Impossible is a typoRunning my pants off and loving myself along the way

Paula Dean is making me fat?

So, Paula Deen, FoodTV’s Grand Dame Southern Bell of the Fried Butter Ball fame, announced last week that she has Type 2 Diabetes. “Oh and hey by the way, I’m endorsing this spiffy Diabetes drug, ya’ll!” As you can imagine, the health and fitness blogging community has been in a tizzy over it ranging from “how dare she continue to put mayo in everything” to “the poor lady” to “she’s responsible for why America is fat”.

I really only have two responses to this:

1) Who the heck on her PR team thought it would be a good idea to make these announcements back-to-back especially considering that she was diagnosed three years ago? Can we say epic PR Fail? Effective publicity is all about building trust and today, that means transparency. What this did was to create the impression that she hid her health concerns until there was a big enough offer on the table to make her wallet happy. I’d fire that PR team and not for transparency transgressions but for thinking too small. Think about it, she could have announced the diabetes thing, then rolled out a line of health food cook books, products, heck even a “Shape up with Paula” DVD series, not to mention the tell-all TV appearances, gear, and what not. Her PR team could have created a mini industry around Paula being a stand for having your Butter Balls AND being healthy. But no, they went the cheap and easy old-school route. This ain’t the Mad Men era anymore, people. You don’t control your image and your brand anymore, you can only influence it and act in accordance. Think bigger, think smarter.

2) Prepare for a rant. Just because some broad on a TV show puts mayo in her chocolate cake and starts off pork chops in a half pound of butter to sautee, does not, I repeat, does not mean you have to eat it. Look, Paula Deen’s show is basically food porn. It’s all the bad stuff you know you shouldn’t’t eat all dressed up to look pretty, so you can drool and plan out your Fantasy Food Menus, “OMG I’m totally making that for my birthday!”. It’s Food-tainment, food as entertainment. You cannot be alive and consuming any sort of media today without knowing that eating pounds of butter is bad for you. Does Paul Deen have a responsibility to show healthy recipes on her show and be responsible for the caloric and nutrition content of her dishes? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It is your responsibility as a viewer and a consumer of food to decide what is best for you. Not Paula Deen. She’s not putting Crisco and 5lb bag of sugar in your cart. You are. She’s not loading up your fork with pork rinds and potato chips with a drizzle of caramel syrup. You are. YOU are responsible for your own health and well-being, not some crazy-eyed southern gal with a drawl. We’re talking about view responsibility here. Paula Deen is not making us fat, we are.

So Paula, bring on the mayo based dips and the butter sauces! And I will continue to choose not to eat your food.