In today’s Fast Food Critic segment we’re doing something a little different…we’re taking somebody down who desperately needs it. For those that haven’t heard, Mega-celebrity chef and spokesperson for lard Paula Deen announced this week that she has diabetes AND has had it for three years. Surprising perhaps only those that have never taken a nutrition class in their entire lives…which is exactly the majority of America. Now, of course diabetes is a serious disease and I feel sorry for anyone who has it, but this becomes very complicated if you believe (as I do) that Paula IS the disease more than someone who suffers from it.
Anyone who’s even remotely familiar with Deen’s cooking style knows she loves three things: butter, fried anything, and more butter. She also loves sickly sweet “Southern” desserts that will cause…you guessed it…dia-fucking-betes. She doesn’t just like to eat these foods in the privacy of her home, she promotes them, advertises them, more or less only cooks them, and builds all her restaurants around these types of foods. [Personal anecdote: I once ate at an all you can eat Paula Deen buffet in a casino in Tunica, Mississippi and thought I might contract diabetes off that one meal alone.]
What really gets me is that she KNOWS her food causes diabetes and the main region she’s popular in is the deep South (Alabama wouldn’t know Anthony Bourdain if he filmed there, but they know Paula Deen), also known as “The Diabetes Belt” when not referred to as “The Obesity Belt” or “The Stroke Belt.” It’s no secret people here eat unhealthy food and Alabama is only first in the nation when it comes to obesity and alphabetical order. [Personal anecdote two: I’ve lost at least two relatives to diabetes, and would eventually contract the disease myself if I hadn’t made a more conscious effort to steer clear of sodas and desserts.]
Plus, when someone confronts Deen about the off-the-charts unhealthiness of her food, she just puts on fake charm, calls them “sugar” or “baby,” defends it as food for people “on a budget” which is the ultimate bullshit excuse (since when did a banana cost more than a Snickers bar?…Oh that’s right, never) for irresponsible food personalities, and goes back to counting a fat stack of money…probably greased up with butter. And if you just threw up in your mouth a little picturing a hog naked Deen sliding down a buttered runway of Benjamins, then hold on to that mental image, so you can stay strong the next time you feel like breaking your diet.
So I say screw Paula Deen. She’s sat on this diagnosis for three years KNOWING that it would cause people in the South to think twice about making that next “Paula Deen” approved meal of saturated fat, butter, fried chicken, and pure sugar pie. Of course, if she hadn’t sat on her diagnosis and done the responsible thing three years ago (she’s just now introducing “Diabetes Approved” menu options…now that she can make a profit off it) there would probably be fewer people in the South that have diabetes today.
Unhealthy eating is nolonger in fashion
Food network also has ownership in this battle. Promoting unhealthy eating on their network it irresponsible. An even worse portrayals of unhealthy living is “Man against Food.” The host of that show will be found dead of a heart attack quite soon i predict.
You know George it’s funny you should mention the show “Man vs. Food” and the Food Network because I think I could do a separate piece just about them…I do wish I had found room for at least a sentence to talk about M vs. F because it has sabotaged three of my diet attempts in the past. [It’s awfully hard to deny yourself a Cherry Coke when you can rationalize that somewhere else a man is eating a 10 pound pizza by himself.]
wow you are powerful, with great power comes great responsiblity