Boop Her Nose!
Kitty Is Too Tired to Donate
How About You?
Become a Monthly Donor
Sponsors will contribute $10
For each new monthly sign-up
Posted on 01/18/2012 9:09:57 PM PST by doug from upland
Could it be the bacon, egg and glazed donut burgers, y’all?
When butter-loving country cook Paula Deen announced this week that she has type 2 diabetes, foodies everywhere started buzzing.
What can you expect when you concoct a Lady’s Brunch Burger out of bacon, eggs and a beef patty with glazed donuts for buns?
Could all that piggy pudding and Uncle Bubba’s seafood pot pie be to blame?
Sort of, local nutrition experts say. But not entirely.
Diabetes educators say no certain type of food leads to diabetes, but the calorie-laden goodies Deen whips up can lead to weight gain -- one of the culprits.
Weight, activity level and genetics all contribute to type 2 diabetes, said Marcia Johnson, clinical supervisor for the diabetes education program at Spectrum Health. Risk also increases as you age.
“Diabetes is much more common in people who are overweight, especially if they carry the extra weight in their midsection,” said Johnson, a registered nurse who has worked in diabetes education since 1979.
Sorry, Lots O’Meat Lasagna, darlin' -- you’re out.
Deen, 64, star of the Food Network show “Paula's Best Dishes,” found out three years ago she has type 2 diabetes, but kept it under her hat until this week, when she revealed the news to Al Roker on NBC's Today show.
Deen told Roker she doesn’t plan to change how she cooks, but said she has always encouraged moderation.
"I share with you all these yummy, fattening recipes,” she said on "Today." “But I tell people, in moderation ... it's entertainment. People have to be responsible."
No more pork chops with cheddar and bacon grits?
“This kind of food is unhealthy not just for diabetics, but for everybody,” Johnson said.
But lovers of Deen’s fried chicken and beefy macaroni and cheese don’t have to give the comfort food up entirely, Johnson said.
“Occasionally treat yourself to a small portion,” she said. “Or rework a recipe so it’s healthier.”
Deen’s son Bobby does just that, promoting lower-calorie versions of his mom’s recipes, on his new Cooking Channel show, “Not My Mama’s Meals.”
Experts say a big factor is genetics – whether you’ve inherited a susceptibility to the condition.
“If you have those genes -- relatives with diabetes -- you want to get regular check-ups,” said Carolyn Belsito, registered dietitian and diabetes educator at Metro Health.
“We’re learning more about the causes of diabetes all the time,” Belsito said. “There are studies that show you’re at a higher risk if you have sleep apnea, as well as stress.”
Experts say small changes in lifestyle can make a big difference.
Deen has said that since the diagnosis, she quit drinking sweet tea. That’s a big change for a Southern gal.
“Giving up sugary beverages can have a huge influence,” said Spectrum Health’s Johnson. “People often drink a whole day’s worth of calories just in their beverages.”
Deen also said she now regularly hits the treadmill -- another good move to prevent the disease, Johnson said.
“Exercise helps with weight control, but it also immediately burns up blood sugar,” Johnson said, “and it continues to drop for the next day or two.”
One in 12 people in West Michigan has diabetes, according to 2008 data from the Alliance for Health. Statewide, the disease is estimated to cost $6.5 billion in health care expenses and lost time from work.
Diabetes prevents the body from making or using the insulin needed to convert food into energy. Sugar builds up in the blood, and that can eventually damage the heart, eyes, kidneys and feet.
Deen is now being paid as a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that supplies her diabetes medication. She and her family are appearing in a new ad campaign for the company this month.
Meanwhile, experts say they’re happy the butter diva went public.
“It’s a wake-up call for people who might see themselves in her,” said Belsito of Metro Health.
“I hope some good can come from this,” Spectrum’s Johnson said. “Diabetes is mostly self-managed, so getting people talking about it and learning about it is good.”
So is Double Chocolate Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. But just a smidgen, y’all.
Wacko fringe nutritional nonsense? Absolutely.
LOL! OK, You take your chances. Enjoy all the white bread, flour and pasta you want. Have it with all the beef, poultry, shrimp and pork you can stuff down, too. Knock yourself out. It’s all good for you in moderation, right? Would love to know everyone’s true height and weight here, and see their full bloodwork. But hey, lying to oneself is what the internet is for.
The longest living people on the planet reside in Guam. They thrive on white rice and noodles. Our per-capita consumption of "poison" has increased dramatically over the years and we are living longer than at any other time in our history. Go figure. Your poison must be very slow acting. LOL!
lying to oneself is what the internet is for.
Reading senseless crap and then repeating it here is nothing more than posting crap. But because you believe the crap you read, you come to conclusions that are totally unsupportable. Start with crap, end up with crap.
And don't get me started on pasteurized milk!
Thank goodness for mainstream nutrition!
Raw milk cured all the diseases that immunizations gave me.
Yeah, living with obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
Trust me, the benefits of the whole food, plant based diet is not "senseless crap", as you say.
I can’t keep up.
Are eggs still bad for us?
I tend to realize that anything that causes an inflammatory response in the body is bad for you.
Most of the time those responses come from things that are overly refined. What is overly refined? Anything that they have to strip it down and then add nutrition back in.
