Paula Deen kicked up a firestorm earlier this week when she announced she had diabetes. The popular Food Network chef promotes a diabetes-inducing diet of southern cooking laden with sugar and fat. For example: her infamous Lady’s Brunch Burger, a concoction of beef with fried egg and bacon on a sliced glazed donut.
Deen has long been controversial but the attacks this week have been especially withering.
Deen made the big announced on The Today Show, natch. But she hid the diagnosis for three years. The announcement coincided with the disclosure of her endorsement deal with drug company Novo Nordisk. Per MSNBC, Deen has “signed on as new face of a new diabetes health initiative sponsored by Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Victoza, a noninsulin injectable medication she now takes.”
Fox News contributor Deirdre Imus went on the offensive this morning: “Her lack of responsibility has been so glaring that it shocks me little that she waited until striking a sleazy deal with the drug company Novo Nordisk to disclose her three-year old diabetes diagnosis….rather than reverse her diet and her message, she has said only that she now walks on the treadmill and has given up drinking sweet tea. Bravo, Paula.”
Earlier this week @NoReservations Anthony Bourdain tweeted:
“Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later.”
West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee are the five states with the highest reported diabetes rates, fyi.
Deen’s sons are also sharing in the largess, per MSNBC. “In a segment of ABC’s food chat show The Chew that aired Wednesday, Deen said she and her two grown sons, Bobby and Jamie, are working with the drug company’s Diabetes in a New Light campaign ‘because we, like everybody else, have to work.’”
It’s like an episode ofShowtime’s House of Lies. Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), hired by a struggling multinational drug firm, suggests the company sponsor a disease-inducing food show in order to sell more product.
