I knew it was coming; I gritted my teeth for as long as I could…
Paula Deen is a diabetic … shocker!
She’s just like I was… an obese, carb eating machine. The surprise is that it took this long for her to be diagnosed. Who knows, she may have actually been diabetic years ago…
What irks me to no end about the Paula Deen ‘news’?
The ‘conventional wisdom’ crowd is pumping out the information that it’s the ‘pork’ and butter that caused her diabetes. It’s not folks, it’s the high carb, grain based meal plan… combined with other factors.
Several of my friends urged me to try to contact Paula, a fellow ‘southerner’, to see if I could help her and help spread the ‘paleo’ message through her. I made a few minor attempts… but received no feedback. It’s so simple!! … she could be like these other “Paleo Success Stories“… sigh.
Note: I like Paula Deen, she seems like a nice lady but I’ve never watched an entire show and … I’ve always felt a little jealous. Why? She’s world famous … and all she really did was cook like my grandmother. :)
Today I watched a video of Paula Deen, talking about her disease in her own words. Here are my thoughts about the video as I watch it. It was a major waste of time … and I don’t suggest you watching it …. Here is the video link should you choose to do so, “Paula Deen”.
Note: This video is provided on a page that’s an ad for a drug, Victoza. There are Victoza and Novo Nordisk logo’s on the page… so this is bought and paid for by BIG PHARMA.
Big Pharma is promoting this video… so I am not expecting a paleo style diabetes treatment program that improves the health and reduces drug use of the adherents.
The Paula Deen Video
“Awhile back I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.”
“I wasn’t about to change my life.”
It did not take long… 5 seconds into the video. This is typical “ADA Minion Speak” … ‘diabetics have a right to eat like everyone else’.
“I have made slight changes in my life like cutting back on sweet tea and for a southern girl that’s a big deal.”
This also is typical …
a) The American Diabetes Ass teaches that it’s okay to eat sugar, ‘if you plan for it’.
b) “for a southern girl” … this is more coddling and cuddling. As if she should be congratulated for ‘cutting back’ on sweat tea. I hear people say, “I have to eat ____,” all the time. (fill in the blank, pasta, bread, cookies, cakes etc)
It’s the language of people who are addicted to grains and sugar… no different than an addiction to cocaine or alcohol.
The addiction MUST be broken.
“More walks with my husband Michael and running after grand children”
She was diagnosed ‘awhile back’ … she’s still obese and I’m betting she’s still on drugs if not insulin too. Obviously her diabetes treatment is failing.
“Some of ya’ll have asked for recipes that are a little lighter.”
… lighter? I’m assuming that’s less fat… as in less animal fats…. ugh!
She should forever swear off of the hydrogenated machined vegetable oils… those are bad fats.
“So excited that we’ve teamed up with Novo Nordisk. Because together we will provide you ways to have lighter cooking.”
OKAY! Paula Deen has teamed up with ‘Novo Nordisk” …. a Big Pharma company. That by itself is not completely damning but compared to the ‘conventional wisdom’ speak above…
Next Paula states that ‘they’ will bring you ways to ‘take care of yourself’ and to make foods ‘lighter’. UGH!
“My hope is that you can see life with diabetes in a new light.”
Actually, I don’t see any ‘new light’ here. The words sound good… but I will be totally shocked if it’s not the same old, tired and failed policy to ‘carb up and shoot up’.
I have yet to see a single drug company publish ANYTHING that does not support a “high carb, grain based” meal plan… the same meal plan the American Diabetes Ass promotes.
“Pull up a chair and join us. As always I’m wishing you much love and lighter dishes.”
Again… ‘nice words’. All ADA Minion promote ‘healthy eating’ … the devil is in the details. Lighter dishes does not mean ‘lower carbs’ … it means less fat.
AND like I just said, I’ve never seen a Big Pharma campaign that did not promote a ‘high carb, grain based’ meal plan.
Summary:
There was nothing new in this video… in fact there was nothing at all really in this video.
“simple changes”
“eating lighter”
“being active”
… these were the only statements offering advice and it’s spewed every single day by “ADA Minion” promoting a high carb, grain based meal plan. The only people helped by this meal plan are Big Pharma, Monsanto, PepsiCo and The Medical Industry…including the American Diabetes Association.
Walking and being active is great advice… but when coupled with a high carb, grained based meal plan… is useless advice. … unless you want to stay on drugs and continue on a downward path to more and more health problems.
I will offer a public apology if I am wrong… but given the Paula Deen’s teammate … Novo Nordisk, we can expect more ‘lower fat, high carb, grain based’ recipes… that will only harm diabetics and increase drug sales.
Saturated Fats (like pork and butter) is not the enemy of diabetics… it’s all the ‘fake foods’ that surround them. The biscuits, the breads, pasta etc.
Sadly Paula Deen has been duped by the money and influence of the “Medical Industry” … just like so many many others.
Paula Deen at this point is just like I was when I was diagnosed with diabetes… she is an expert on how to obtain diabetes. So far, she is an expert on how to keep diabetes symptoms (high blood sugar) and take drugs. She should not be promoting a lifestyle on how to keep diabetes.
The most disgusting thing about this is that she KNEW she was diabetic. She KNEW that she was promoting high carb, high sugar, “eat it all” recipes. She KNEW she was making $$$ by advocating a lifestyle that was not only destructive to herself, but to everyone unknowing and innocent diabetic watching her. And now, she’ll be pimping Big Pharma, and probably spouting ADA propaganda denouncing fat and encouraging man-made fake-food like vegetable oils and the like. She’ll turn around and blame good fats, meat, and butter and such. It’s disgusting, in a word. I have no other words. The damage that this woman has done, will more than likely do, in her position, is shocking. She could be a force for Primal lifestyle and diet, but she won’t be; she’ll be a paid Big Pharma ADA minion. You wait and see. It’s beyond sad. It’s beyond reprehensible.
I don’t have a problem with her keeping her medical condition to herself or continuing with her show–that’s her job and I see it more as entertainment than a way to eat (though I know many don’t).
It’s the drug company contract that has me so upset. She genuinely believes she is helping people by suggesting lighter food. The sad reality is that Victoza is a non-insulin injectable drug that seems to enhance the body’s ability to produce insulin.
When would someobody need that? When they have a damaged metabolism and consume too many carbs. Whether eating Paula’s regular carbage or the so-called “lighter” recipes, carbs abound, and every gram sells more of that drug.
I believe that she is as unknowing and innocent to the devastation her advice causes as most viewers, so I don’t blame her. She genuinely thinks she is “helping” people, and the professionals around her agree. That’s what I find incredible tragic about this whole thing.
It is her medical advisors–doctors, dieticians, and diabetes educators who are in the wrong.
What bothers me is that she is continuing to make money on pauladeen.com, where she is still promoting all of the heart attack-inducing recipes she is famous for, such as….
The Ladies Brunch Burger – This is a hamburger, topped with bacon, then eggs fried in butter, served between…two glazed donuts!
She also has the Ultimate Fantasy Deep Fried Cheesecake, Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf…need I go on? She is double-dipping, making money off the recipes that got her here in the first place, and getting money from the drug company that treats her problem! Pick a side!
Here’s a short video I made about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-T9xlYt1gU
What’s really upsetting, is that she is in the lime light, and there are people that will listen and live on her every word. Add Big Pharmas power to promote, and she could be like the Pied Piper leading diabetics down the wrong path.