Now it appears that biology has caught up with Paula. She has come out of the closet as someone with Type 2 diabetes. Perhaps she’s had one too many burgers with Krispy Kreme doughnuts as buns.

Should we be happy that the queen of unhealthy cooking has finally gotten what was coming to her? Of course not. Should we be furious that she’s known about her condition for the past three years while continuing throw stick after stick of butter in her food? Absolutely.

Not so fast. A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has concluded that taking vitamin and mineral pills may actually increase your risk of death from cancer or heart disease. Several supplements were found to be dangerous, with the worst being iron. Only one was found to be beneficial: calcium.

The study was performed on older women, but it certainly raises the concern that all of us should be much more careful about the pills we pop.

Needless to say, advocates for the supplement producers have released statements which downplay the study, stating that the effects are merely correlative and not causal.

So what’s the best strategy? No one is contesting that your body needs important vitamins and minerals. Instead of getting them through a pill, though, play it safe and get them the old fashioned way, through food.

The jury’s still out on exactly how bad artificial sweeteners are for your overall health. Ignoring any of these adverse effects and focusing solely on weight loss, you would think that a zero- or low-calorie soda would at least have little to no effect on your waistline.

Not so. But how on Earth can someone put on weight when no calories are ingested? The best guess is that artificial sweeteners influence people’s appetites, making them more prone to eat unhealthy foods afterwards.

And if you think going to the gym reduces this effect, guess again. Diet drinks apparently warp your appetite regardless of how much you exercise.

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Meanwhile, whole grains, fruit, nuts, and yogurt will all help you lose weight.

More so than ever, it appears that what happens in the kitchen has more impact than what happens in the gym. “Diet and exercise are important for preventing weight gain, but diet clearly plays a bigger role,” said one of the leaders of the study.

Other factors that were found to contribute to weight gain: watching TV, sleeping too much, sleeping too little, and booze (woe is me!).

Thanks to Dave for the heads-up.

Does it work? Based on the reviews, although a little rusty, it does a surprisingly good job.

How does it work? From what I understand, the pictures are submitted to a human-powered service called Mechanical Turk. Once the food is identified, the information is submitted to Daily Burn, the creators of Meal Snap, and the calorie content information is found in a database.

Magic? Not exactly, but pretty darned close to it.

“The Heart Attack Grill diet is not for everyone. Side effects may include sudden weight gain, repeated increase of wardrobe size, back pain, male breast growth, loss of sexual partners, lung cancer, tooth decay, liver sclerosis, stroke, and an inability to see your penis. In some cases, mild death may occur.”

Ho, ho! That is funny stuff!!

I’ve already mentioned the Heart Attack Grill in a previous post. Why mention it again now? Blair River, the man in this video, passed away earlier this month. He was 575 pounds and 29 years old.

From Jon Basso, the restaurant’s founder and the jackass dressed as a doctor in the commercial: “Cynical people might think this (River’s death) is funny.”

Jon Basso, on the other hand, takes morbid obesity very seriously.

How about indulging in a Cold Stone PB&C shake? It’s what Men’s Health calls “The Worst Beverage in America.” If you choose to inhale one of these, get ready for a day’s worth of calories, over three times the daily recommended allowance of saturated fat, and an amount of sugar equivalent to that found in 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies… all in one giant cup.

Thanks to Dave for the reference.

Until now, we’ve been led to believe that a sandwich, by definition, is two slices of bread with some kind of filling in between. How foolish we’ve been!

Leave it to KFC to think outside the box and bring us the Double Down, the first fast-food sandwich to use slabs of fried chicken as buns.

Inside the “buns”: Bacon and mayonnaise. Nutritionally, it clocks in at 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 1380 mg of sodium. How does it taste? The consensus, at least among discerning palates, is that it’s an overly moist, overly salty mess.

Although it isn’t health food by any stretch, it’s also important to realize that the Double Down is nowhere near the worst the fast-food industry has offered. It’s no worse, for example, than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonald’s.

Not surprisingly, chefs are up in arms over this heavy-handed and totally unreasonable proposal to lower the sodium intake of restaurant-goers.

This bill is an unfortunately consequence of the smoking and trans fat bans having passed so successfully and with such good results. Our lawmakers are starting to think it’s their responsibility to monitor every aspect of our health.

This time, it appears, they’ve gone way too far.

This has to be a joke. I’m not African-American, and I’M offended by what is a clearly a marketing strategy to target black people.

On the feedback page, they make several statements and ask visitors to the site if they agree or disagree.  An example of one such statement is: “McDonald’s is a brand that gets me.”

Strongly disagree.