By April MacIntyre Jan 17, 2012, 21:21 GMT
Food Network star Paula Deen made a deal with devil in Georgia it seems, as the butter loving Southern fried food queen is suffering from Type 2 diabetes and has hid the diagnosis for years.
Paula Deen - No more Krispy Kreme burgers with bacon! © Bob Charlotte / PR Photos
Deen, the sunny smiles cooking host of the Food Network's "Paula's Best Dishes," became a nemesis of Travel Channel's "No Reservations" chef and writer Anthony Bourdain and a major booster of all things battered, breaded, stuffed and fried, selling many cookbooks with her signature deep fat style.
Deen, 64, confirmed today on NBC's Today Show that she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago and she is now launching a new campaign, "Diabetes in a New Light." The campaign is in partnership with diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk.
"I made the choice at the time to keep it close to me, to keep it close to my chest," she told USA Today. "I felt like I had nothing to offer anybody other than the announcement. I wasn't armed with enough knowledge. I knew when it was time, it would be in God's time."
Deen uses a daily injectable drug that is meant to maintain blood sugar levels. She will appear in an advertisement for the drug later this month, USA Today reported.
Bourdain had commentary regarding the diabetes news. "When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2 Diabetes... It's in bad taste if nothing else," he told Eater.
Diabetes is a growing problem, with over 25 million Americans coping with the chronic disease in which blood-sugar levels are abnormally high in the body.
Type 2 diabetics are usually overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis.
According to the American Diabetes Association, the number of new diabetes cases is expected to double by 2050.
Diabetes from obesity and inactivity and is causing health insurance costs to increase dramatically, according to the American Diabetes Association.
"I wasn't trying to lose weight," Deen told USA Today. "I don't even own a scale. I go strictly by the way I feel and the way my clothes feel." When she's out and about, people often say to her, "Gosh you're not nearly as fat in person."
"I don't care what the haters and naysayers say," Deen told the newspaper. "If they make jokes about me, I'll laugh because they'll probably be funny."
Los Angeles-based Bariatric surgeon Dr. Carson D. Liu, MD, FACS, FASMBS had some words of advice and shared his take on the Deen diabetes story:
"Patients who have adult onset diabetes need to realize that it is reversible with diet changes, weight loss and exercise. Weight loss surgery is an option if people have tried six months of diet and exercise without success. If diabetics wait too long to address their obesity and diabetes, the disease becomes irreversible after 5-7 years," says Liu.
"Diabetes, high blood pressure, and other obesity related diseases are truly silent killers. Strokes from diabetes and silent heart attacks are manifestations of being overweight!"
Lifestyle is key according to Liu: "What you eat and how much you eat affects your health in the short and long term. Paula Deen's lifestyle has finally caught up with her if she truly has developed diabetes! Seriously, if you eat the way she has cooked, you too may develop diabetes, heart disease or obesity. We are what we eat, and we become what types of food we eat."
With a tip of the hat to Deen's sense of humor, Liu says, "Let's take a moment to mourn for the 3,000 calorie Krispy Kreme Burger...may it rest in peace."
http://www.drcarsonliu.com/
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