because it took about eighteen years before I finally understood what had happened to me.

I went to the GNC where they suggest going on a 75 billion probiotic a day pill for the first month, then reducing down to 50 billion and finally stabilizing on the 25 billion. Thing was, that my stomach couldn't tolerate even vitamin pills in the morning. But the probiotic went down so smoothly, that I could also tolerate vitamins first thing in the morning.

I suggest vitamins, especially if you're a woman who is pre menopausal, just in case your body is lacking something else and the probiotic isn't enough.

Wont hurt to try both for a month to see if there's any improvement. Everybody has different needs, but, if my experience serves as an example, the pills were a Godsend.

[GoCubsGo]

45. I already take a multi-vitamin.

I try to eat right, so I don't think I am missing anything in my diet. That, and a Remifemin for the hot flashes. It's wonderful!

[GoCubsGo]

17. Exactly right.

You can do sit-ups until you are green in the face, but the belly fat isn't going to go away. All sit-ups do, besides put a tremendous strain on one's back, is tone the underlying muscles. There are lots of safer and better abdominal exercises than sit-ups, BTW. Pilates and yoga, for instance. Also some really good routines at SparkPeople.com and RealAge.com, among many others. If you belong to a gym and it has a class called "CXWorx", take that and you'll work your whole core.

[obamanut2012]

24. I do zero sit-ups or crunches

I do yoga and also exercises on a Bosu for my core, and do cardio and strength training, of course.

[GoCubsGo]

28. Bosu and Swiss balls are great!

My Swiss ball becomes my desk chair when my cat usurps my real chair. I get a pretty good core workout just from that.

[obamanut2012]

30. I know people who do that at work!

The Bosu is great. I used the one at the gym for ages, and saved up and got my own a few months ago. It goes vacant alot at the gym, which is a shame. I've also used balance aka core boards before, too.

[justiceischeap]

21. Thanks for all the advice, y'all!

I'm mostly vegan and that means I eat a lot of pasta, I'd venture to say, I'm addicted to pasta and potatoes (and Pepsi). I think I'm a diabetic waiting to happen.

[obamanut2012]

23. Do you like quinoa?

And, ALL soft drinks must go, especially diet ones!

[justiceischeap]

34. I eat quinoa with kale on a regular basis

And I've really reduced my soda intake (I refuse to drink diet--it tastes nasty). I've gone from drinking a six pack of soda a day (when I was younger) to one on a workday and two on the weekends. I know I need to cut out my soda intake but I heart it so. I find when I do cut out all soda, I replace it with sweet tea--marginally better but not by much.

[obamanut2012]

35. Quinoa is a great protein

Wean yourself off the sugar in your tea over a few months. Trust me, it can be done!!!

[grasswire]

95. quinoa is high in carbs

Yes, it's a nutritious grain, but the carb count makes it a no no for those of us who must restrict carbs.

[obamanut2012]

104. Quinoa is a terrifc complete protein

For those of us who don't eat meat. It is also very high in iron and magnesium. It' also GF.

Just an FYI: quinoa is NOT a grain/grass/cereal.

[grasswire]

105. 25 net carbs in one tablespoon quinoa

That means some of us can't eat it, as nutritious as it is.

[shanti]

60. the pepsi

really needs to go. i drank cokes for years until i was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago. now, i don't drink ANY sodas except an occasional blue sky free (with stevia). stevia has been a huge blessing. i use it every day in my tea, oatmeal, etc. some think stevia has a liquorice taste, but not all brands do. you have to check around for a good one. stevia is on the verge of really taking off, imo.

as a vegan, aren't you eating a lot of veggies and legumes besides the pasta/potatoes too?

[eridani]

68. It isn't caused by being overweight either

Genetic insulin resistance causes both diabetes and easy weight gain. Reducing foods with high glycemic index and exercising more cause immediate improvements in sugar control, well before any weight loss is noticable. Furthermore, the amount of weight lost on such regimens has nearly zero correlations wth improvements in sugar control.

