If you read the words “I’ve always preached moderation” recently, they were probably not from Thomas Aquinas, who extolled the virtue of moderation by saying “virtus in medio stat” – virtue stands in the middle. No, if you read them at all, these words probably came from the mouth of television chef Paula Deen.
Yes, you read that correctly: the Paula Deen, whose love of all things deep-fried, butter-infused, and cheese-topped has made her a grande dame of cooking television. Unfamiliar with the sheer tonnage of her cuisine? The following clip will give you the gist, wherein Deen substitutes glazed donuts for the bun of a hamburger (with bacon and a fried egg, naturally).
Though these infamous sandwiches have been dubbed the “heart attack burgers,” last week Deen disclosed that she suffers a different health malady: three years ago she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Over the din of schadenfreude on the internets, however, you can now hear Deen advocating a new campaign against diabetes and obesity. We may, it seems, be witnessing a great shift for her public persona. Or perhaps we are watching her first steps on the long, winding road of conversion – and if it’s not a conversion modeled on St. Paul, at least let it be one that leads away from, say, deep fried cheesecake.
