On Paula Deen & Diabetes....

I just heard today, over on Amber's Facebook Page, (I spend a lot of time there. If you don't, you should!) that Paula Deen has been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Apparently it's been several months, but she's just now speaking out about it publicly.

The rumor on the inter webs is that she's coming out now because she just signed a lucrative deal with a Pharma company and is going to become the spokes person for the drug she's taking. Now, being born and raised in Kentucky, I like to think of myself of a good southern girl. Even though I was closer to Cincinnati than Lexington, I've always thought there was a Southern Belle buried some where deep in my soul. Even so, I gotta say, Paula ~ girlfriend ~ you done SOLD OUT.

I used to love watching Paula's show (back when we had cable 100 years ago), even though I didn't make many of her recipes. She was always entertaining and it kept me in touch with my southern roots (shut up, Kentucky IS SOUTHERN!)

Amber went on to say that the vegans will blame it on all of the animal products she eats and the paleos will blame it on all of the sugar she eats, but Amber's gonna go with science and say it was too much food and too little exercise. Good on 'ya girl! (see, I can be Australian, too. Shh, just go with it!)

I'm still toying with a post in my mind about all of the different food doctrines out there and I do plan to get it on paper (screen?) soon, but this brings up a good point ~ so many people say "But I cook with butter and sugar and lard and, and, and.... just like the Amish do. Just like my great grand parents did." It's true. On the surface, it makes a sound argument. It didn't kill those people, so why would it kill me?

Well, the issue is a bit more complicated than that. First, the Amish and our great grandparents didn't keep their chickens and cows in tiny little pens and crowd them up against one another. The butter and beef and eggs that we're buying doesn't much resemble the butter and beef and eggs that the Amish and our great grand parents use(d).

Secondly, the Amish and our great grandparents do not sit at desks all day playing on Facebook, updating or reading blogs. They do (did) (it's really hard speaking of one set of people in the past tense and another in the present. My English teacher would be so disappointed!) not sit in their cars for 3 hours each day during their daily commute.

They were out pushing plows (do you even push a plow? I dunno), tending to the herds (that were grazing on grass, mind you), baling hay, raising barns, chasing the errant calf that wandered off.

My point is that while everyone wants to have a diet similar to our great grand parents, they aren't willing to have a lifestyle that resembles theirs. You can't have one without the other. We can simulate that lifestyle by going to the gym, lifting heavy things, running/walking in the out doors, getting plenty of natural Vitamin D (hello sunshine! Put DOWN the SPF!!)

So yes, what you eat matters. Eat real food. Real food doesn't come in boxes, but it also doesn't come from animals that were force fed grains and drugs. What also matters is that you move your ass. They go hand in hand.

Ok, off my rant. I feel better.