[RebelOne]

88. Definitely not always associated with being overweight.

My doctor told me that I am pre-diabetic. I am not overweight, am a vegetarian and avoid fatty foods. Everyone on my mother's side, her mother, and her brothers and sisters developed type II diabetes in their later years. And none of them were overweight (except for my grandmother). In my case, it is genetic. My sister, who is 64 years old, was just diagnosed with it (and she is not overweight). I do not have it at this time, and I just turned 73 yesterday. It could be because I am a vegetarian.

[eridani]

91. Very good news!

Type II diabetics of normal weight are three times as likely to have the morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes. That's because some insulin-resistant people are not able to compensate by producing very high levels of insulin. It's the high insulin that makes people fat.

[Greybnk48]

9. Right. Fat is not the culprit in type 2, it's bread, pasta

candy and other sugary foods/carbs.

[Honeycombe8]

27. The wrong kinds of fats are linked to obesity, though, which is one of causes of diab. 2.

It's the whole lifestyle of an overweight middle aged person: lack of enough physical activity, overweight, lack of eating enuf healthy foods (veggies, fruit w/o sugar), etc. Add smoking and a couple of other things, and you are in a high risk category for a number of things, including diabetes type 2. It's so reliable that you can predict that someone will get it.

Even more important, at the beginning of type II diabetes, it's possible to reverse it by changing your lifestyle. You only get to the medicine part of it if you failed to take appropriate action after getting it. Also, there is a long pre-diabetic stage, where the person has ample opportunity to change lifestyle and not get diabetes type II at all.

At least this is what I've read about it. I've read up quite a bit about it, since several members of my family have it. Because of that, they like to say that it's genetic. So I read up on it. It is not genetic. No one in my family has it, if they didn't have the lifestyle stated above. As long as I don't do the above things, I will not be at risk of getting type II diabetes. It's one of those things that is predictable and preventable. But it costs us all a TON of money for insurance to pay for the medicine, since it's a chronic disease and the medicine is not cheap.

[shanti]

61. there is a genetic component for some

families, but not all. my family didn't have any diabetes in it until sis and i got it. but we both know exactly how we got it, lots of carbs, rich foods, and alcohol, and no exercise. high cholesterol does run in the family though, but when i tried a cholesterol lowering med, it made my blood glucose go up, so i stopped it.

Also, there is a long pre-diabetic stage, where the person has ample opportunity to change lifestyle and not get diabetes type II at all.

problem is that a lot of people don't even realize that they are pre-diabetic until they get a blood test. i've had full medical coverage for the last 22 years, and only one (fairly recent) comprehensive blood test, which diagnosed me as pre-diabetic. when i look back over the last ten years, there were signs, but they weren't considered that serious to me, like blurry vision (which i attributed to needing a change in my lens prescription), lack of energy, intermittent nausea, etc. it was only when i changed to a new doctor two years ago, that she did a once over and ordered a complete blood workup, which changed everything.

it really is an epidemic.

[eridani]

69. Diabetes is flat out not reversible

LIve long enough, and you will get it. Lifestyle changes do not fix the underlying genetics, but can result in greatly slowing the progress of the disease.

Given the fact that only recently has it been possible to easily diagnose type II, most of our parents and grandparents had no way at all of knowing that they were diabetic until the symptoms really got bad. For anyone to claim that they know they have no family history of diabetes is nonsense.

[catrose]

10. Thank you

You saved me from having to post it. To learn about belly fat, read Wheat Belly or Why We Get Fat. My husband religiously ate the low fat, high carb heart-healthy diet, and all he got from it was diabetes. His heart risk numbers have gone way down into the non-risk areas now that he eats every kind of fat under the sun, protein, vegetables, and fruits--just no carbs (in as far as that is possible).

