Paula Deen is not to blame for our poor eating habits

Talk about biased headlines.

"Chef Paula Deen hid diabetes, pushed high-fat food" caught my eye the other night when I was perusing Yahoo! News. For those who don't know, Deen announced this week that she has Type 2 diabetes and was diagnosed three years ago. She is the host of three shows on Food Network, most notably, "Paula's Home Cooking." I've watched the show a few times, but other than "Good Eats," I'm not a fan of cooking shows.

But it doesn't take long to figure out Deen's repertoire: butter, pie, butter, barbecue, butter, cake, butter, bacon, butter, fried chicken, butter and cream. Oh, and butter.

Just researching for this column made my mouth water and I suddenly have a hankering for chicken and dumplings done southern style. No offense to the great cooks of the north, but southern food is in a category all its own.

But I digress.

Deen is taking a lot of heat for "pushing" such high fat, high sugar foods while not sharing her diagnosis with her viewers or the food companies for which she appears in commercials, Smithfield ham and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. She also endorses a diabetes drug for Novo Nordisk.

Leanne Italie, an Associated Press writer, wrote that Deen has been called a hypocrite for promoting the drug while hosting a show that promotes "an unhealthy diet."

I am curious why she would promote a diabetes drug if she didn't want anyone to know she has diabetes, but as far as promoting an unhealthy diet, it's really time for people to stop blaming TV celebrities and take responsibility for their own lives.

First of all, a person's health is private business, and if Deen didn't want to share her diagnosis with the world, that's her prerogative. Second, if she wanted to continue cooking on her show the southern classics she learned from her grandmother, that's her business. Third, her show and her recipes wouldn't be popular if people didn't love the food, which was proven when she started a lunch business from her home as a single mother 30 years ago. According to Food Network, "her local specialties, such as chicken pot pies, barbecue sandwiches, lasagna and banana pudding, caught on with the Savannah business crowd and quickly became the talk of the town."

Even the doctors and their staff members loved her lunches.

She eventually opened a restaurant, which was recognized by USA Today food critic Jerry Shriver as serving his most memorable meal of the year in 1999.

Let's face it, you don't get a profitable catering business, a world-famous restaurant and your own cooking show if people don't like your food.

And who is really the hypocrite here? Deen didn't become famous all by herself. People love her food, and they are well aware of its high fat and calorie content. Anyone at risk for diabetes, heart disease or myriad other maladies exacerbated by fat, sugar or salt should steer clear of Deen's recipes. It's a no-brainer, and we certainly don't need Paula Deen to tell us that.

Heck, we don't even listen to our doctors, why should we pin our health on a host of a cooking show?

Deen has taken flak from those in the food industry, too, namely Anthony Bourdain, who called her the most dangerous woman in America because of her recipes.

A statement like that from Bourdain isn't surprising to anyone who has ever watched his travel/food show. He's caustic and sometimes quite rude, but he's also intelligent and his show "No Reservations" takes viewers to rarely seen parts of the world.

Should we shut down his show because he's breeding badly timed sarcasm and bad manners?

No, we can just let him squawk and let Deen show us how to deep fry, a point made by Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

"She need not stop cooking, but she should probably eat that way only rarely. Her recipes often fall into the category of once-a-month cooking," he told Mikaela Conley.

It's called moderation, ya'll.

As far as promoting a healthier lifestyle, she's not obligated to do so. She has, however, started a new campaign, Diabetes in a New Light, to do just that, but frankly, that's just gravy. Her medical diagnosis is not our business, and we all know people with medical conditions who aren't taking the best care of themselves, and as traumatic as that can be for loved ones, it's their own business.

Why should we hold a television personality to a different standard?

We need to quit worrying what they do on TV and take a look at our own lives. Instead of blaming food companies and video games for childhood obesity, we should take a good long look at the example we're setting as parents. Instead of blaming Hollywood for making anorexia look cool, we should pay attention to the image expectations we're putting on our teenage daughters. And instead of blaming Paula Deen for leading the masses into diabetic hell, we should put down the fork and point fingers at ourselves.

(Nicolov is an assistant editor at The News-Item and writes "Don't Get Me Started" for each Friday edition. Contact her at julie_n@newsitem.com)

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