Paula Deen: Villainous or Clueless?

TV chef and cookbook author Paula Deen admitted Tuesday that she has Type 2 diabetes.

Why am I not surprised?

Deen, known as the Sugar Queen of Southern-Fried Cuisine, went public with her diagnosis in prime time on the Today Show.

There's just one small problem
with her admission…

She received her Type 2 diagnosis three years ago, but hid it from her fans and viewers, while continuing to crank out such sugar-laden abominations as The Krispy Kreme Burger (a hamburger on a donut) and her Ultimate Fantasy Deep-Fried Cheesecake.

Wait, there's more…

Deen told the Today Show that she kept her diabetes a secret "because I had to figure out things in my own head."

What she, in fact, was "figuring out" was a multimillion-dollar endorsement deal with Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company that makes Victoza, a non-insulin injectable diabetes medication that Ms. Deen began promoting at her "debut" in front of the nation Tuesday morning.

"I have no regrets"

In addition to remaining staunchly unapologetic for having deceived millions of people for three years, Deen said she didn't plan to change her own lifestyle or cooking style drastically, other than to reduce portion sizes of unhealthful foods and visit her treadmill occasionally.

So don't expect Paula Deen to dedicate her show to diabetes-healing recipes … low-carb meals … or lifestyle changes. Where's the money in that?

Instead, her message to the 25-30 million Americans with Type 2 will be: "It's OK to eat and drink whatever you want, just as long as you take your Victoza." (Though I doubt the average diabetic can afford the $500-per-month price tag for this new drug.)

"It's about heredity, honey."

Further abdicating responsibility, Deen blamed her Type 2 on "heredity," rather than the over-the-top, carb-crazy recipes she created in her cookbooks and on her Food Network cooking show, Paula's Best Dishes.

"It's about heredity. It's about age, lifestyle, race. I'm the only one in my family who has it," she said in a USA Today interview, likening it to "Russian roulette."

I find this heredity defense disingenuous given her admission that no one in her family has a history of diabetes.

Nonetheless, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) was quick to jump to her defense.

"You can't just eat your way to Type 2 diabetes," said Geralyn Spollett, the ADA's director of education.

Oh, really?

According to all the research I've read, a high-carb diet is the primary cause of Type 2 - and is the main reason diabetes has become a global epidemic, according to the World Health Organization.

The ADA would love us to believe that Type 2 was caused by our genes, or by dietary fat, or by being overweight, or by anything but the sodas and refined carbohydrates in our modern diet - and the 150 pounds of sugar that Americans consume, on average, every year.

This is because a large chunk of the ADA's funding comes from selling their Seal of Approval to the manufacturers of breakfast cereals, artificially-sweetened beverages, high-carb food products, and even candy. (Their other major funding source is drug companies and pharmacies.)

No wonder the ADA continues to recommend a diet of 60% (or more) carbohydrates - even for people with diabetes. That's where much of their money comes from.

Shame on you, Paula Deen!

In my opinion, Paula Dean is a spokesperson for gluttony and hypocrisy.

She deceived the American public for three years about her health in order to protect her juicy contract with the Food Network and her cookbook publisher, Simon & Schuster.

By keeping her diabetes a secret, she gave her audience the illusion that her excessively-rich dishes were perfectly healthful to consume, while secretly knowing that her diet played a part in her illness.

The main reasons for this intentional deception? Money and personal gain.

How many people did she take with her?

And now, rather than admit her error, educate herself about diet and lifestyle, and dedicate her life and her TV show to helping diabetics get well, she arrogantly refuses to change her ways.

Instead, she's sold out to Big Pharma and is promoting drugs as the solution to the diabetes problem - again for personal profit.

As a diabetic, her example will lead even more people astray because recent studies show that lifestyle changes are twice as effective as drugs when it comes to fighting diabetes.

Research proves drugs aren't the solution

In a study of 3,000 people reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, those who improved their diet and exercise habits for three years saw a 58% decrease in diabetes risk - whereas those taking the leading diabetic drug experienced only a moderate 31% decrease.

In other words, the diet and lifestyle approach was nearly 100% more successful.

Diabetes drugs also lose when it comes to protecting diabetics from nasty complications…

Two large studies in America and in Australia showed that using drugs and insulin to control blood sugar provided no reduction in heart attack rates or death from diabetic complications.

In fact, controlling blood sugar levels with an aggressive use of drugs and insulin significantly increased the number of deaths from heart disease or any cause.

This finding also has been confirmed by the 2008 ACCORD study of 10,000 Type 2 patients, in which those in the group reducing its blood sugar with aggressive drug therapy had a 22% higher death rate than the control group.

Innocent people's lives are at stake

Paula Deen and other public figures must realize the tremendous influence they exert on the health and lives of people who trust them.

Fudging the facts about diabetes is especially unconscionable because this is a very serious disease…

Every 10 seconds, two new cases of diabetes are diagnosed.

Every 10 seconds, someone dies of diabetes-related causes.

Every 30 seconds, a leg is lost to diabetes, leading to more than one million diabetic amputations a year.

And 75% of all diabetics will die of a heart attack due to the severe artery damage and elevated blood pressure that high blood sugar cause.

Paula Deen's arrogant selfishness has added to the illness and misery of an already sickened and suffering American public.

Because of this, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain publically labeled her the "worst, most dangerous person to America" for pushing unhealthy foods on an already obese nation - and for working with "evil corporations."

She may not be THE worst, but she's sure one of them.

What do you think?

What's your opinion of Paula Deen's recent admission?

Please share your comments and opinions here. I look forward to reading what you think about this.

And for delicious, truly diabetes-healing recipes, come visit me at MyHealingKitchen.com.