Angry at the profession that gave him this blueprint of diabetes? Oh yeah.

[Honeycombe8]

29. Eating a low fat high carb diet does not cause diabetes type 2.

It's simply not true. If you read the risk factors on the med. sites, you will find the lists of causes and risks.

Bear in mind that vegetarians and those living in the "blue zones" - diabetes and heart disease are almost unheard of in those populations. They eat primarily carbs; most eat no meat at all; most eat low fat (not intentionally...it's a byproduct of the way they eat).

The main factors are being overweight, lack of proper physical activity, smoking, stress, failing to eat enough veggies and fresh fruit (note that those are CARBS, but most not high glycemic), and a few other things.

[catrose]

48. My husband has read more of the research than most (probably 99% of) doctors

and came to a different conclusion. He was not overweight, rode thousands of miles on his bike each year, did not smoke, did not have more stress factors than the average person, ate many veggies and fruits (some do have a higher carb content than others), did not have relatives with diabetes--in short, no reason at all (of the traditional reasons) why he should have developed diabetes. Syndrome X was unrecognized at the time he was desperately trying to control his heart risk numbers with traditional diet and drugs, exactly following his doctor's advice

I'm not going to get in a flame war, but after our experiences, I'm not rejoining the Standard Medical Advice choir either. After figuring out that his doctor was not going to do his dying for him, he did his own research and has been amazingly healthy for a diabetic for more than a decade. In fact, one doctor told him that the only way he knew my husband was a diabetic was word of mouth--the lab tests didn't show it. His A1C is lower than mine; he keeps an incredibly tight control on his blood sugar. So I'm starting to do his regimen as well, minus the insulin.

[eridani]

70. There is no conceivable way for him to know if his ancestors were diabetic or not.

Until recently, it was vastly underdiagnosed, and people were very likely to die of something else before symptoms got severe enough to notice.

It's really a good thing that DH has figured out what he needs to do to control sugars, as type II diabetics of normal weight are three times more likely to die or have serious complications that the fatsos.

[catrose]

79. I said relatives, not ancestors

meaning the kind of "relatives" your doctor asks about.

[eridani]

86. With no diagnostic technique available until recently--

--you still don't know about your genetics, given that it's impossible to prove a negative.

[catrose]

87. All I meant to say

was that the response is "No" to the doctor's question "Does this disease run in your family?" All the doctor is asking is if any known relative has the disease, because that's supposed to be significant. The answer is No. I'm not sure why you're broadening it to total genetic makeup, when very few of us can give an answer.

And I'm tired of being badgered.

[eridani]

90. That's because "yes" is a useful answer

"No" means that the disease may run in your family due to people who were never diagnosed properly. Or not. Therefore "no" is a less useful answer.

[grasswire]

106. I hear you.

Somewhere I have stashed an article written by a physician apologizing for the promotion of the low-fat high-carb diet that has harmed so many people over the last few decades. The medical profession was wrong. Very wrong.

The day I was diagnosed with type 2 I got the book written by Dr. Bernstein, a diabetic himself who became a physician so people would listen to what he had to say about the disease. He advocates VERY low carb. I knew on that day -- day one after being diagnosed in the ER that carbs were my enemy. My mortal enemy. Even though I ate a very healthy diet in terms of whole wheat, low fat dairy, yada yada, I had to cut carbs, and not even the ADA was going to tell me to cut them enough.

As you have learned, it's possible to be more knowledgeable than those who are getting paid to keep us well. I follow the recommendations of Dr. Stephen Sinatra, who practices integrative cardiology. Integrative cardiology is light years ahead of traditional medicine/Big Pharma.

[catrose]

107. Dr. Bernstein rocks!

I wish all diabetics had his The Diabetes Solution.

I'm currently reading Wheat Belly and plotting how to get the last vestiges of wheat--it's everywhere! it's everywhere!--out of my diet. And visiting my acupuncturist on Monday. After 60 years, I can say that traditional medicine might have kept me from dying on a few occasions, but integrative/alternative medicine has done more to make me well.

