I am one of those rare individuals that has no TV. I mean I literally do not own a TV. I have not had television access since cable went digital. I honestly watched mostly food network and some PBS. Once in a while some other cop drama and the news. Since cutting my ties to the TV I have found my temperament to be much more mellow and my anger issues disappointing. With that said the point was that I get my news by research. I look at the local papers, find blogs to follow and have many different “news groups” on my Facebook list. I get news that I need by searching for it.
Yesterday I saw a few post about Paula Deen and her diabetes medicine sponsorship. Considering I am a foodie, I am totally familiar with Paula Deen. I know she promotes southern style cooking. She likes to add butter to everything and cheesy fries. Oh my if you really think eating fried cheese is a good idea, let me sell you this special oil guaranteed to help you live a very long life. Only $19.95, but wait I will toss in a second bottle for free, and if you call not I will ship it for free too. If you order two I will pay the taxes for you. Ok you get the idea silly right? Not so silly for those people who do not truly understand nutrition. These are the same people who think Rachel Ray is a kitchen goddess or worse yet a chef!
When I went to community college I took a class on nutrition, along with classes on human biology and anatomy and physiology. (A side note: a cadaver of a human or mammal looks all the same once you remove the skin.) With the basics of nutrition buried deep in my brain, I am a very conscientious eater. In fact my mother’s family is riddled with type II diabetes. On my father’s side I have at least one cousin with childhood onset. So my quest for health is more significant than many other’s. What amazes me is that most medical doctors know nothing about basic nutrition. It is a scam, I tell you. They only want to medicate us to the point that we will live forever so they will have big mansions and hot cars. Ok, so some doctors care and listen. Mine is one of those. After I was hit by the truck, she prescribed some pain killers, which didn’t help much. I went back on a followup and asked about chiropractic and massage and acupuncture. She knows how much I love pills, so she gave me a script for all three. Knowing yourself and being honest with your doctor helps establish ground rules. The fact that she knows I am not a pill fiend makes it easier for me to get scripts for alternative medicines.
Back to poor Paula. Paula is a lovely lady, a great cook, but not a healthy cook. Her diabetes diagnosis is proof of that. Now she has a line of frozen entrees available. Oh great, so now the lazy people can eat poorly too. Fabulous, but seriously to demonize Paula is unfair. Each individual should stand up and be responsible for their choices. Do you remember when they used to demonize violent movies and video games? My take on this was that violent actions are the choice of an individual, no matter what they have been exposed to, we all have a moral compass. Ok maybe a psychopath and a sociopath are missing that element, but in general we all have one. I know if I take something that is not mine it is wrong. I will have to live with that guilt. I will have to wrestle with my conscience and live with the action. No one makes you choose that action, it is the sole choice of the individual. Ultimately Paula, and Rachel are not controlling your choices. They may influence them. And to demonize Paula for promoting medicine over proper diet, well seems a bit harsh.
Individual responsibility is really what is missing here. We can blame Monsanto for destroying the food system, but we must stand up and take responsibility for participating in the system. We create this blameless self and project responsibility upon outside entities, because well frankly my weight/health issues are not my fault. I was never given good choices. Oh bologna! We all know that eating an apple is way better for us than eating a supersized box of salty fries. So I challenge you to look at your own actions and see how those choices have affected your life and the lives of your loved ones. Demonizing others is only lying to ourselves. Until we take responsibility we will never take control of our lives and health. With that said I am going to go do some of my rehabilitation exercises and yoga!
ChaCha AlaMode's Babblings. 
I’ve had so many long late night talks with people, trying to make the same points you did.
The problem is we are too busy building self esteem and trying to create equality (guilty as charged here) that we never talk about personal responsibility. Later in life people are so convinced that they had a terrible: childhood, marriage, life, job, or whatever they can blame, that they never really grasp that they too are responsible for their own choices.
My childhood was not bad nor was it good, my school time was traumatizing, but I chose to escape those problems. After my divorce I kept blaming and repeating the same mistakes, one day I realized that I have to make of my life what I want. I did that and I have now have my Master’s degree and am seriously looking at going for my pHd. But, no matter what fail or succeed, I made it happen on my own, if I can with two kids anyone can. It is about choices.
I hope you are at least successful in these conversations at opening up someone’s eyes to consider the truth.