Paula Deen Notes

I object to it being said that she "MADE" people sick. She did not. First of all, chefs have been selling butter-and-lard laden recipe books since the dawn of time. Second, all of the scientific research into obesity that has NOT been conducted by someone trying to sell you something related to it (i.e. obesity drugs, surgical devices, etc.) has shown that people's bodies are very individual things, and that what might make one person obese will just cause another to gain 10lbs...and stay there. Furthermore, her choices about her body and career are just that...HER choices. Women have just as much right to eat whole sticks of butter and then decide they no longer wish to eat whole sticks of butter as they do to select birth control options and terminate pregnancies: the rules of bodily autonomy do not apply only to things we find aesthetically pleasing.

Ron, it's not like that at all. Cigarettes are unsafe and addictive, there is no "safe" number of cigarettes you can smoke--they are all harmful. Food, on the other hand, is something your body needs for fuel. I don't remember (but I'm not a PD follower, so maybe I just don't know about it?) Paula Deen saying that people should eat her fatty recipes to the exclusion of healthy ones--she just offers them up. It's up to us individually to select what foods we want for our own lifestyles. If someone wants to eat all Paula Deen recipes, all the time, go for it. But I don't think she's ever suggested such a thing.

Also, I get it. The fat southern lady with the funny accent who makes the white trash food has the diabetes. It's funny! Only it's not; it's not any funnier than if Gordon Ramsay's beef Wellingtons eventually led to HIM having type 2 diabetes. High-falutin' dishes are JUST as high in fat and calories as lowly gooey butter cakes.

t is "morally wrong" for her to act as a spokesperson for a drug she is taking to help control her disease? *Blink blink*. Whether or not she is able to lose the weight, this drug has been associated with a higher success rate of weight loss and diabetes control. She has every right to use it, and further to leverage her fame into spokesperson money. I think most anyone would do that, if given the opportunity. I mean, I'll gladly act as a spokesperson for my birth control or vitamins, any time they ask. Look, you can like her, you can hate her, you can like or hate her food and recipes. But her weight is not a moral issue, and it is not a moral failing. Food and weight are NOT moral issues--if all of America could just swallow that, we would probably have a lot less of the disordered eating that can lead to both obesity and anorexia/bulimia.

‎@Kemper -- I actually just happened to remember it from previous work I performed, but here is a link that discusses patient satisfaction, A1c control, and weight loss all being higher with Victoza than similar drugs. http://www.worldpharmanews.com/novonordisk/1391-patient-satisfaction-is-significantly-higher-with-injectable-victozar

And actually, for many patients, a drug IS necessary to control the disease. For some, eventually dietary and lifestyle changes are enough to keep it in check, but that is not true for everyone. Diet and exercise are NOT the "first remedy" for everyone--that all depends on quite a few chemical factors. The thing is, everyone is so hot to be all, "Oh, Paula Deen has type 2 diabetes?! Hardy har, OBVIOUSLY!", but it's not "obvious". We don't actually know what causes type 2 diabetes. While weight and diet are clearly correlating factors, they aren't the cause--or everyone who is overweight/obese or eats a poor diet would have type 2 diabetes. They don't.

And I totally agree that she IS a brand--I think that's probably why we're not hearing about all of this till now--her brand isn't exactly built on health food preparation. But I don't think she owed us a report of her diagnoses, whatever they may be--celeb or no, she gets to keep her medical history under wraps.

Look, I am not a Paula Deen fan. I don't believe that mayonnaise should get its own brick on the food pyramid. But I really object to her being painted as though she has been selling us poison and now is shilling antidote. She didn't. She provided recipes. We could choose to make a dish each day, eat nothing but a spoonful of it, and throw the rest out; thereby slowly starving ourselves. Or we could choose to make 5 of her dishes every day and scarf them all while sitting on a pile of dead puppies. It's in our hands.