I'd sure love to read that apology, which sounds kind of like Douglas Adams' final message to the universe from God: We apologize for the inconvenience.

Here's wishing you many years of optimum health.

[Yo_Mama]

71. It depends on your genes

Anybody who suspects that Type II may be in their future should buy one of those el cheapo blood sugar monitors at the drugstore and strips, and then try different types of diets while checking the results.

A lot of Amerinds need to eat a lean protein rich diet with plenty of vegetables to stave off hypoglycemia early, especially when trying to lose weight, and Type II later. When I finally got my husband to do this his triglycerides and sugars plunged. The cardiologist-recommended diet only raised his blood sugars and triglycerides to new and acutely unhealthy heights. My husband was always very physically active too.

He never did have diabetes, but when his fasting blood sugars started to test in the 100 plus range, and his sugars were falling into the 50s most afternoons, I hit the panic button and shifted him to the diet that worked for my grandfather. His fasting blood sugars have fallen into the 70-90 range, and he no longer has such strong reactive hypoglycemia.

The truth is that for a lot of us with Indian heritage, the high-carb/low fat diet doesn't work well. I don't know about other ethnic groups.

The genetics and other conditions that can predispose a person to Type II are different, and only knowing your own metabolism and working within those bounds will help you.

My doctor recommends the higher lean protein/vegetable/exercise low carb mix for most diabetics. Shifting the balance of muscle/fat tissue can help a lot, and this is important for leaner diabetics. Sometimes the high-carb low-fat diets cause people to lose more muscle mass than fat, which is really bad for a lot of Type IIs.

Another thing that can predispose many women to diabetes are polycystic ovaries:
http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20187970,00.html

The point I am trying to make here is not that you are wrong, but that the healthiest diet may be different for different people.

[eridani]

77. Good info--thanks

Genes for type II (or synndrome X) are far more common among people from eastern Europe and central Asia. Native Americans probably brought the trait with them, being members of susceptible Asian populations to begin with. It is rarer in all coastal regions, and especially rare where rice is a major source of calories.

I got the trait from my eastern European ancestors (Der Erste hat Tot, Die Zwitte hat Not, Nur Dritte hat Brot), and the Native American dietary approach works well for me also. The Pima have the highest known incidence of the genotype, given that they lived for a long time in an area where crop failures three out of every sevn years were the norm. Interestingly, the Pima women with the longest lifespans weigh twice the actuarial ideal, and the men 45% more.

[catrose]

84. I was reading through, agreeing with you

and glad you got your husband on a good, proven (for him!) diet. And wondered where you thought we disagreed, unless it was on the fats. My husband followed the cardio-recommended diet when he was younger--greatly to his detriment. Now he's older, wiser, diabetic, and eating meat and vegetables. Like you recommend, he takes his blood sugar many times a day, particularly after introducing a new food.

And my husband, though he looks veddy British, found out through genetic testing that he's Mohican. Quite a shocker after half a century!

[izquierdista]

6. Her recipes are just as "butter-intensive" as classic French cooking

Unfortunately, she leaves out the wine, which balances it out. I'm going to wager it catches up with her and she won't make it as long as Julia Child did.

[Honeycombe8]

31. I don't know much about her cooking, but the French are generally healthy...

with far fewer obese people than America. I think the main reasons are: American portions are huge compared to French portions (they eat several small portions of different things throughout a day); the French are far more physically active. They walk a lot, often walking to local stores to pick up things for the next meal, and they do that daily. They bike. Etc.

And even tho French have fattening dishes, they will eat maybe 1/2 cup of that dish, but the other parts of their meal are small portions of non-fattening things. We here in America tend to have a heaping helping of the main course (lasagna, big steak, several enchiladas, whatever), with maybe bits of some other things. We drive to the restaurant, then drive home, then sit around, then go to bed.

