Paula Deen on the Today Show - what's your opinion?

Funny. Giata cooks for taste and not health. But because she's skinny, no one questions her. Like the size of the person cooking has anything to do with anything.

Funny. Giata cooks for taste and not health. But because she's skinny, no one questions her. Like the size of the person cooking has anything to do with anything.

I think this is really interesting because I grew up visiting my Southern relatives and eating a lot of the type of food that she makes.

In the 1800s and early to mid 1900s the South was largely agricultural. My family were farmers for many years and farmwork is some of the most difficult physical labor you can do. (Think a shred is hard? Try carrying hay bales on your back across acres of pasture all morning...) They needed the carbs, fat and calories do what they had to do their 8-12 hours on the farm - although the portions were smaller back in the day. And the food they made was what was available to them on their farms and dry goods stores - supermarkets are relatively new in terms of historical food culture. The basis for meals were butter and shortening, flour, eggs, ham or chicken (all of the parts) and whatever fruits and vegetables they grew and canned. A lot of the older generation worked heavy physical labor into their 60s and 70s on these diets and were not overweight or diabetic.

So that tradition of food is no longer relevant in most cases. And a lot of the newer Southern cooking is modified to take into account more sedentary lifestyles. But I always liked that Paula Deen's cooking was, for the most part, authentic.

Most people are aware that diets high in saturated fat and calories are linked to obesity, and that obesity is strongly associated with diabetes. If anything Paula Deen's story is typical of most of her generation - holding on to food tradition without the high labor energy needs of her parent's and grandparent's generation. Her choice to not change her lifestyle isn't surprising, nor do I think she has a responsibility as a role model to respond to her health in a certain way.

I have never liked Paula Deen. I cannot stand her accent and I'm from the south. Actually, if you see some of her VERY old stuff, her accent wasn't nearly as heavy. Even before I dropped meat, dairy, and eggs from my diet, I cringed when I saw her cooking. Way too high in fat. I cannot stand deep fried foods. Yuck.

Like someone else mentioned, Paula Deen has never been the picture of healthy living - she is a picture of high sugar, high fat, high calorie foods like she cooks. If you eat her cooking, you shouldn't be shocked when you develop diabetes.

Because obesity, hypertension, and diabetes are such terrible problems in this country, I do think that TV chefs and TV networks do have a responsibility to either give healthy diet information or their shows should come with a warning label...just like cigarette packages do.

I think she is a fat-sugar-starch pusher, who should atone for her sins. She is harming people by giving everyone the idea that feast foods should be everyday foods. We have enough of that message from greedy corporations who don't care if they throw us under a bus, as long as they get our money.

The pharmaceutical industry has corrupted just about every American institution.

Everybody and their kids are on some kind of medication.

It's insane!

Funny. Giata cooks for taste and not health. But because she's skinny, no one questions her. Like the size of the person cooking has anything to do with anything.

Exactly. But the calories all go to her head.

Paula Deen made me fat.