Two Day Magazine

Butter always gets a bad rap.

And last week, butter was truly thrown under the proverbial bus in light of the news that butter-lover Paula Deen might be a Type 2 Diabetic.

Last week when rumors started to come out that Deen has been covering up a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis, Deen remained silent.  The Huffington Post then reported that Deen agreed to talk exclusively with Al Roker on The Today Show on Tuesday about the rumors.  

Accompanying the rumor in which Deen is going to announce that she is diabetic, is another bonus rumor that Deen has signed a multi-million dollar spokeswoman endorsement deal with a pharmaceutical company that is the manufacturer of the diabetes drug she reportedly takes.  

Novartis, the pharmaceutical company named in the rumors, has since come out and denied that Deen is a spokeswoman for one of their drugs.

This is all so scandalous because Paula Deen is known to everyone as being that overweight lady who loves to eat butter, cook with butter any chance she gets, and throws caution to the wind with her unhealthy eating habits.

It's true that Deen makes outlandish, highly-caloric foods.  She is the first one to admit it.  She's also the first one to admit that she knows the food is bad for you, which is what makes her cooking show so delightfully naughty to watch.

Deen is very open about her food vices. She has also recently admitted that she is a smoker, much to the surprise of her fans, from whom she was very good at hiding her addiction.

You have to appreciate her honesty and her take-me-or-leave-me attitude.  But Deen troubles me.  She is a a walking, talking throwback to the 1950's and 1960's when high fat foods had their glory days.  Housewives bought butter pounds at a time and fried up delicious, filling food for their families to sit down to eat for dinner every night.  And Deen was one of them.  In a way, her cooking is a tribute to a simpler time when putting a home-cooked meal on the table for supper was simply what you did.  Every. Night.

Yes, Deen advocates home-cooked meals and gathering around the dining room table as a way to reconnect with your family whenever you can.  And yes, she cooks with fresh ingredients to make real, preservative-free food.

My defense of her, however, ends there.  I love that she wants people to cook real food, but I HATE that every recipe of hers calls for butter, oil, frying, etc.  One of her sons hates this too, apparently, and is offering up a television show called Not My Mama's Meals.  

Her lasagna recipe looks FABULOUS but really, do you have to use full-fat ricotta cheese and full-fat mozzaella cheese?  Her son says the answer is no - substitute skimmed dairy products and no-salt added tomato sauces instead to make the meal delicious AND healthy.

It seems that her family will be her saving grace if Deen does tell Roker on Tuesday that she is diabetic.  WIth her son's tv show already in production, she will be able to transition this medical issue into a whole new career if she joins her son's show.

If she accomplishes this, she will have a new, true fan - me.  I love transformations.  I am transformed myself these days.  Who wouldn't love to see something as relatable as Deen's transformation from unhealthy to healthy right before our eyes?  

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twoday magazine wants to know: Do TV cooking personalities have a responsibility to showcase healthy alternatives when making meals or is it a case of personal responsibility as to what we put in our bodies? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!