It's the whole lifestyle. Wine is part of the equation, too, though. Altho my doctor says grape juice will do the same thing. (grape juice is full of sugar, so I wonder if diet grape juice does the same thing.)

[onehandle]

49. I grew up in a household of 'classic french cooking.'

It's nowhere near as unhealthy as her deadly recipes and it's not just the wine.

[Wistful Vista]

56. Wine cancels out calories from olefins??? Wow, that needs to be reported to the AMA.

...

[UTUSN]

7. & a whole new money making career path opens: "Healthy" cooking (read, "selling") for her!1 n/t

[catrose]

11. I hope she does

Then I won't spend so much of my time trying to adapt recipes to exclude carbs and sugar. Though I'm awfully proud of my whey-almond flour donut with coconut oil.

[laundry_queen]

41. Ahem.

I'm going to need a recipe for that.

[catrose]

50. So you get a Macy's donut maker

take any muffin or coffee cake recipe from Rodnitzky's Ultimate Low-Carb Diet Cookbook, change the amount of baking powder from 1 teaspoon to 1 Tablespoon (or times 3), change the butter to coconut oil, mix, cook, and enjoy. My chocolate glaze is baking chocolate, a dash of liquid & flavoring (if you want), and stevia, microwaved for a few secs and stirred. The Macy's recipe book had a couple of glazes that were easy to convert.

Hope you like them! (And you can feel so good and healthy while eating them.)

[William769]

13. I feel for her, I love Paula!

May you keep your condition under control.

[Honeycombe8]

32. She irritates me for some reason. I turn the channel whenever I see her on.

There's just something about her that irritates me.

[whistler162]

44. For me it is all the Y'Alling she does...

seems like every other sentence has a y'all forced into it!

[Honeycombe8]

53. Well, I'm from the deep south (Gulf coast), so that would sound natural to me.

On a trip to New York last year, I had just an hour or so to run by the Metropolitan museum. When I got there, there was a line. I asked, "Are ya'll in line?" People looked at me kinda strange. I realized later it must've been the "ya'll." You'd think New Yorkers would be used to all sorts of English and dialects and phrases, but maybe they weren't New Yorkers.

[Son of Gob]

99. I love Paula too, but...

I really don't respect what she's done here. She's had three years to come out with this & use her fame to get the word out on the dangers of diabetes and how to combat it. Instead she waited until she could find a way to profit from it. This whole thing is very slimey.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I ate at her buffet and it was absolutely fabulous food

And diabetes is more from too many carbs than too much butter. But hey, if it works for ya, go for it.

[Hestia]

15. The thing about southern cooking is that you don't like that every single day

it's Sunday cooking generally where those foods are served. Who's got the time to make homemade mac & cheese or turnip greens, which take hours to cook down. There's nothing wrong with the food per se, it's the quantity eaten and how many days per week.

[Honeycombe8]

33. Mac & cheese is fast to make. But it's one of the unhealthiest things to eat.

It tastes great. We had that growing up. But I haven't eaten it in decades. It's a heart attack and a paunch on a plate. Pizza is unhealthier, though, I think. And I read once that the unhealthiest dish ever is something-alfredo, but I don't know. I never eat anything alfredo, except for an occasional Lean Cuisine frozen dinner. Not crazy about cream sauces.

[etherealtruth]

18. That is too bad ... I don't wish ill for anyone

I am only peripherally aware of her (I know she is a cooking show host) ... somehow I don't think she has caused illness in anyone.

Hopefully she will be able to lose body fat and reduce the need for medical intervention and improve her health.

[GoCubsGo]

19. I'm surprised Mr. "Pork Fat Rules" hasn't joined her.

I refer to Paula and Emeril as "The Heart Attack Twins". Two peas in a pod. Both would do people a great service by showing their audiences how to lighten up their recipes. Most of their recipes can be made much healthier without losing the flavor. I hope they both do so. Nothing wrong with the original recipes for special occasions.

