Paula Deen, change your diet

CNN ^ | January 20, 2012 | Andrew Weil

[southern rock]

Editor's note: Andrew Weil is the director of the integrative medicine program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and professor of Medicine and Public Health, author of "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health," "Healthy Aging," "Spontaneous Happiness" and the forthcoming "True Food."

(CNN) -- "I'm just gonna put a little more butter in there, y'all," she said as she plopped a large chunk into the skillet. "Oh my," she added, "I've gone and put a whole stick in by now."

I was watching Paula Deen on the Food Network, whipping up a shrimp sauté to go over pasta. I thought to myself, "I could make a similar dish that would look much better (hers was murky from all the butter), taste much better (fresh, clean flavors from a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, dry vermouth and herbs), with a fraction of the fat and calories."

[momtothree]

Natalie Dupree may have been a nice person but she just didn’t come off as warm and fuzzy. I think many people like Paula Deen because she has the ability to make the viewer “feel” like they are sitting in her kitchen with her and they have known her for some time. IMHO, a lot of anti-Deen folks focus on the health of her recipes BUT the real hatred is for Southern cooking. Hence, the real dislike is for the South in general. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned “nouvelle cuisine”... a type of cooking that many people simply don’t want or appreciate. It simply isn’t practical for most families. Bourdaine can talk all he wants about slurping marrow from bones and how exquisite it tastes... my kids and I would prefer a casserole, thank you very much.

Deen has always said that her recipes are for special occasions. They aren’t for every day eating. Her Pound Cake recipe is divine and I make it a few times a year. I must have re-printed that recipe a dozen times for family and friends. I don’t know anyone who would ask for a good “bone marrow” recipe.

[southern rock]

What are you, a diet/food nazi? Do what you wish, but don’t dictate what others do if it differs from you.

Oh great, another one who thinks I have some great power and authority to control their lives. Once again, how the hell could I even do that? Who the hell is trying to "dictate" your life? When was I ordained dictator of America? Why are you on a discussion site if you hate discussions? That is all this is. Jeeze

[FrankR]

Someone should name CNN the "meddling" network.

Paula Deen is a prime example of someone starting a small business and turning into something good.

She cooks Southern "comfort" food; it's food we like here in the South, and we don't need northeastern liberals trying to meddle in it, at all.

Maybe some of that stuff isn't "good for us", but as free, American individuals, we are damn tired of liberals trying to control what we eat, what we say, and how we live.

It looks like to me that the debate audience should have shown CNN and John King that we are tired of their crap...hell, their ratings should show them that too.

If I want to eat butter, I'll eat butter; if it shortens my life by a few years, so be it, it's better than trying to live to 100 by eating bean sprouts and toufou.

[netmilsmom]

I refer you to post #7.

There is no discussion going on there.
Just a wild happy dance around your opinion.

[MD Expat in PA]

The problem with Natalie Dupree is she had NO personality as a food presenter. Paula Deen became a star directly after 9/11 when the Food Network realized that people wanted homey, over-the-top American comfort food instead of shows devoted to wine and nouvelle cuisine. And with her engaging personality (not to my taste but to a lot of people), she became a superstar and a multimillionaire. Hats off to her! She started out as a single mother on food stamps!

I, personally, believe they are trying to get rid of her because of her enormous success. The media probably doesn’t even know that she’s pretty much a liberal Democrat.

And that’s the problem with today’s culture; people want “over the top” mega personalities and not necessarily real people. Paula Deen is a caricature of Southern and not any more representative of Southern than Snookie from the Jersey Shore is representative of all people in NJ. And the teenage moms on that MTV show have made a lot of money too, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to follow in their path. Just saying.

But over the top and overly indulgent is what the media pushes and sadly what people seem to want to buy now days. And that’s a shame because Natalie Dupree, while not an over the top presenter and personality is actually a much better cook (not nouvelle cuisine) and knows a lot more about real and traditional Southern cooking than Paula Deen could ever hope to. But hey, Paula Deen “talks real funny” and she makes outrageous over the top dishes and lots of commercials where she sells a lot of crap products with her name on it, including now a drug for diabetes; a disease that in some ways her cooking contributes to (a win-win for her), so that must be better – right? Just because someone is good at marketing, doesn’t mean that what they are marketing is good, but I digress.

There is nothing wrong with “comfort food” and Natalie Dupree offers comfort food that is actually good food. She may not be an over the top personality but she actually knows how to cook and what good food is. Personally when I watch a cooking show, I actually want to learn about ingredients and cooking techniques and not about how over the top and outrageous the personality and the food is. Perhaps that’s just me.

As a culture we have now become all about the over the top and the “personality” rather than about their substance and value. Sad.

[Minn]

So there is no value in what he has to say?

NO. Apart from questionable assertions about butter and fat, the food Nazi attitude he sports is most disagreeable.

People with a penchant for directing others lives and behavior, while professing to have all the facts (Weil, Al Gore...) are a far bigger threat to a long, fulfilling life for all of us than Deen is. He should be mocked and shunned by polite society.

[southern rock]

You are a typical feeble minded, brainwashed idiot that thinks we should all graze in a wheat field somewhere and root around in the dirt.

Nice. What is your height and weight? What are your bloodwork #'s? Hmmm?

[matginzac]

Liberal line?????
I’m thinking this is a more conservative to libertarian way to live...I (and the govt hopefully) stay out of telling you how to live your life...
My taxes don’t go to bailing you out of the bad choices you’ve made...
Hardly lib, methinks...