On the flipside of that though I am not a fan of the no fat diets etc. I use real butter, eat real meat, and drink whole milk.
I've watched the evolution of the mainstream nutritionists attempting to extrapolate research information, to only find a decade or two later it is hogwash. From butter, eggs, coffee and the fats in meat being bad for you...to near complete reversals of position statements.
I know it is a funky position to take, but if we were eating closer to how we were designed to eat...I think we'd be much healthier. As for Paula Deen? Anyone not realizing she is cooking the best of the best decadent southern recipes is a fool. She is not your nutritionist or doctor. She is a chef. As much as people want to pick on her...they can just as easily hammer away at any chef on TV.
Clint Eastwood- A Man’s Got to Know his Limitations
Paula Dean can eat her fatty junk food but there is a price to pay if you take it too far. This applies to everyone. She’s a grade a money grubber hypocrite for pushing her junk food for the last three years while being treated for diabetes. Diabetes is the fasted growing part of the Medicaid and Medicare budgets. It’s no joke but Paula D treated it like as she cynically kept her diabetes secret so as not to jeopardize the millions she earns. One account says 9 million a year.
re: I know it is a funky position to take, but if we were eating closer to how we were designed to eat...I think we’d be much healthier.
That’s true. http://ananddgandhi.blogspot.com/2008/02/we-were-meant-to-be-vegetarian.html
Carnivorous animals, including the lion, dog, wolf, cat, etc., have many unique characteristics which set them apart from all other members of the animal kingdom. They all possess a very simple and short digestive system — only three times the length of their bodies. This is because flesh decays very rapidly, and the products of this decay quickly poison the bloodstream if they remain too long in the body. So a short digestive tract was evolved for rapid expulsion of putrefactive bacteria from decomposing flesh, as well as stomachs with ten times as much hydrochloric acid as non-carnivorous animals (to digest fibrous tissue and bones).
Human characteristics are in every way like the fruit eaters, very similar to the grass- eater, and very unlike the meat eaters. The human digestive system, tooth and jaw structure, and bodily functions are completely different from carnivorous animals. As in the case of the anthropoid ape, the human digestive system is twelve times the length of the body; our skin has millions of tiny pores to evaporate water and cool the body by sweating; we drink water by suction like all other vegetarian animals; our tooth and jaw structure is vegetarian; and our saliva is alkaline and contains ptyalin for predigestion of grains. Human beings clearly are not carnivores by physiology — our anatomy and digestive system show that we must have evolved for millions of years living on fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables.
You do realize, however, that the great apes are all OMNIVOROUS and eat meat wherever they can get it? That the higher apes i.e. chimpanzees work in sophisticated hunting groups? That your notes on intestinal dimensions and chemistry of saliva in humans can also be applied to bears? Are bears, raccoons and chimpanzees "unnatural" when they include meat in their diet?
Vegetarian by design" is an old argument that didn't have a leg to stand on when it was new.
Yeah, obesity can cause all sorts of health problems. If I become obese from eating foods that, in your mind, aren't poison, my risk of heart disease and diabetes will still increase dramatically. The source of the calories isn't the issue. The problem comes from consuming more energy than you burn.
Trust me, the benefits of the whole food, plant based diet is not "senseless crap", as you say.
Sorry. Claiming that flour, bread and pasta are poison makes no sense and is crap. The Japanese eat a diet high in carbohydrates that include white rice and lots of noodles. They have a low rate of heart disease. Same with the Italians who consume a lot of pasta.
Eating a balanced diet that includes meat, dairy, plants, and "processed" foods is the key. Everything in moderation is as true today as it was a hundred years ago.
Do you also believe, then, that bread, pasta and flour are poison?
I tend to realize that anything that causes an inflammatory response in the body is bad for you.
I am unaware that bread, flour and pasta have been shown to create an inflammatory response by the body that would allow us to implicate them in causing heart disease, obesity or diabetes. I've seen nothing that would cause us to label these things as "poison." But, then again, maybe I just missed it. I've pinged another FReeper who researches inflammation for his input.
I know it is a funky position to take, but if we were eating closer to how we were designed to eat...I think we'd be much healthier.
What were we designed to eat?
Inflammation: A Common Denominator of Disease
Sugar and white flour increase blood sugar, and even a modest increase in blood sugar generates pro-inflammatory chemicals. Most people eat these poisons daily in the form of bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, cookies, cakes, soft drinks, candy, etc.
In addition, sugar and white flour cause inflammation and disease by forming AGEs.
AGEs are produced when a protein reacts with sugar, resulting in damaged, cross-linked proteins. As the body tries to protect you by breaking these AGEs apart, immune cells secrete large amounts of inflammatory chemicals. Many of the diseases that we think of as part of aging are actually caused by this process. Depending on where the AGEs occur, the result can be arthritis, heart disease, cataracts, memory loss, wrinkled skin or diabetes complications, to name a few.
Do a search for "refined flour cause inflammation," and learn. The new research is quickly evolving.
Actually there are more than a small handful of conservative vegetarians, on FR too. Sometimes we edge out of the closet for a short while...
I’ve been a vegetarian who eats milk products for more than 40 years. Can’t imagine eating any other way. Also mostly organic, cook everything from scratch, no chemical crap, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.