Having spent the last few years establishing a brand that includes a cooking show focusing on recipes that are on the other side of healthy living, it is no small irony  for Paula Deen that it is being reported that she was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

The traditional “southern fare” that has been at the hallmark of her shows and cooking enterprise all feature foods that on a stretch one might eat like once every ten years as long as you are working out seven days a week and maintaining a strict healthy diet otherwise.  All the years spent promoting the cooking and preparation of high fat high sugar foods to eat and if the reports are true, she herself will not be able to eat any of it ever again.

The battle will I am sure rage on as many will tsk tsk over Ms. Deen and her health and continue to eat things that  defy any kind of health standard that could be imagined. This country is big on eating what you want even if you have to invent it and the more fattening and decadent it is the more people will want it.  I offer up as examples deep fried Twinkies and Snicker bars or Deep Fried Butter.  Heck deep fried anything for that matter…

AS with most things the money trail should be followed to figure things out and put them in their proper perspective. If as is being reported Ms. Deen is refraining from an announcement because she has an endorsement deal with a major pharmaceutical company that is sad if only because the timing of doing so is being influenced by monetary decisions.  The opportunity to reach out to those especially in the “South” and provide a valuable teaching moment about healthy eating should not be mitigated by endorsement deals and sponsorship concerns.  However we each all have to live with our conscience.

While I wish Ms. Deen the best of health and that she remain free from the potential complications of her diagnosis, I wish even more that people who are eating this stuff on a daily basis without any regard for the potential consequences would wake up and realize the damage they are doing to their bodies. The drain on the healthcare system and this country as a whole could be dramatically lowered if people not only would make healthy choices in food but had the healthy foods available to them in the first place.

Trial and error doesn’t always work. You don’t get to eat and eat bad stuff and get some little memo or email that tells you oh you need to stop eating this now because you are about to become sick. You just wake up one day in the hospital or not…by then its too late

Eating healthy in a country where there is such a high percentage of obesity in children and adults and high rates of hypertension and related illness is not a game.  Playing russian roulette with unhealthy food might seem harmless and fun initially but you will eventually pay…The cost for many is way too high. As much as I love certain foods I have yet to run into any food that I am willing to die for literally…