[RegulatorCountry]

Paula Deen’s popularity has a great deal to do with people being tired of the food police. She's un-PC. We aren't interested in Michelle Obama’s hypocritical blandishments to do as she says, not as she does. We actually like our traditional foods, our comfort foods.

The problem is quite clearly not the foods we eat, since the bizarre rise in obesity and related illnesses coincides with the rise in so-called “healthy” eating. A too-sedentary lifestyle also arose more or less simultaneously, which is no coincidence.

Just get up off yer big butt and burn it off like our forefathers (and mothers) did. And, eat what you like, within moderation. That is the answer, not parsimonious, self-appointed food priests deigning to save us from ourselves, with the latest fad diet that ultimately proves harmful. Then, the silly cycle repeats with the next questionable concoction.

[southern rock]

It’s OK. I actually, totally get the sensitivity to the subject here. In a free country, a discussion is just that, but in Amerika 2012, a simple duiscussion can lead to legislation. . It’s downright scary.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“Land O’ Lakes has a spreadable butter with Olive oil already in it. Tastes good too.”

Thats what we use. It is good.

Its OK to eat the bad stuff once in awhile as long as you don’t do it everyday. Common sense is all you need.

[Darnright]

>Knock yourself out, but pork and poultry are equally bad for the huiman body. It doesn’t matter. Animal protein contains cholesterol, which the body does not need in excess of what it creates itself.<

Then why is it that animal protein in and of itself does not affect blood insulin levels at all? Fat does not affect blood insulin in and of itself.

Carbohydrates, on the other hand, cause out of control insulin release in a very large segment of the human population. It is insulin that causes the body to store fat. It is insulin that causes metabolic syndrome and it is metabolic syndrome that is the direct cause of heart disease.

The human body needs fat. The human brain must have fat to function. Primitive man got most of his fat from animal sources, not from Wesson. There is research to show that industrial seed oils like canola make the human body react with an inflammatory response. That reaction can and will contribute to heart disease.

It is to Big Pharma’s advantage to keep most of us obese and sick. Here, take this pill and you can eat all the flour and sugar you want. Not me, not ever.

[CodeToad]

Typical liberal; trying to turn the conversation elsewhere. Sorry, idiot, you don’t get to lie about such liberal topics as what people eat then try to change the subject.

Pinheads like you know nothing about nutrition yet you pass judgement on everyone else and preach things that actually could harm people.

As far as my physical stats, let’s just say I have no doubt I could whip your ass in a second and will outlive you by several decades. Do you really want to go there?

My entire family, including ym wife, are medical professionals and completely disagree with your liberally ignorant views about food.

[calex59]

The body does not take animal fat and make more cholesterol out of it, or animal cholesterol for that matter. Humans produce their own cholesterol and diet has very little, if anything, to do with how much is in our bodies. I will eat meat, all types, until I die. I am 70 now and my cholesterol level is always low. Genetics is the key, not diet. Diabetes can be controlled with diet but that diet has nothing to do with meat and everything to do with carbs. Carbs are a bigger enemy to the body than meat.

[miss marmelstein]

Hah! Beautiful post.

You’ll notice the health Nazis are not going after Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. I wonder why? Could it be that she’s a Northeastern, East Hampton hostess-with-the- mostess whose husband has a fancy job at Yale? And I’m sure poor Jeffrey must be pre-diabetic with all the high caloric food she’s been dishing out at him! (And I speak as a fan who has all her books.) And Bourdaine is an absolute jealous creep who has been trying to bring Deen down for years now.

Paula Deen is a working-class woman who came up from nothing. As a relentless baker, I admire her talent with cake making. She’s a genuis at making beautiful cakes. I envy her talent. And her talent for making money. I hope her diabetes does not effect her business.

Today, I’m making Nigella Lawson’s “lemon polenta cake” with 14 (count ‘em) tablespoons of butter.

See you on the Saturday food thread, mom!

[CodeToad]

“My taxes don’t go to bailing you out of the bad choices you’ve made...”

That is EXACTLY the liberal line: Because their taxes go to such things, instead of changing the tax laws they want us to change what we eat by enforcement of law. That is EAXCTLY the liberal agenda. Try changing the tax laws and stop thinking we should be regulated on our food.

[Keith in Iowa]

scroll to #72 in the thread.

[netmilsmom]

>>My taxes don’t go to bailing you out of the bad choices you’ve made...
Hardly lib, methinks...<<

What crap. Your taxes, don’t pay for me at all. I can smoke, eat nothing but doritos and drink Jack Daniels all day long. You pay NOTHING FOR ME.

So if you want to spread your “I don’t want to pay for your bad choices”, I’ll drive ya down to 8 mile and you can tell them that you don’t want to pay for THEIR choices and we’ll see how that works out.

[netmilsmom]

>>Nice. What is your height and weight? What are your bloodwork #’s? Hmmm? <<

This is your #1 problem. THAT is none of your business.

[miss marmelstein]

I could be wrong, but my guess is that you don’t like Paula Deen.

Sadly, there’s gotta be somebody out there who cooks Southern food that is not the dull as dishwater Natalie Dupree (who should stick to writing books). There was a time when PBS OWNED the cooking shows and we had to put up with a whole bunch of dull cooks (with a few good ones thrown in like the great Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and the jolly Chris Kimball). And watch what PBS did to transform Lidia from a snarling chef to a warm, grandmotherly figure! (Although they need to shake up that po-faced daughter a bit.) With the advent of the Food Network, even dozey PBS had to shake up their cooking “stars.”