Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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And Now The Least-Shocking News In The History Of Non-Shocking News [Paula Deen Has Type 2 Diabetes]

Posted Jan 17, 2012 by Jeff Houck

Updated Jan 17, 2012 at 02:56 PM

Minutes after butter-lover Paula Deen confessed her belated diabetes-related sins Tuesday morning to the Today show’s Al Roker, the judgment online came swift and merciless.

“Paula Deen has known about her Type II Diabetes since 2008, yet kept pushing her poisonous recipes,” tweeted comedian Peter-john Byrnes. “She’s the Joe Paterno of chefs.”

“Paula Deen didn’t keep diabetes a secret for three years,” comic Dan Telfer wrote. “Like everything she’s created, the diagnosis just took her three years to digest.”

BuzzFeed, which acts as a pop-culture clearinghouse, posted its list of the “25 Reasons We’re Not Surprised,” using Deen’s most cholesterol-choked recipes as Exhibit A. The top 5: 1. The Krispy Kreme Burger; 2. Three Meat Pasta; 3. Southern Fried Chicken; 4. Cheeseburger Meatloaf and Sauce; 5. Deep-Fried Lasagana. Finishing the list at No. 25 was “Paula’s Fried Butter Balls.”

Others swiped at Deen for agreeing to work as a paid spokesperson for the drug company Novo Nordisk, which manufactures an injectable, non-insulin drug used to treat type 2 diabetes.

In her interview with Roker, when he mentioned the endorsement, Deen replied, “Absolutely, I have been compensated just as you are for your work,” Deen said.

Twitter personality Ruth Bourdain – a fictional merging of food writers Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain—snarked, “Paula Deen’s diabetes can be a powerful teachable moment about how to turn a diagnosis into a multimillion dollar drug endorsement deal.”

And though Deen told Roker she always has encouraged moderation, actor John Fugelsang quipped, “Paula Deen is like a heroin dealer who gets you so addicted she decides to do the right thing & sell you methadone.”

From @WarrenHolstein: “Paula Deen will start promoting a Novo Nordisk diabetes drug. And with her personally recommending it, it’s gotta be healthy, right?”

The I-told-you-so glee among food bloggers also showed in their repeating of the real-life Bourdain’s quote about the diagnosis and how Deen continued to showcase dishes on her Food Network show that were of an artery-clogging nature.

Bourdain and Deen got into a media food fight last year after he declared her “the worst, most dangerous person to America,” saying her food contributed to the country’s obesity problems.

“When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you’ve been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you’ve got type 2 diabetes,” Bourdain was quoted saying Tuesday. “… it is in bad taste if nothing else”

Still, others mixed defiance with their sarcasm.

On Tumblr, user ryanlintelman posted a link to a competing food personality’s recipe for Slow-Cooker Bacon Jam, writing, “In light of Paula Deen’s diabetes confession, I turn to you, Martha Stewart, to help me continue on my journey toward obesity.”