[HockeyMom]

37. Then there is Bobby Flay and Giada

Neither of them cook what is now considered "healthy" food, yet he is thin and she is TINY. Although Giada was raised in Italy, most people are unaware of all the other Italian dishes that don't involve cheeses and pasta. SOUPS with different kinds of BEANS and veggies is part of the culture also. My Nana put greens and beans in soups (no meat) that most people would have to look up in a dictionary! Escarole soup with chici beans (chick peas) would never make a TV cooking show.

[GoCubsGo]

46. My grandma also made lots of soups.

She frequently made pasta faggioli and minestrone, the latter of which had small amounts of meat. She also made delicious oxtail soup, back when oxtails were as cheap as soup bones. I blame the food channel and "foodies" for popularizing oxtails, which jacked up the prices to ridiculous levels.

[HockeyMom]

57. Tripe

My Grandma made this connoction of tripe in tomato sauce (eeeewww), but immigrants back then made meals that were cheap. While pasta made have been cheap even then, meats and cheeses weren't, so they used other ingredients to get their proteins from.

[GoCubsGo]

65. My grandma made tripe for herself.

But, I don't recall her ever feeding it to us. My grandma was German, but married an Italian. She learned Italian cooking from her mother-in-law, my great-grandma. I think the tripe dishes she ate may have been German-style. The only way I ever had it was in menudo, which is actually pretty good stuff.

[shanti]

64. oxtails, yum!

i love bone marrow too, but haven't had it in years.

[justiceischeap]

51. I also hate all of them think you can't make good veggie food

They're such food snobs. There's also that husband and wife cooking team that makes all kinds of fattening food.

[HockeyMom]

58. The Neely's

but again, they are from the South (sorry) and that area was never know for their dietic food.

[csziggy]

92. Actually Emeril has changed his cooking completely

He did one season of shows called Emeril Green for the Planet Green Network in which he cooked inside Whole Foods stores and helped people learn to cook more vegetables and healthier food.

Now, he's got a new show (which I have not yet caught), Emeril's Table on the Hallmark Network. I don't know if he is continuing the healthier cooking that he had on the Emeril Green show.

Frankly, I had never liked Emeril until I watched some of the Emeril Green shows. Then when I caught some of the older shows on Food Network, I was shocked at how unhealthy he looked when he was younger. He looked a lot better in the newer shows.

[GoCubsGo]

101. I'll have to look for a webstream of the Hallmark Channel...

I'd love to check out his new show. I didn't watch his old shows all that often, because I knew I could never afford to make half of his recipes. I would have to mail order half the ingredients. But, I love Cajun and Creole foods, so it was sometimes fun to watch him. The PBS "Create" channel carries Chef John Besh, who I like a lot better. His New Orleans-style foods are a lot more realistic for home cooks. Not all of them are healthy, but he does make a lot more "home-cooking" type dishes than did Emeril on his older shows. Those can be slimmed down, as can most "soul food".

[csziggy]

102. See if you can find the Planet Green shows, too

I know they were good, since I've watch many of them. Usually he would try to help a "shopper" solve one of their cooking problems - getting kids or husbands to eat more vegetables, how to use locally grown produce, how to cook a family's ethnic cooking in a healthier way, etc.

Planet Green is one of the Discovery group of channels, and I think they are beginning to put a lot of their stuff online.

[Cali_Democrat]

25. Here's one of her better creations

[Swede]

26. It's the carbs that cause all these problems,not the fat.

Go low carb for a month,you won't regret it.

[laundry_queen]

42. +1 nt

[riverwalker]

36. I can't stand her

her voice and accent is like nails on a blackboard to me.

[Zalatix]

43. You will never leave life alive. Not interested in getting diabetes but you will die of something!

Paula Deen has made a career out of showing people how to enjoy life at least when it comes to eating.

