Sugar-slinging Paula Deen on the take from Big Pharma, pushes pills for diabetes while promoting recipes that cause it

Friday, January 20, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: Paula Deen, diabetes, Big Pharma

(NaturalNews) Her southern charm and delightful laugh are not enough to quell the massive backlash celebrity chef Paula Deen is receiving from the public after it became general knowledge that the Food Network star has type-2 diabetes. Reports indicate that Deen confirmed her condition on a recent "Today Show," noting that she was diagnosed with the disease three years ago.

Over the years, Deen has made her knack for butter and refined sugar quite obvious, as her recipes typically contain high amounts of these potentially disease-causing ingredients. But the fact that Deen has continued to push diabetes-causing dishes like "Twinkie Pie," which contains a box-and-a-half of Twinkies, and "The Lady's Brunch Burger," which is basically a bacon hamburger with frosted doughnuts as buns, all while she secretly had diabetes herself, has upset many.

On top of all this, Deen was also discovered to have recently partnered with Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company that promotes and sells diabetes drugs. According to reports, Deen will soon launch a new program called "Diabetes in a New Light" that will target diabetics with Novo's diabetes drugs (http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-17/lifestyle/30636182_1_diabetes-paula-deen-stress-management).

So not only did Deen conceal her diabetes for years while continuing to push recipes that promote the disease, but she has also now partnered with a drug company to profit off peddling diabetes drugs to diabetics. These actions are wholly hypocritical, according to many, and appear to show that Deen is more concerned with profits than with maintaining an image of character and integrity.

"I understand she has an empire and a huge following to protect, but working with Novo Nordisk is just adding another revenue stream, and that is tweaking people like me who are in the diabetes education community," said Carl Moore, a type-2 diabetic who has long followed Deen, to FOX News.

"Many of us have watched the Buttuh Queen for years cooking with no thought for the consequences and waiting to hear she was diabetic," added Moore, who said he has always modified Deen's recipes to make them healthier.

Commenting on Deen's questionable behavior, Anthony Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel show "No Reservations" and a chef himself, tweeted on Twitter, "Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later" (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/anthony-bourdain-slams-paula-deen/story?id=15386289).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/01/19/diabetics-call-paula-deen-hypocrite-for-hiding-disease-while-promoting-sugar/