Poor Paula!

Well, the news this week about Paula Deen of the Food Network fame was pretty devastating, wasn't it? Noooo, not the news she has Type II diabetes. Please, as if that weren't inevitable.

The really earth-shattering news was that (prepare yourself, now) the food she prepares on any of her multiple shows is NOT healthy. Really!? I had absolutely no idea. I mean, butter, heavy cream, cream cheese, and sour cream are all dairy. And isn't dairy good for you? Builds strong bones and all that? But no, this week we were suddenly enlightened that dishes requiring two sticks of butter and/or a pound of cream cheese are just not all that good for you. I could hardly believe my ears!!

Maybe my approach to eating isn't typical. Don't the rest of you watch Paula and then prepare her dishes of the day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day? I know that there are times watching her on TV that I spring up from my chair and shout, "I must have that right now!" and head straight to my kitchen. And to be certain I'm always prepared for whatever ingredients Paula might require, I keep no less than 4 lbs each of butter and cream cheese. No less than a gallon of heavy cream and a giant tub of sour cream in my fridge will possibly do.

OK, I'm sure by now you've figured out there's a teensy bit of irony in my statements, right? So can we all at least agree that none of us eats this sort of stuff 3 meals a day, 7 days a week? I watch the Food Network quite often. They have a pretty nice variety of shows. There are some that feature really healthy foods all the time. Do I eat only their foods? Nope.

I will admit that I have made a couple of gooey butter cakes (one of Paula's staples). And wow, are they good! So if I'm not spending my days and nights duplicating Paula's foods for consumption, then why do I watch her?

For the same reason I watch Royal Pains or NCIS or Craig Ferguson--entertainment, of course. She's fun to watch. I love her laugh; I love her Southern accent; and I love her love of family. I also respect her because she has overcome a lot in life. She was abandoned by her first husband with two small boys and no way to make a living. She has experienced mental health problems. She's not a highly educated person. Yet she took what she had which was some good family recipes and a knack for cooking and built, not just a career, but an empire on it.

She announced the fact she has Type II diabetes on the Today show on NBC, where she is regularly featured preparing some over-the-top dish that everyone on the cast drools over. And from time-to-time, the person hosting the segment will make some sort of comment about how the recipe couldn't quite fit under a health food label, hint, hint, wink, wink. But they still ewwww and ahhh over it. And they still invite her back again and again.

The problem with what Paula did was that she didn't just say she had diabetes. She said she'd had it for three years. She explained that she hadn't made the announcement earlier because she wanted to get her brain wrapped around the situation before she came out and made it public. And so now she's got it all worked out in her head and thought it was time to tell her public? Not quite that simple, I'm afraid. Turns out she's now a paid spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, a company that makes an expensive drug for diabetics. From what I could tell from her Today show interview, the purpose of the Novo Nordisk funded campaign is that having diabetes is no big deal. That you can have your cake and take your medicine, too.

The rate of diabetes in this country has been on the rise for years. There are now nearly 27 million Americans with the disease, and the incidence rate is expected to continue to climb as more and more people rocket past simple obesity into morbid obesity. While the disease is treated far more effectively today than in the past, it still has a devastating effect on the body. Potential side effects include kidney failure, blindness, and amputation.

But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Novo Nordisk won't make money off helping people avoid getting diabetes in the first place. Ohh nooo. What's in their best interest? To make sure people continue to stuff their faces with ooey gooey fat and sugar-saturated foods, develop diabetes, and then use their drugs to manage it. And there's Paula, with a big smile on her face and her infectious laugh stirring a bowl with one hand and getting paid by Novo Nordisk with the other hand.

And for that, I put Paula Deen into the dog pile for today. But do you know who else is in there with her? Me, for one. Because I, too, continue to eat foods I know are not good for me. I continue to not exercise regularly. My weight continues to be too high. I'm fat and I'm lazy and I haven't done enough about that. So when I develop diabetes, whom am I going to blame? Paula?? No, I'll know enough to look at that woman in the mirror and hold her responsible.