Paula Deen in the news

Thr woman has the morals of an alley cat. I can't believe she was chosen as a spokesperson. After watching the videos, she said in affect, I cook it but I don't eat it. Moderation is the key. 30 days out of 365. I can only guess that her success is the image. Sweet old southern charm. She made 10M last year.

I saw one show where she took a glazed doughnut, topped with a sausage patty, fried egg, bacon and then another glazed doughnut. That would clog your arteries before it afftected your diabetes.

I lost my best friend to diabetes and he took very good care of himself. It's not something to take lightly.

How is it anyone's business that she has diabetes and discloses it publicly or not? If she wants to discuss it publicly, it's her choice and she's made it.

On the other hand, I've never been impressed with her cooking, books, or programming either. I first encountered her cookbook Lady and  Sons before I ever knew about her or her TV show. Thought it was awful.

Rick Bayless made a similar statement about his published cooking when he came out with Mexico Everyday, that it wasn't how he really cooked or ate on a regular basis.

Give Paula a break-that means you, too, A. Bourdain. She developed a shtick based on her particular culinary upbringing that people found entertaining. But that's what her shows are all about-entertainment.

Anyone with any sense who occasionally reads the news would know that her combinations are unhealthy. But her sense of fun, audacity and enjoyment of life is appealing. I never got the sense that she was an advocate for eating this way on a regular basis.

I admire Paula-

She was a single mom who used her ingenuity to support her family and build a career for herself. Yes, she played up the southern stereotype which as a southerner, I find a bit troublesome.

However, she pulled herself up from her bootstraps and made a successful life for herself and her children. She's positive, cheerful, accepting and friendly to everyone. Those are admirable qualities-too infrequently found in today's culture where judgment, criticism and derision have become the norm.

Anyone remember Paul Prudhomme? He made an enormous contribution to the acceptance of beautiful American regional cooking with lots of rich food and it clearly had a negative effect on his (and his wife's) health. But he changed that around and wrote another wonderful cookbook (Fork in the Road) that reflected his culinary roots while significantly improving the nutritional aspects of each dish.

Nobody shot arrows at him, and many applauded him for doing so.

Why shouldn't Paula Deen do so too?

There's a double standard being applied to Paula and given her situation, what would you do? Curl up and go away? or transform your approach and move forward the best you know how, while helping others in your situation do the same?

Anthony, I agree with her, you should just shut your mouth.

kk, 

i would reply to this thread but i just had my 'the belle of butter' paula deen meltdown rant on the worst 'food trend of 2011' yesterday

joey

You may think her persona is fake, but it's not. She is a southern belle and maybe she plays it up a bit, but that's who she is.

It's an easy assumption to think it's just an angle she's working, but she's completely genuine.

Why spend so much energy hating her? She is who she is. One thing I haven't seen her do with her big mouth is tear down other people.

No one says you have to love her, just like no one says I have to love Guy Fieri's stupid hair and man-girdle.

But if Paula and Paul Prudhomme can show some people how to go about changing their habits, with or without some pharmaceutical assistance, why can't they be a model for others to follow?

I want to clarify my comments about Bayless. His intro to Mexican Everyday is where he says his past work is not indicative of everyday food. But that this book was more in line with that concept. And he talked about shopping, exercise and a whole lifestyle approach to eating well but being healthy about it. Since that book or at the time of that book, Bayless has lost weight and maintained it.

One tip I particularly liked from that book was about shopping. Shop around the outside aisle of the store. That's where the fresh real products are. The dairy, bread, produce, eggs and so on. Venturing into the aisles, is where you tend to enter the realm of processed products. I thought it was a fairly astute observation.

Lots of TV cooking is geared towards events, celebrations and so on. It's actually something I liked about Fast Food My Way by Pepin and Sarah Moulton's Weeknights series is that those are geared to daily cooking.

    Food Network stars, LOL!

gosh I'm so glad I don't have cable

Good or bad the woman attracts viewers and is making a lot of money for herself and the network.  I personally don't care for her style but more power to her because  many people do.

I don't cook like Paula Deen for me or my family. However, whenever I use one of her recipes and take it to the church suppers, itis a huge hit.  It is always the first thing to disappear, and I have people asking for deserts I got from her show well in advance of events.   Her pumpkin gooey cake is particularly popular with my church.   The are not discerning gourmets, but they know what they like.  And Paula seems to be it.   