You can't eat her kind of food every day but there is little room to deny the fact that her recipes are deeeeeeelicious!!!

[onehandle]

47. The real skill in cooking is making healthy food taste good.

Anybody can roll up a ball of butter and fry it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

52. Thus the ridiculousness of 'diners and Dives" - cooking channel show where host visits

popular diner and dives and gushes over their extremely fatty and salty food. Of course, the food is tasty! Many of the dishes have bacon, butter, loads of salt.

[Wistful Vista]

59. May I suggest "healthful" in lieu of "healthy"? I'm pretty sure food isn't healthy.

I know, I know...it's common usage but it still rankles me. Sorry.

[onehandle]

62. Yeah, I thought of that.

Almost edited, but then... meh.

[Wistful Vista]

63. It's like "I could care less"....

[customerserviceguy]

54. As soon as I saw the title of this thread

I figured the Paula Deen haters would not be far behind. I was not disappointed, there are loads of vegetarian, organic food fanatics here who think this is karma, which is just a non-Judeo/Christian/Muslim word for an irrational religious belief.

Type II diabetes is practically an inevitability in a human population that doesn't have to deal with the occasional starvation that our hunter-gatherer ancestors had before agriculture. The ability to store up food as fat was a survival adaptation, and those folks usually were long dead before 64. She has a treatable condition that modern science has figured out well enough to allow her to eat what she wants for quite some years to come.

She doesn't have to suffer with foods that the austere seem to worship in order to have a good life.

[grasswire]

96. not the point at all

The point is that for three years now she has continued to push unhealthy cooking to viewers while knowing that she was diabetic, and now she has contracted to promote a diabetes medication that is controversial and considered by the FDA to be a cancer risk -- and making a whole new fortune by pushing this drug.

It's the hypocrisy and the harm done to others.

[customerserviceguy]

100. Hey, if you don't like her, don't watch her

And if you know you shouldn't eat the recipes she cooks, then don't drool while watching her show, either. It's no worse than getting advice on your marriage from a Catholic priest.

As for the drug she's hawking, if you're so weak minded that a celebrity endorsement for ANYTHING has any influence on what you buy, then possible cancer is the least of your problems.

[grasswire]

103. I don't watch her.

And I don't LIKE her because I, being a diabetic myself, abhor the fact that she is using her disease (which she hid for three years while making money off food that is harmful to diabetics) to promote a diabetes drug that carries the strongest level of FDA warning about cancer, and is making money from doing so.

Drool over her food? Please. I find it disgusting.

HOWEVER, millions of people who shouldn't be eating it because of diabetes or pre-diabetes see it and are influenced by her poor choices.

And by the way, your personal attack is not particularly useful.

[DonCoquixote]

66. oh yes, beat up on fat people

Never mind that before she became famous, she had to deal with agoraphobia (since she was almost shot at work) then the sort of 70+ hours it takes to do a restauraunt, then television.

I realize diet is a factor, but frankly, as my old friend Bobbolink might say, the reason poorer/southern types are fatter than let's say people who can afford organic produce is because these foods were used to feed people cheaply. As far as "much diabetes she may have introduced into the world with her popularity." That is rank,as these oldrecipes were a part of feeding the American working class ever since the Colonial days.

Everywhere people had to live off cheap carbs, there is diabetes: Latinos, Italians, Native Americans, Indians, Africans, Afro-Americans and yes, even Iraqis are known to have heavy levels of type 2 diabetes.

Now, I do understand the American diet is unhealthy, but when people try to get self righteous, it really, really winds up showing a "let them eat cake" sort of arrogance. Southern food is what poor people had to make do with, and when people just point to a fat person and say "eww, disgusting" then it shows that you can demonize people without reasearching or thinking.

