Paula Deen, Food Network star, announced that she’s been dealing with type II diabetes for the last three years.  She and her two sons have also been revealed as  corporate spokespersons for the blood sugar management drug Victoza because as she says “we, like everybody else, have to work.”

Paula Deen adds an injection to her daily routine and collects a paycheck for becoming the face of the drug. That’s not your reality. You don’t get to sell your health out to a drug manufacturer and collect a pile of cash for your family. Paula Deen does. She has to work like everybody else.

Since collecting a paycheck for being sick is likely out for you, you have a different choice to make:

Will I choose to manage symptoms or address causes?

For Paula Deen, managing symptoms means using Victoza, and according to the literature:

“Victoza® is an injectable prescription medicine that may improve blood sugar (glucose) in adults with type 2 diabetes when used along with diet and exercise.”

Wait a minute. The drug MAY improve blood sugar? WHEN USED ALONG WITH diet and exercise? Then why not just do the diet and exercise thing? The simple answer comes down to money. There’s no money in healthy people, or at least not nearly as much as sick people.

Let’s say that Paula Deen did indeed try the diet and exercise route. If so, she was obviously unsuccessful, hence the need for the injection. So why would she have been unsuccessful? It’s either:

a: She truly has a problem that cannot be dealt with through nutrition alone.
or
b: She didn’t follow the recommended plan for diet and exercise.
or
c: The recommended plan sucks.

I suspect that many people upon finding out they have type II diabetes go to the American Diabetes Association for help. Looking through a few articles will generally come to the same conclusions: watch your carbohydrate intake (but still eat whole grains), lower your fat intake (especially that dangerous saturated fat), get some exercise, lose some weight. In losing weight, the ADA does say that both the low-carbohydrate approach and the low-fat approach may provide benefits up to one year, but it does caution readers about the safety of a low-carbohydrate approach.

In essence, the ADA mimics the government stance on general nutrition. Eat your grains. Eat less fat. That leads to two main questions:

1. How’s that working out for you?
2. Why should you be concerned about the ADA’s nutrition advice?

How’s that working out for you?
Despite improvements like some weight loss or perhaps a generally lower level of blood glucose, I’m guessing that it hasn’t resulted in the elimination of medication. Despite the assertion that whole-grain pasta, whole-grain cereal, and whole-grain bread are all good sources of dietary fiber the pasta, cereal, and bread will all increase your blood sugar. According this CDC report, diabetes cases in the United States have more than doubled since 1980. How’s that standard, recommended American diet working out? Not well.

Why should you be concerned about the ADA’s nutrition advice?
While the stated mission of the ADA is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by it, there is a significant conflict of interest. A quick check of the annual report shows the four donors of over $1 million in 2010 were all drug companies. Four of the next five highest donors at the > $500K level were also drug companies. The other is a supplier of diabetes supplies, devices, and technologies. The biggest donors to the ADA have the largest amount to lose if diabetes were actually cured without medical or pharmaceutical intervention.

Paula Deen, the ADA, and the drug companies all have a significant financial interest in NOT curing you, but simply managing illness. There is no financial upside (except to you, the consumer) to finding a cure that is not drug-related.

You’re not Paula Deen. You can’t afford to be sick, so it’s time to start addressing the cause instead of just managing the symptoms. Start with a 30 day elimination diet and remove all known common causes of health problems: eliminate processed foods, grains, sugars, dairy, and legumes and see how you feel. Eat until you’re full and ignore the government recommended daily allowances. Add things back one at a time and see how you feel. Do you feel better, worse, gaining weight, losing weight? Those are all clues about whether or not you’re on the right track. You are an experiment of one. Think you can’t live without soda? That’s a great potential experiment. I’ll bet you can.

It’s inconvenient, sure. But it’s only 30 days. What have you got to lose?