In my opinion, her deserts are too sweet, and I cringe every time I see her take whole sticks of butter and put in ordinary dishes, like sweet potato casserole, etc. 

BTW, fat is totally neutral in terms of glycemic index.  Only criticize her over use of sugar, if you want to continue to harp about hypocricy in light of her diabetes.   Even protein can cause a sugar spike (if taken in excess) but fat does not.

D

There are plenty of people who don't cook or eat like Paula Deen and aren't even overweight that have type 2 diabetes. It has more to do with our overly refined, Monsanto engineered food than it does her recipes. I was apalled at school lunch menus until I worked for a caterer who had several school contracts. I found out through that job that you can cook all the good food you want (ask Jamie Oliver), but if it isn't chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza or hamburgers, the kids flat out won't eat it. Now where did they get that attitude? Paula Deen? I doubt it. I think they probably learned that behavior at home. But to me the most amusing aspect of the whole Paula Deen thing was Bourdain callling her food unhealthy. Huh? Because of her use of butter and cream? This from a guy who wrote a French cookbook? To quote from the index of Las Halles under the entry "Fatback": "Lovely, white, uncured, unrendered pork fat."  Bourdain's words, not Paula Deen's. Isn't fatback supposed to be a Southern thing? Paula cooks Southern comfort food, which just happens to be mostly derived from French food. Chicken fried streak/ steak Anglais. Cornstarch gravy/ fond lie. Fried eggplant- French. Mac & cheese- French. It's pretty hard to find a classic Southern dish that you can't find the preparation method for in Escoffier's cookbook, so outside the donut burger (which just sounds plain gross) I don't really see what Paula Deen is guilty of that Bourdain and the rest of us aren't.

Also regarding an earlier post, it's true that fat is neutral in the glycemic index but it can inhibit the body's abitlity to use insulin. Type 2 diabetics are either insulin resistant (pancreas produces enough insulin but cells are resistant to it) have reduced insulin production or both. Fats can aggravate insulin resistance which is why diabetic diets are low in fat. Diabetes also attacks the kidneys. Processing protein is hard on the kidneys, which are already stressed from the disease, so limited intake of protein is also recommended for diabeticss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by greyeaglem 

Also regarding an earlier post, it's true that fat is neutral in the glycemic index but it can inhibit the body's abitlity to use insulin...

Interesting, are you familiar with Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. and her writings with regards to diabetics? It appears that her research leads to some differing conclusions about the role of fats and diabetics.

Whoops, that is almost a hijack, isn't it, my bad.
 

it's not so much WHAT she uses as the AMOUNTS she uses...that is where her style of cooking and french cooking part company.....what is there left to say about deep fried butter?

joey

Interesting thread. I've become completely disillusioned with Food Network. They are about ratings, and truth be told they always have been. Since the advent of the American Iron Chef series, they've stacked more and more competition and drama into their shows and the food has become a very small detail. I watched just one "Next Iron Chef" from the last season and was disgusted.. they are trying to create the "Survivor" of the culinary world and it's coming off more like a food fight in the world wrestling federation.

My point is, Paula Deen and her antics whether you like them or not are par for the course on the Food Network. Honestly, this forum, youtube, and other sites such as reddit.com have so much more true to life content that keeps food as the focus - and hell we can even interact with each other! Reddit has a new group called "52 weeks of cooking" where each week they have a challenge and all of the subscribers participate in the challenge and upload photos, commentary, and often recipes. This week is "Pan Fried" and I've seen everything from scallops to black bean cakes in tortillas. It's a very interesting project.

I honestly think we insult ourselves and the true culinary world by keeping Food Network in focus. I've done it myself but I think they've finally pushed things far enough that they will fall into that twilight of Jerry Springer irrelevance that the media companies seem to adore.

I like Anthony Bourdain and thought what he said about Paula was funny  "Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later."  I took it to mean he thought her style of cooking was making people over weight and that would sooner or later make them Diabetic. I did watch one episode of her sons new show and I noticed he was going out of his way to make his moms recipes more user friendly and better for you, health wise.