Paula Deen and Diabetes

This past week, Paula Deen made a public announcement that she has diabetes. Although this did not come as a surprise to many people, especially those who watch her show, it has brought a lot of attention to both her and the diabetic community, both positive and negative. The reality of it is, the majority of her recipes, including her Gorilla Bread that contains a full stick of butter, brown sugar, sugar, condensed milk, crescent dough, chocolate chips and bananas are just not diabetic friendly. Now, let’s not give bananas a bad rap for just being a part of this recipe. They are a great source of potassium to strengthen your bones and a healthy source of fiber that serves to keep you regular. However, when they are lumped in with everything else, there positive results are masked by all of the other ingredients. Although Paula Deen preaches moderation for her recipes, the reality is that for a diabetic patient this recipe is just asking for trouble, no matter how little of it you eat.

Diabetes is a condition where a person is not able to properly process sugar. In the case of Type II Diabetes, over time your body develops a resistance to insulin, the molecule that helps your body process sugar. So, as a result, your body still has insulin, but it is just not functioning. So, the medications that are prescribed to Type II Diabetics serve as a sort of jump start to the body allowing the insulin to work, as well as decreasing the amount of sugar that your body takes from the food you eat. Medications are often the last resort though because it has been shown that diet and healthy lifestyle can help control sugar levels in many people. So, this is why that delicious sounding Gorilla Bread is just not the best choice for diabetics.

Now, the harsh reality of it is that most people, who develop Type II Diabetes, develop it later on in life. This means that you have already figured out the foods that you like and will crave these items as a result of human nature. The truth is that one piece of chocolate cake is not going to kill you, but when you add that to the other high sugar meals you want to eat the rest of the week, they just might. Diabetes can be described best as a gateway disease, because once you are diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol problems, eye disease, poor blood circulation, feet swelling and ulcers can be just around the corner unless you control your condition. Losing weight through exercise and healthy eating has been proven to make a huge difference in the condition of diabetics and greatly reduce the risks for all of the aforementioned conditions. But let’s be honest, we are all going to slip at some point, but the key is that the vast majority of the time you must be conscientious of what you are putting in your body so that you can be the very best you.