Telling the Truth About Deen's Sugar-Coated Lie

The hoo-la over the diagnosis of the Queen of Fat & Sugar, Culinary Marketing Guru, Paula Deen, with Type-2 diabetes has simmered down a bit in the last week. I guess. At risk of sounding self-righteous: I really don't know because I rarely flick on the boob tube and best I knew, the controversy was never reported on my only news source, NPR. It was the blogosphere that tipped me off to the mean and nasty fest that was broiling over Deen's diagnosis. Talented blogger, special needs dad Rob Rummel-Hudson (Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter) posted on Facebook that making the Savannah-based Diva the butt of jokes was in poor taste. But via local Nashville fitness blogger Dyan of Don't Diet, Live It! that I learned the distasteful back story....

Dis. A. Point. Ing. Very.

From the headlines I expected a reformation. A new movement. I imagined the lives of foodie followers led down the table runner to salvation with Deen seated at the head teaching new math with a division of loaves and fishes and reversing her condition. (It is done. It is possible. I've witnessed it multiple times.) A reformed sugarholic for nearly 25  years now, I was excited, enthusiastic, as I clicked the news link, anxious to savor the details. Maybe this will be a wake up call for America's choice-ridden slide into obesity, I fancied. But. No. The scoop is Deen has known for three years about her diagnosis and sidles up to the public now with the endorsement of Big Pharma--Novo Nordisk-- a company that manufactures injectable diabetes meds. Her two sons, who do not have the diagnosis flank her as company spokespeople....Dialing up the heat of insult, Deen states in all seriousness:

She does not plan to limit her dietary excesses except her propensity for sugar-shocked, Southern tea. Writes "Coach Dyan" who watched Deen perform in a media circus parade, including The Today show: "She does not plan to change her lifestyle or cooking style[....]She said that she, like all other baby boomers, must face the reality of developing diabetes, heart disease, and high cholesterol."

There. Someone said it. Deen vocalized the sentiment of too many Americans. Descending into old, decrepit age, chock full of prescription meds and frequent consultations with allopathic medical doctors is just. The. Way. It. Is. Disease Rules.

Not.

Why am I passionate about this? Am I trying to pick at Paula? No. But I will speak the truth of my experience here. This mentality, as spoken aloud and lived by Deen, is a very real, negative reality in our culture today. But, I have chosen and live and believe in an alternative reality where Choosing Health Wins. As a young post-college adult, I began eating poorly, indulging in fat, excess sugar and fake foods. By my mid-20's, I developed a host of annoying gastric and transfered conditions. My trips to doctors became routine. By the end of that decade I was diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning, chronic intestinal yeast, chemical sensitivities and chronic fatigue syndrome. Eventually I found the ways of Western medicine and synthetic pharmaceuticals made me sicker. I quit listening to standard medicine and went the way of the quack, as our culture considered natural and alternative and diet-based medicine back then. Now? Science has proven those weird ideas...that too many in our culture still consider foreign. In one year I cured my chronic fatigue syndrome and heavy metal poisoning with the help of innovative, open-minded medical doctors in Atlanta, where I was then living. By first changing the content of what I ate, I immediately saw results in my weight, hair, skin and nails. I ate then and now a whole foods-based diet. Real. Food. Fruits. Vegetables. Whole grains. Some dairy and some quality meats. Organic as much as possible and lots of pure water. I have my dark chocolate and I drink wine on occasion. And if I let off the lid my sugar tooth will still rule. So, yes, those who know me have seen me big at the party buffet. The contents of my pantry? As pristine as a health food store.

My journey to whole food led me not only to whole health but to yoga and then to environmentalism because I saw how I ate affected how I treated the earth and in turn the earth's ability to sustain humankind. I learned as my mind cleared and my body cleaned itself from the inside out, that it is difficult to be fully conscious when I crammed fake stuff that my body could not process. And that clarity, slowly over the next couple of decades led me to a wider more inclusive spiritual path. In my experience, one led to the other, all so beautifully connected. I am so grateful for the journey that started with getting sick from a contemporary American diet and has served by body, mind and spirit so well the two ensuing decades.

We do have a choice about our health. And making a choice for optimal health is particularly important if you, like me, are a special needs parent. How can I meet the lifetime demands of my differently abled daughter if I am not preparing my body to sustain the long journey ahead? I do this--I eat pure the majority of time and I excercise regularly first for me and my quality of my Life. And then I do it for Her and any other loved one that may be in my life at a given time. And then, I do it for Us. What our culture is failing to realize is that WE ALL pay when some of us choose the path of disease. All of our costs go up. Preventative medicine via preventive diet, the bountiful foods of Mother Earth, are mighty cheap in comparison.