[Wistful Vista]

73. I don't really care about this either way except as it relates to the laws of physics and thermo-

dynamics. I have actually encountered a few folks who claimed with a straight face that it is possible to gain -more- weight than the net weight of food they have consumed. When I hear those sorts of absurd beliefs, I just can't squelch my derision.

[Art_from_Ark]

74. How much and what kinds of liquid are they ingesting in addition to their food?

Than can make a big difference.

[Wistful Vista]

81. Not if the liquids contain no calories...otherwise they would be food.

sheesh...

[Art_from_Ark]

89. Sheesh yourself

First of all, foods and beverages are usually considered separately. In one sense, a beverage may be considered a food if it contains nutrients, as per one of the definitions here. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/food However, while drinks like Coca Cola are considered beverages, you would be hard pressed to find someone who would consider them a food, as most people's image of "food", as least for humans, corresponds to the third definition. Also, you have to remember that there are complex reactions that occur in the stomach that involve not only solids (food) but also liquids, including no-calorie teas and water, and some of these liquids are retained in the body even though they do not contain any calories.

[DonCoquixote]

75. derision

Of course, mention the fact that some people will eat the same amounts of food and process it differently,and I am sure you will deride that too, even though any doctor knows that.

[Wistful Vista]

80. Differences in processing have nothing to do with the quantities in question.

k+y can never be greater than k+y for constant values of k and y.

[DonCoquixote]

85. are you an MD? An Endochrinologist?

If so, you may want to educate the ones I have been seeing, who all pretty much smite and smash your conjectures when it comes to metabolism. Just because you know one science does not mean you know the whole.

[Rhiannon12866]

67. She's friends with Jimmy Carter...

[REP]

72. It's common for people that age to develop DMII

If she were in her 30s, the snark would be called for.

[DonCoquixote]

76. acutally no

snark is not called for in any way, because you yourself may develop something and will not need the same snark. Andy Kaufman was a non smoking vegetarian, did he deserve snark for dying of lung cancer?

[REP]

78. Actually, I don't think being diagnosed with any disease at any age deserves snark

I just know how some blame people in their 30s for their DMII. I know - I developed it in my early 30s from a badly-dosed course of steroids for my asthma.

[redqueen]

83. +1

[grasswire]

98. she promoted unhealthy food for three years knowing she was DMII

People are not criticizing her for her disease. She is coming under fire for promoting unhealthy food for the past three years while secretly knowing that she was diabetic and that the kind of food she promoted could exacerbate DM or make it more likely in her viewers.

On top of that, she has contracted (making $$$$$$$) to promote a Big Pharma diabetes medication that is controversial and is a cancer risk.

I find that cynical and wrong.

[redqueen]

82. Myth: If you are overweight or obese, you will eventually develop type 2 diabetes.

Fact: Being overweight is a risk factor for developing this disease, but other risk factors such as family history, ethnicity and age also play a role. Unfortunately, too many people disregard the other risk factors for diabetes and think that weight is the only risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Most overweight people never develop type 2 diabetes, and many people with type 2 diabetes are at a normal weight or only moderately overweight.

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-myths/


I know fat-bashing is fun and fashionable, but seriously: Science, please.

[jsmirman]

93. She's a shill for Smithfield "Farms"

I wish her only the worst. To endorse that company is morally unforgivable.

And btw, for those of you who hate animals or think it's passe to care about them, Smithfield hates humans, too. Their treatment of their workforce is shameful.

[grasswire]

97. +1

Follow the dollar.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

94. I'd rather watch anthony bourdain.

He is one crazy son of a bitch, who eats anything.
But I don't think he's a glutton like Mr. Bad Bleach Job (guy fieri).

Years ago George Carlin wrote about bizarre food items in one of his books. The first thing on the list was "candied goat anus".

I thought he was making it up. Then I saw Anthony Bourdain at a sheep farm in Vienna. They use ALL the parts of the sheep.

And he was eating --- yeah, you guessed it, it's SPHINCTERRIFIC!!!