I am not a Paula Deen fan (honestly, hadn't even heard of her), but I have learned so much about this woman in a very short time. As to the controversy, I land somewhere in the middle I suppose, not thinking she's horrible but not very impressed with her choices. I'd want to have a heart to heart with her about all of it and hear her whole story before judging her. (What if she hated the idea of going public and endorsing the drug but couldn't refuse the money because despite her empire she or some family member's gotten into a financial pickle?)

What does have me getting all judgey is the media's wholesale conviction of the woman for having caused her own diabetes by eating the food she makes on TV (who knows what she eats off screen anyway?) because it's all full of ... what? FAT. And as we all know, it's fat that's responsible for high blood sugar (i.e., diabetes). Huh?

Not only does fat not cause high blood sugar, The old and now highly suspect (read: overturned) theory that fat makes you fat, and that dietary fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, is alive and well in our media and, unfortunately, even in most doctors' offices.

Imagine if all those thousands of journalists, bloggers, pundits talking about Paula Deen and her sticks of butter had instead pointed to the refined carbohydrates surrounding that butter and the damage they do. Just think how many eyes might have been opened, how many future cases of obesity and diabetes possibly averted, and how many people now living with diabetes might have decided to try really avoiding refined carbs to see if it would help their numbers. Imagine!