My Truth: Eat Well. Eat Real. Eat Whole. And do not accept that doctors, disease and decrepitness are the future. You bet the hell I am not. Make that I'm choosing the heaven of living well. Diss Dean and preventable disease and follow the path toward health. Quality lies there.

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What Deen's not taking into consideration with her refusal to change her diet and simply take medication: According to Mayo Clinic those with Type 2 diabetes may feel fine at first in the early stages but complications include: heart and blood vessel disease; nerve, kidney, eye, foot damage; skin and mouth conditions, osteoporosis and Alzheimer's.

Monday Morning Addendum: below, I've added three comments. The longest one shares two aspects of clarification, including more of my recent journey here for greatest authenticity. Thank all you who've visited here already this morning!

Comments

[Leisa A. Hammett]

Good for you! You are too pretty and special to not optimize your health!

[Mary Bernard @ Look In Your House]

Leisa, Thanks so much for the addendum comments. Such helpful and inspiring insight!

If you'd like to guest post, that would be great (but I'm afraid my blog is somewhat quiet these days; it wouldn't be very valuable for you, I don't think). I was simply putting in a request for a post for you to write for your blog (a reader request, if you will). ;)

Always love to read your writing. You have a way with words, dear lady!

[Cindy Birdsong]

Leisa- I too am working on eating right and portion control and like you find that my obesity is definitely in my case emotional. Thank you for the encouraging words and I am getting ready to go out and walk in the sunshine! I have cut out sugar and already feel better in just two weeks!

[Leisa A. Hammett]

I recall that the past three major Christmas-Thanksgiving holidays, during the rise of Deen's popularity a beloved family member turned our family yam recipe into an absolute dessert, via Deen's bible of fat. OMG, it tasted good and I coulda sat with the bowl in my lap eating half of it raw or baked. After the sweet potatoes were cooked and mashed they were formed into balls into the center of which a large marshmallow was placed. The the balls were rolled into large-shredded coconut and chopped pecans. I forget how many stickS of butter were added. Really? This was ridiculous and this is the diet Deen propogates.

[Leisa A. Hammett]

Part of my M-W-F morning routine is to see if the blog posted okay and read over it again for any glaring OOPS! that I might not have caught in my multiple edits before publishing. This morning, I decided I needed to clarify some things.

My journey was FROM fake foods into whole foods. And, indeed, this is a serious issue with our culture. To Deen's credit, she is using mostly real foods but in excess amounts and with refined sugar (bleached with chlorine to make it white..that's what white sugar is, not to mention that it's a slave-labor generated commodity...see, again how we eat is all one big cycle on this earth). Even butter is good in small amounts. I use it over anything else, especially fake.

In further disclosure, I realized it's important to share my more recent journey. I'll start by explaining that I never had a huge struggle with weight but gained 30 pounds after my daughter's diagnosis of autism in 1997. I was semi-unconsciously soothing myself with food. I ate larger portions, more frequently and added by lots of sugar. Except for the refined sugar foods, I still gained this weight eating healthy foods. Finally after five years of yo-yo-ing, I learned about portion control via Weight Watchers and lost the weight and kept it off for eight years.

That was until the last four when I was in a relationship that did not serve my highest good. There was lots of really fine dining, a gourmet cook and me saying yes to it all and also, I did not realize until this summer, when I left said relationship, I'd been using food and aquired fat to stuff down my inner wisdom and protect myself from reality...The part of me that wanted to say "no" to that which was the best interest of my whole person. (I have written some about this in past Monday posts and in sum, I consider the entire experience something I needed for my greater spiritual evolution.)

Since the fall, when I finally said goodbye to excessive uses of food as nurture, began walking all my errands in my new-to-me "urban" shopping district/home, I've lost nearly a dress size and a handful of pounds. More inches than pounds. And two weeks ago, I returned to Weight Watchers, which truly is better and easier than ever. And, I've experienced some success and re-learning curves with that already.

I did not attempt to hide these details earlier, but in the spirit of true authenticity, I knew I needed to come forth here and reveal more.

[Leisa A. Hammett]

Thank you, Penny, Mary & Jenna (hello stranger!) Mary: are you asking me to guest post? Send me a link to your blog and I'll think on it. With just two of us, I'm more grab and go, (health-ily). But, I can toss some ideas. Read on next comment to some addendum thoughts.

[Jena Sanders]

Excellent post, Leisa!

[Mary Bernard @ Look In Your House]

Leisa,

Love this post! Great points. I never knew this about your "early journey." I appreciate your perspective so much.

If you have an opening in your "blog schedule" soon, I'd love for you just to share a typical week's eating menu. I need to be reminded of what a wholesome menu looks like, as I am falling on and off that wagon a lot. And I want to stay on it. ;)

[Penny]

Amen! Preach it, Leisa!