Paula Deen, Southern Cooking, and Diabetes
Did Paula Deen go to the John Edwards School for Role Models? Paula Deen's diabetes cover-up splashes the white tablecloth of Southern cooking like dropping a platter of her Chicken Fried Steak in Cream Gravy. Why did she drape a napkin over the stain instead of telling her hosts (those who watch her shows or read her books) so they could clean up?
Paula Deen should have taken better care of herself and of her followers
Deen's focus on gluttonous concoctions diminished the value of her call for home cooking, just as Edward's secret baby hurt his populist cause. Even good people can yield to the Sirens of fat, sugar, and sex. There are clearly many ideas about what constitutes a healthy diet. If you follow any sort of eating approach thinking it's the best way or worth a shot, then good luck with your experiment. I'll be happy to learn from it.
But if you, like Deen, are told that you've got to stop eating a certain way but you keep pushing it from a wildly popular platform while negotiating a deal with a company that wants to sell drugs to those who get the same problem, that's at least questionable behavior.
If she were selling crude oil instead of corn oil, we'd call it motive.
She could have followed Bill Clinton, whose own heart attack inspired him to help others eat better and exercise more. But Deen will only come clean tomorrow, nine months after The National Enquirer first covered her condition and evidently years after she learned of it. Shamefully, she:
... continued to tout butter-rich recipes with high-fat ingredients that experts say can lead to diabetes – even though sources say she’s under doctors’ orders to steer clear of those foods.
Paula, 64, was diagnosed with diabetes several years ago, says a family friend, but continued to plug artery-clogging dishes like “Lady’s Brunch Burger” – a hamburger topped with bacon and a fried egg and served on a glazed donut.
I'm sorry that Paula Deen has Type-II diabetes, the type formerly known as adult-onset diabetes. Too many kids now trigger this terrible disease by eating badly, not exercising, and becoming obese, so nutritionists changed the name to match our couch-potato reality. Diet may also trigger Type-I diabetes. Genes make a person susceptible, but this NIH study says, "the effect of a common gene variant between populations that have very different diets and exercise habits might be expected to be totally different."
While scientists have long known that life-style changes can minimize the ravages of diabetes, more recent research shows that way we eat can prevent and even reverse diabetes and other diseases of affluence. This is not obscure research; ask Oprah. The side effects of uncontrolled diabetes include blindness, heart disease, amputation, and early death.
I've seen up close how bad it can be. My younger sister (younger sister!), who cooks and looks somewhat like Paula Deen, had both knees replaced last year and has a host of health problems. My father was diagnosed as having Type II Diabetes when I was twelve. His early attempts to control the disease got me interested in healthy diets. But alas, he went back to living large, Yankee style. Dad is now is legally blind and needs a walker to get around.
Southern Cooking Can Be Healthy, Y'All
I'm sorry for Paula Deen and for everyone who is a step closer to diabetes themselves because of her cooking style. But I'm also sorry to think that some people will think it's Southern cooking that's the problem, not the foodutainment version that Deen dishes out, and turn away from healthy versions of Southern cooking. She might have written Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible, but she left out some of the tastier and healthier stories, including those in my book Wildly Affordable Organic.
Done right, beans and greens are the foundation of Southern cooking and of healthy eating. Just use tahini instead of fatback and cut back on the sugar. We eat with the seasons here. The countryside may be thick with barbeque joints, but most of them offer a vegetable plate. Pick three or four vegetables for lunch, with a biscuit or hushpuppies on the side. Wash it all down with phytonutrient-rich tea, brightened with a slice of lemon.
Southern desserts celebrate fruit year-round, too. We love strawberry shortcake, peach cobbler, blueberry pie, and apple cake. You can have your dessert and your health. The Wildly Affordable Organic menus call for dessert every day, but still use only 28 pounds of sugar a year per person. That's a lot less than the national average of 142 pounds of sugar a year, and no doubt a truckload less than Paula Deen has been using.
If you've been cooking high-fat Southern style, don't despair. Just drop that Lady’s Brunch Burger and step away from the Fry Daddy. Try Hoppin' John, Tasty Tahini Greens, Corn Bread, and Feel-Good Peach Cobbler from Wildly Affordable Organic. Or whip up these full-flavor, healthy Southern dishes from my free weekly newsletter:
- Confetti Bean Stew
- Steamed Collards with Peanut-Lime Sauce
- Grilled and Marinated Okra
- Light Sweet-Potato Salad
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Cranberry Pie classic or dairy free
- Blueberry Rice Pudding
- Good Iced Tea
If you like the fun of cooking with others, my Fresh-Start Challenge may be just the detox ticket you need. Starting February 18th, lots of folks around the country will be cooking from scratch for 20 minutes a day for a week and then cooking everything from scratch the next.
Hungry for healthy cooking, Southern and otherwise?
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Paula Deen, diabetes, southern cooking | in eat well, health 
Reader Comments (6)
Linda - you have expressed my feelings on this issue exactly! When I saw that her son has a new show on remaking his mother's recipes to be healthier and he looked like he had lost some weight I wondered is some health issues had arised-now we all know.
Ah, but there's less money to be made promoting healthy eating and good old-fashioned physical activity than there is to be made pushing drugs to treat the consequences. Just call me a cynic.
My family history looks a lot like yours, with one uncle who lost both his legs to diabetes and another who lost his vision and much of his mobility. My own Hgb A1C was frightfully near the threshold for a diabetes diagnosis. Thankfully, I prayed for a way out and lo and behold, a Weight Watchers group came to my office. I'm pleased to report that a little over a year and more than 50 lost pounds later, my A1C is completely normal and I'm in the best health I've been in decades. Eating smart and moving more works, y'all!
Great comments & thanks for sharing. Wow ... 50 pounds gone & best health in decades! How terrific for you and what a good example for others!
... Linda
New member, but read the book twice.
I'm going to stretch out on a limb and say that we should look at at our own diets, and influences.
Blaming Deen for a nation of slothful porkers is hardly fair. Blame the slothful porkers. They had to put the food in their mouths in the first place.
I do admit that the first time I saw her show, after a 20 year hiatus from TV, I thought it was parody. I'm still not convinced it isn't on some level.
We all have a picture in our minds labeled "healthy."
Mine does not include eggs, for example, and little dairy.
And no flesh.
But I can gain weight because my activity level varies, but my eating does not.
I truly hope that Deen will capitalize on her success and develop a healthy southern cooking show.
Welcome, Ecoenergygirl! I'm so glad you like the book and thanks for your thoughtful comments.
Yes, I completely agree that we have personal responsibility for our health. Healthy eating and exercise are key. My concern with Deen is that she misled people by setting an example that she knew to be false. Folks could see her and think: eating like that works for Paula, so it should work for me.
We all get a chance to set an example, but celebrity like Deen have a much bigger audience and effect. It's great that her sons are doing a healthy "Not My Mama's Cooking" show.
Don't you think of her food as party or holiday food?
I'm long out of the south, and never was coastal, but I didn't see such dishes, although I remember lots of pork in vegetables. (ruining perfectly good veggies!)
I looked up the son's show. Different network, and here in Oakland, in the higher priced cable tier.
Another example of bad food directed to the bargain markets?
I can't just bash Deen, the Neeleys and Sunny Anderson are just as culpable.
Look atJulia Child. Butter, goose flatbread, bread, bread.