Paula Deen represents everything that is wrong with America

VVEXVVEX

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/01/paula-deen-dishes-paula-deen-shouldnt-eat/47441/

Discuss.

susanswan

My 2 cents is that "you" can continue "eat everything in moderation" and get the same results as the rest of America: Heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and more, or you can take charge of your life and eat the most nutritious food out there: Plants. I am not a doctor, just a student of life. Learning at a late age and SO blessed that I did not give myself Type 2 Diabetes before I got to where I am today. It is a nasty, nasty, NASTY disease of which I watched my mom die (From Type 1 Diabetes) of after 6 months in the hospital when she was just 68. She had every complication promised in the word "diabetes". If you think you can "control" your Type 2 diabetes with medication and skate by, I wish you luck. You'll need it. My 26 years of experience as a Nurse on a Medical Floor in a hospital was quite an eye opener. The drugs you take today will cause you grief tomorrow and you'll need more pills for that problem, too. Now I watch tv years later seeing all the drugs that we routinely gave out like candy being the cause of medical disasters that some law firm wants to help you sue the drug company for. Medicine is NOT the answer. Proper diet and food is. Check out http://www.drfuhrman.com/default.aspx . Your choice.

Whodatgirl77

I'm not sure why people care so much about any recent news about Paula Deen. The woman cooks food...that's it. She's not pretended to be a health and diet guru. I'm not sure why people feel she has any real impact on anything. Didn't read the link...I'm mostly just commenting on how much conversation has been generated by her diabetes announcement. I'm just wondering why people are shocked or whatever.

VVEXVVEX

Shocked or whatever? .... because she is now taking money to become a spokesperson for treatment of a devastating disease that is caused by behaviors she's been promoting. Shocked or whatever? .... because she has led people over a cliff for years and now she gets to get paid for what? Shocked or whatever? .... because "moderation" when it comes to her style of cooking is a cynical joke.

Jeff92se

I hope Jeff Gordon doesn't do any commericals

Grokette

My 2 cents is that "you" can continue "eat everything in moderation" and get the same results as the rest of America: Heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and more, or you can take charge of your life and eat the most nutritious food out there: Plants. I am not a doctor, just a student of life. Learning at a late age and SO blessed that I did not give myself Type 2 Diabetes before I got to where I am today. It is a nasty, nasty, NASTY disease of which I watched my mom die (From Type 1 Diabetes) of after 6 months in the hospital when she was just 68. She had every complication promised in the word "diabetes". If you think you can "control" your Type 2 diabetes with medication and skate by, I wish you luck. You'll need it. My 26 years of experience as a Nurse on a Medical Floor in a hospital was quite an eye opener. The drugs you take today will cause you grief tomorrow and you'll need more pills for that problem, too. Now I watch tv years later seeing all the drugs that we routinely gave out like candy being the cause of medical disasters that some law firm wants to help you sue the drug company for. Medicine is NOT the answer. Proper diet and food is. Check out http://www.drfuhrman.com/default.aspx . Your choice.

I agree!!!

agentscully514

I can't get worked up about this. You can eat ANY food in moderation. Paula Deen has never promoted eating piggy quantities of her recipes.

ninerbuff

My 2 cents is that "you" can continue "eat everything in moderation" and get the same results as the rest of America: Heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and more, or you can take charge of your life and eat the most nutritious food out there: Plants.

Gotta disagree here. I've eaten in moderation for over 40 years and don't have any of the above mentioned nor any health issues at all. Pretty bold blanket statement based on your experience in the medical field. Realize that "sick" people go to hospitals for medical help. I only go there to get a yearly physical. So most people that don't go are people probably of good health.


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agentscully514

let's bring out our favorite examples, the French. They eat butter, cream, animal fats, you name it, but they don't have anywhere near our levels of obesity and heart disease. Why? Because they eat small portions.

xraychick77

we are all ultimately responsible for what we do or put in our bodies. there are many other factors besides paula deen that has caused america to be fat.

she has never said she was a healthy cook. she cooks what tastes good, what is apart of a culture (southern). and she certainly has never said, 'you need to eat this all the time'.

what is wrong with america? we cant take responsiblity for ourselves. the education is out there, we all know what is healthy and what isnt. so its up to us, its up to the rest of america to choose health. its just that most of america is so resistance to health and eating healthy.

bear_nakey

MY two cents: Assuming she created all of these recipes, she had to have been eating them for at least most of her adult life. If she was eating even a small amount of what I saw in the article, it's a wonder she hasn't keeled over already. Repulsed is the first word that comes to mind. . . that being said, she is reaping what she has sewn, a perfect example of what a diet like that can do to a person.

I do have to mention that she did not force any of her viewers to create or eat any of her recipes. . . but then again, McDonald's did get sued for having hot coffee. . .

Lyadeia

what is wrong with america? we cant take responsiblity for ourselves.

...And we place blame on everyone else like Paula Deen when she didn't put a gun to our heads and scream "eat my recipes or I shoot!!!"

