Hey y'all! Paula Deen's got type 2 diabetes, didja hear that?
Of course you did.
Regular readers know I am not a fan of celebrities telling us how to manage our health. But here comes Paula Deen, the darling of butter, sugar, white flour, marbled red meats and plenty of salt - telling us that diabetes IS manageable. Yes it is!
It turns out that Paula was diagnosed three years ago with type 2 diabetes and kept it under wraps. That's where it should have stayed, if you ask me. She decided not to say anything before now because, as she told the Today Show's Al Roker, "I'm not your doctor!"
But it turns out that MONEY can make her say something! Yes it can - and Novo Nordisk, makers of diabetes treating drugs, was willing to pay her enough to talk about them on TV, online, probably on the radio, too. So maybe she's not our doctor - but yes, she can still be bought. And her message makes it sound like we can still eat all those foods that clog our arteries and put fat on our bones to our heart's content because, well, Novo Nordisk wants you to know that diabetes is manageable! Not to mention that her entire cooking show would go out the window if she dared confess that maybe her fatty, sugary diet had anything to do with it.
(Oh - by the way - manageable really means you can inject yourself with THEIR drugs 2-3 times a day - or more - because your pancreas is shutting down. It also means you need to keep getting your feet checked because you're at risk of getting them amputated, and your eyes checked because you're at risk of going blind.... yesseree - manageable!)
Once again we have a case of someone well known and beloved by many, endorsing drugs in the media. WRONG! Don't listen. Let Paula go back to cooking her delicious, if deadly, concoctions. Cook one for yourself once a month if you must.
Smart patients know that professional cooks are not the ones to be giving us medical advice. Like other celebrities telling us to "ask your doctor," they are simply shills for drug companies.
And a simple note to Paula: oh, Honey. If you had only come clean on your own, without that big Novo Nordisk paycheck, I might have had some respect left for you.
Learn more about celebrities and drug endorsements (think Sally Field, Antonio Bandaras and others, too.)
Here's how to use drug ads to benefit your health (really!)
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Thanks for your take Tricia! I completely agree with you and was incredibly disappointed in Paula Deen when I saw what she had done. My husband is from Savannah, we love Paula’s restaurant there. He has been eating her food since long before she became famous. But it isn’t healthy. And it is incredibly disappointing to hear her say that her diet and lifestyle are only “a piece of the puzzle” in explaining why she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. If she isn’t willing to accept that her actions and choices caused this disease, she isn’t helping anyone. And just pushing another drug so you don’t have to take any accountability for your actions? It’s disappointing to say the least.
Really, her health concerns and conditions should not be a concern of yours or anyone else except for her healthcare providers.
And if she chooses to endorse a product for compensation, she is a smart business woman for doing so.
Its much better to have a celebrity doing an endorsement for a drug than it is to have a physician. At least then the general population understands they are being sold to by a celebrity and not a medical professional.
Type 2 Diabetes is 99% DIET CAUSED. Hey Paula, THIS IS A PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFORM YOUR SHOW TO ONE THAT ACTUALLY TEACHES PEOPLE HOW TO EAT PROPERLY- FOR HEALTH & VITALITY!
The the Chinese character for “crisis” is “opportunity”.
the choice is yours Paula.
Well said!
Many thanks for your take on this!! After my heart attacks a few years ago, I joined a local support group for women surviving with heart disease and one of their pharmaceutical sponsors asked me to do a photo shoot to promote the benefits of their cholesterol lowering medication. However, there were no such fees, honorariums, or stipends offered to me to pay the expense of traveling to the location of the shoot. I turned them down. Its too evident that such payments are reserved for celebrities and the disease survivors from the general public are expected to participate in such ads for the sake of public service. Such inequitable ventures give no consideration to survivors who may have lost their job or are unable to get health insurance due to a living with a chronic disease. Non-celebrities who share their personal experiences of survival are just as credible and deserve to be compensated just as much as any the celebrity!!
Were you’re proofreaders off the day you wrote this? Victoza is only to be injected one time per day. As a patient advocate you should have been clear about this.
I would be very unlikely to use this drug myself, but I would rather see a person of Paula Deen’s status telling me about it that a doctor. Granted, she obviously has not done here homework about Victoza, but as least I know she is not a medical authority.
Your attempt to sensationize this is wrong in so many ways as a petient advocate.