Paula Deen: This Little Piggy Went to Market
Host of a gross $10 million food empire, Paula Deen gives fat people a bad name. The queen of Southern cuisine recently announced (on TV, of course), that she had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Three years ago.
Last August - when she knew about, but hadn’t acknowledged, her diet-linked disease - the Food Network personality told the New York Post: “I wake up every morning happy for where I am in life. It’s not all about the cooking, but the fact that I can contribute by using my influence to help people all over the country.”
What she helps them to is sickening food. Deen gleefully and lucratively promotes a diet that would make a marathon runner fat. Unlike cancers triggered by environmental toxins or asthma exacerbated by polluted air, Type 2 diabetes is largely a lifestyle disease. A bad diet and overweightness are key factors in creating America’s 26 million diabetics - and making them more dependent on drugs. The country’s 79 million prediabetics are heading toward a lifelong life-threatening condition that is now nearly four times as common as all forms of cancer combined.
Deen’s explanation of why she waited three years before going public was harder to swallow than her signature donut burger: “I wanted to wait until I had something to bring to the table,” she told the Post. “I wasn’t armed with enough knowledge.”
But ameliorating Type 2 diabetes is not rocket science; it’s not even bicycle repair. A more palatable explanation: Deen wanted to wait until she had negotiated a multi-million dollar deal with drug giant Novo Nordisk to become a paid spokesperson for Victoza, a $500-a-month injectable diabetes drug.
Deen, who says she doesn’t own a scale, boasts: “I’ve always preached moderation. I don’t blame myself.” Indulge, if you can stomach it, in moderation à la Deen:
- Mac and cheese doped with sour cream and eggs, wrapped in bacon and deep fried.
- A half-pound beef patty with bacon and fried egg, eaten between glazed donuts.
- Fudge “made from one of our four food groups: cheese,” she chuckled on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, while mixing sugar, cocoa, Velveeta and butter to form a fist-sized lollipop, which she then dipped in caramel and white chocolate, and rolled in nuts.
- And lest you think she neglects fruits and veggies: A battered, deep-fried pumpkin layer cake with cream cheese and orange frosting.