I agree that she has taken an irresponsible stance on this issue...but that is HER stance. Who the hell cares? If it's not YOUR stance, then good for you! Ignore her and move on. Take responsibility for yourself and don't put the blame on anyone else if you gained weight eating her crap...

sexygenius

this is my favourite recipe of hers.. it is literally just canned peas and half a stick of butter!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/english-peas-recipe/index.html

tmarie2715

this is my favourite recipe of hers.. it is literally just canned peas and half a stick of butter!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/english-peas-recipe/index.html

GROSS. It somehow managed to get 3 stars on Food Network after 333 reviews, too. WTF

christibear

let's bring out our favorite examples, the French. They eat butter, cream, animal fats, you name it, but they don't have anywhere near our levels of obesity and heart disease. Why? Because they eat small portions.

I think the point is that she is obese and has health problems, so there is a big difference between her and the French.

alecta337

A few months ago I made a recipe of hers. It was amazing and lavish and full of fats. But I didn't die or get diabetes from eating that one dish.

It was crock pot mac n cheese btw

I do believe her food in unhealthy, but you can have it once a month or every other month or something. Its a special treat. You could probably cut out half the fat out of the recipes by using common sense (replacing the lard and butter and full fat cheese/creams with lower fat alternatives)

Moral: moderation is key. She isn't a bad person, just a chef who cooks unhealthy food

Whodatgirl77

She hasn't led anyone over a cliff. She didn't invent overindulgent foods. No one has put their health in her hands. Frankly you are giving her way to much credit.

aweightymatter

this is my favourite recipe of hers.. it is literally just canned peas and half a stick of butter!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/english-peas-recipe/index.html

HILARIOUS! That's like Rachael Ray's "Late Night Bacon" "recipe":

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/late-night-bacon-recipe/index.html

Paula probably didn't create all the recipes she's shown. A *few* TV-type cooks do this but very, very few. That's why when you try a lot of the recipes straight from the Food Network web site or whatever, they don't work. They're usually farmed out to pro recipe writers and rarely tested because it's often work that's not paid that well. I know from experience, both as a recipe developer and as someone who has gotten to interview and talk to many top chefs, including several of the TV/high-profile cookbook variety.

That said, I think what is getting people worked up about Paula Deen is that she isn't using the HUGE platform she has for spreading a message of prevention. Of course she never said to eat huge portions of her recipes, and any idiot would see immediately that they are not the healthiest things to eat. (I personally think they just sound revolting, and her branded packaged foods taste terrible. A particularly awful cheesy frozen seafood dip comes to mind.)

What stinks about the situation though is that she waited, reportedly, some three years to reveal her diagnosis until she had a plumd eal to make money off pharmaceuticals. She has SUCH a huge audience and such wide reach that she could be discussing the important of moderation, increased activity, whatever.

But instead, she is choosing to make a wad of cash off drugs, and the implicit message to her fans is, "Don't worry about making yourself sick through your lifestyle; here's some pricey medicine to deal with it." It's terribly sad she's skipped what could have been a great public education opportunity and instead opted for even more profit.

firesoforion

People don't watch Paula Deen (or the rest of Food Network with the exception of Alton Brown) to learn how to cook, or try new recipes, they watch her to watch someone cook. It's the same way that people watching the travel channel don't watch it for information on what to do when you go to a place, they watch it when they're sitting at home and want to see something exotic on tv. I'd venture a guess that people also don't watch DIY to actually DIT, but rather just to watch. It's a form of escapism and perhaps one of the reasons Paula Deen got so popular is that she is so escapist, totally disregarding culinary or health ideas and just being funny, over the top and different. It's all about creating an appealing narrative and image in the viewer's mind. The food is just the justifiation.

It's easy to look at food network and Paula Deen and actually think that she's a bad influence, but the thing is, she is, despite outward appearances, not an instructor, merely an entertainment figure. People watch her show in her pretty kitchen with her family and picture perfect life, and they watch her being outrageous with her cooking and the things she says and does and it creates an illusion of a connection and a little fantasy. The food is the excuse for its existence but it's not actually the reason. People watch her for her family and outrageousness, they watch Giada for just the thought of entertaining friends, and they watch Ina Garten ( :sick: ) for the thought of being the sophisticated person in the Hamptons. I'd like to see a survey which showed just how many people actually cook Paula or anyone else on Food Network's stuff and, with the exception of Alton Brown who is actually a teacher, I bet the result would be that it's miniscule.

carebear7951

I have never watched her show or read anything she's written until she was on NBC the other morning (I saw it by default) and I have to say. She is the most annoying person I've heard in a while. LOL She evaded the questions about diabetes being linked to unhealthy eating. She talked so slowing and then wouldn't stop...obnoxious comes to mind.

That said. I agree with the posters that say Americans (people in general actually-starts in the Bible where Adam blames it all on Eve "it's that woman you gave me...she made me do it"-and ironically that was food too!) need to take responsibility for our own choices and actions. Period. We choose what we eat and how much of it. Shame on us for blaming anyone. Is Paula Dean an ambassador for good health? Heavens no! But is it her responsibility that our diabetes rates are sky-high? Absolutely not. Educate YOURSELF and decide what you want. Generally speaking if you take care of your body it will take care of you!!!!!

Nopedotjpeg

Those recipes look like they're ripped straight from the website "This is Why You're Fat."