Paula Deen's statement today

I have watched her cooking shows over the years because I was raised on the type southern cooking that she is sooo good at - lots of real butter, bread, pies, dumplings, loads of fat and sugar, a lot of things fried! I wish I knew then what I know now because I could easily have modified my cooking to help myself stay healthier! Almost any recipe can be "fixed" with a little ingenuity. Just last Christmas I modified my Mother's Orange Nut Bread with oat bran and whole wheat flour, splenda, and walnuts. So much fiber! And it made a wonderful breakfast bread when toasted. Just like exercise, we can help ourselves with cooking.

I am curious to see if Paula Deen comes out with cookbooks that are "adapted" for diabetics. Graham Kerr was known as The Galloping Gourmet. When his wife was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic and had a heart attack, he changed a lot of his recipes. (I still think they have too many carbohydrates, but they are certainly better than the original ones.)

Anyway, I wish Paula good luck and good health. It will be hard to completely change not only her way of cooking, but also the recipes she created in her career as a southern cook.

That is the best description I ever heard!!!!! Enjoyed that!!!

HI, I am brand new here. . . just joined. My BFF and I were just discussing this at lunch yesterday (she's a Type 1 and I'm a MODY diabetic. . . if that needs an explanation, just let me know. . . I know it's fairly rare so some people have not heard about MODY). . .

I think it was on Today yesterday that they interviewed a doc and used Sherrine's exacted words! Heart Attack on a Plate!!

My BFF was talking about how she just "gilds the lily." Said she'd been watching and she had a beautiful dessert of some kind. . . say a chocolate cake or pie. But then she proceeded to load a bunch of whipped cream and the drizzle caramel sauce on it and then add chocolate and caramel mini chips and nuts plus a cherry on top.

It all looks beautiful, but her show is being pitched as "everyday" food. If it were meant to be "special occasion food" that you make once in a blue moon for your son's sixteenth birthday or your hubby's big promotion, that would be okay. But eating like that everyday. . . OH MY!

I used to work for the company that made Crisco and it is absolutely true that frying, traditionally, was much more prevalent in the South. Crisco's sales were HUGE in the southern states. We had an "index" a measure vs. the average which was 100 by state of sales for the brand. So and average state would 100. State with really bad sales might be a 30 - call that Maine. And Georgia and Alabama would have been 250 or 260 - - meaning that Crisco's sales were 2.5 or 2.6 times the average in those states (whereas in Maine they were only a third of the average - where they broil lobsters and fish!).

Sorry to bore you with the business lesson! But Paula is a traditional southern cook! To the Max. I feel really bad for her thought because her whole public persona is built around the food she cooks. It's her BRAND. And now her SON has already developed the "brand extension" (the healthy version) . . . so what's SHE gonna do? Hmmm?

I expect that maybe she was diagnosed a bit ago and has been trying to figure out what the heck she's gonna do. I had heard there had been rumors for some weeks.

There was also a twitter feed or an email with a picture of her on a treadmill working out (Do twitters have pictures attached?)

Nice to meet all of you!

I should do an introduction, I suppose. Should that be a new thread? What is the tradition here?

Gracie

Hi, Gracie!  Welcome to the Forum!  (Where's your toga?)  Yes, please start a new thread and introduce yourself! 

Gracie, I agree with you totally.  We're in the land of plenty and we want to celebrate that everyday.  And we get used to it.  Without another perspective it's hard to understand where we go wrong.  When you said it might be ok once in awhile but not all the time is absolutely spot on.  For example, tiramisu.  We find it in a lot of restaurants and in the grocery dessert freezer all year long, but Italians don't indulge in this all year long.  We're too used to having anything we want whenever we want it. 

Yeah, restaurant portions are overboard.  I think it's a good idea to eat a decent portion and take the rest back home in a box.

Thats one thing we liked about visiting the States you get your moneys worth when you go out to a restaurant, not like here where you are charged an arm and a leg for non filling meal (plus tax), it's up to you not to eat too much, we barely go out to restaurants around the Ottawa/Kingston area because of the cost and what you get for your money, I work hard for my money and want my moneys worth.

My rant for the day

By the way who is Paula Deen

To be honest, there are ideas that butter does no harm as some point out the French contradiction as far as heart and arteries go.  There's no denying the calories, however.  Sugar is the bad guy, especially for diabetics and those with insulin resistance.  And the calories in sugar can pack on the pounds like butter can.  Combine butter and sugar with flour and what do we get: cakes, cookies, cupcakes, snack food --> high blood sugar.  Food that will drive our blood sugar sky high.

I wonder if we can get Paula Deen to join the forum? 

Judy, I order the food and once it's delivered I ask for a container.  This way I am getting what I paid for and have another meal, too.  It's the same idea as what you do. 

 

I never let a waitress take my plate back to have food put in a container.  I want to do that myself.  I've heard some really terrible stories.  You never know what happens when the food leave your sight.

 

Sherrine

That sounds like my current "problem". I go and have a lunch each day at one of the restaurants around the office with my colleagues. I always eat from the "all you can eat" buffet instead of ordering. The good thing is that I can pick whatever I need at a fixed price, but I always feel like I'm losing money because I'm eating less than the other guys... It's even worse when in some places the cook/clerk shows up at some point and goes "go ahead and have some (more) pan pizza". - err, umm, no, I'm full, thanks. "How about some dessert then? It's really tasty."

Rather than a new thread, I'm just adding this link to the present thread.  (Coincidentally, I misspelled 'thread' as 'threat'!  Freudian slip?)  Anyhoo, I didn't see the interview but here is an article I found this morning about her appearance on Today.

 

http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/17/10173727-paula-deen-diabetes-diagnosis-wont-change-how-i-cook

She's not paying a penny for her medication.  The pharmaceutical company is not only paying for her meds but it is paying her and her family a salary for promoting the medication.  The following quote if from the Today interview:  "I’m here today to let the world know that it is not a death sentence,” said the Food Network star, who is now being paid as a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that supplies her diabetes medication."

 

What irks me is the lack of honesty and contrition.  She would have had my respect had she admitted that her food was not in anyone's best interest in health, much less a diabetic's.  A eureka moment, let's say, as she learns about nutrition. 

Yup!