Ads run by the New York City Health Department to combat smoking and obesity can be harsh, depending on whether or not you bruise like a banana in a stiff breeze. Following the relative failures of national anti-cigarette and anti-drug campaigns, the Times asks, do scare tactics work? And do the city's ads qualify as "scary?" "The definition of a scare tactic is a non-credible risk message," Steve Pasierb, the president of the Partnership at Drugfree.org says. Can someone please tell the people at Five Gum that? more ›

Last week we were aghast at how the New York Times and Big Soda combined to heap outrage on the Health Department's photoshopped ad campaign against diabetes. You'd have thought Mayor Bloomberg personally fed this actor into the woodchipper! Now, the Times has spoken with the man who posed for the picture, Cleo Berry, who was apparently "stunned" when he saw his image in the ad for the first time on Friday. "I was beyond shocked. I cried at my computer screen for, like, a minute." More than the crocodile tears he shed for this sandwich ad in which he gets viciously beaten? That is what happened, isn't it? more ›

And the Paula Deen fallout continues! In addition to an internet angry over her diabetes "coverup", high blood pressure worries and local gyms making fun of her now the Food Network's Butter Queen has rumors of familial discord to deal with. more ›

A person almost starts to feel sorry for Paula Deen. Not only does the Butter Queen have to deal with the internet being angry over her diabetes cover-up but she's also lost her publicist and is getting flack for having high blood pressure, too. And now local gyms are making fun of her in the Paper of Record! more ›

It has been revealed that the New York City Health Department photoshopped an overweight man's leg out of an ad tying larger portion sizes to Type 2 diabetes and limb amputations. We received a noble press release from the good folks at the American Beverage Association blasting the lying liars at the DOH: “This is another example of the ‘What can we get away with?’ approach that shapes these taxpayer-funded ad campaign." Or is it a reasonable tactic against the larded Leviathans and their relentless lobbyists? more ›

Troubles for Southern Butter Queen and recently outed diabetic Paula Deen continue! Beyond the fact that the Internet is still mad at her for keeping her condition a secret for three years (though Frank Bruni forgives her) she now has a serious PR problem—as in, her longtime publicist has left her. Oh, and she has high blood pressure. Fun times! more ›

When Paula Deen told Al Roker yesterday that she has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, no one was really surprised, but plenty of people were pissed, over all sorts of things: that she hid her condition for so long (three years), that she says she doesn't plan to change what she eats (she'll just eat less of it), and that she's conveniently getting paid to shill for the diabetes medication Victoza. Are the complaints justified? more ›

In a move that few pretty much everyone saw coming, benevolent butter queen Paula Deen took to the Today show this morning to tell Al Roker that yes, she has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But don't worry—she has a fancy new diabetes website and she's getting paid to endorse Novo Nordisk's Victoza medication, so she'll be just fine, even if she thinks talking about how much she's raking in from the deal is "tacky." more ›

According to a recent study published in Health Affairs, a penny-per-ounce tax on soda and sugary beverages would cut consumption by 15% in adults ages 25-64. The researchers from UC San Francisco also found that from 2010 through 2020, the tax would prevent 2.4 million cases of diabetes, 95,000 coronary heart events, 8,000 strokes and 26,000 premature deaths, while saving $17 billion in health expenditures and generating $13 billion annually. But enough of this nanny-state nonsense: we need less regulation of the financial sector! more ›

Oh, Paula Deen. The queen of Southern butter-based cooking may well have a secret. Last April the National Enquirer reported that the Food Network star was suffering from Type 2 Diabetes and she never responded, now The Daily thinks it knows why. The iPad paper is reporting Deen "has worked out a multimillion-dollar deal to be the spokeswoman for a pharmaceutical company and endorse the [diabetes] drug she is taking." more ›

A diabetic woman who was caught smoking pot in the Lower East Side has won a $125K settlement from the city because police refused to let her administer insulin after her blood sugar rose to dangerous levels in lockup. Cops at the Seventh Precinct confiscated 30 year-old Jaime Rutkowski's glucose meter and her insulin, and only called EMTs after her blood sugar rose higher than three times the normal level. "Any endocrinologist will confirm that this is enough for a Type-1 diabetic to go into shock, slip into a coma, and die," her attorney tells the Post. Rutkowski was treated at Bellevue for the October incident, and discharged from police custody. more ›

A Brooklyn woman is suing Coney Island Hospital, claiming that emergency-room personnel messed up a routine injection which led to her literally watching the skin peel off both her arms. Marie Louis-Jeune, 55, went to the hospital in April 2008 for treatment for her diabetes. The staff hooked her up to intravenous solutions, but missed her veins, leaving the calcium chloride solution to eat away the skin around her elbows and the underlying tissue. "It [the solution] ate away her skin as if it were a piranha," Jeune's lawyer Richard Mogg told the Post. more ›

43-year-old Jose Vargas just won a $17.5 million lawsuit against the city, but he probably doesn't know it because he's brain damaged and wheelchair-bound and living in a nursing home. How did he get this way? He's a Type I diabetic and police denied him his insulin while he was in a holding cell for nearly 60 hours after his arrest in 2006. Vargas suffered multiple seizures, lapsed into a month-long coma, and when he came to his brain was "fried," according to a doctor who testified at his trial. Sadly, Vargas had insulin on his person when he was arrested, but cops ignored his pleas and threw it away. Chalk up another win in the War on Drugs! more ›

Queens resident Yi-Joo Kwon, 64, crossed his finish line in front of the UN yesterday after running 3,200 miles across country to raise awareness for diabetes. Nicknamed "Flushing's Gump," Kwon ran across 15 states in 95 days without aid of a GPS device—he just kept a piece of paper telling him where to go. After finishing his journey, he told the Daily News, "The reason I was able to finish this cross-country run is because I was thinking of everyone here supporting me." Kwon began running marathons just 10 years ago, and has since finished 100 of them. more ›

In a $10 million lawsuit filed against the city, lawyer Bonita Zelman is claiming cops killed an innocent man in 2006 by ignoring a diabetes warning bracelet on his wrist, and leaving him to die in custody when he should have been taken to a hospital. Peter Fort was allegedly wrongly arrested for trespassing in a housing project in Queens, and police delayed his hospital transfer by waiting for a patrol car instead of calling an ambulance. more ›

Flushing resident Yi-joo Kwon is passing through Missouri in his run from LA to NYC to raise awareness for diabetes, which he almost died from in 1996. Beginning on March 23rd, the 64-year-old has averaged over a marathon a day, and is currently a week ahead of his 110-day schedule. Facebook fans have nicknamed him "Flushing's Gump," and seem to be giving him a lot of support (in Korean). Supporter Sang Ho Seo writes, "Thorny path of suffering and self. Set forth in the way of your, Wishing you the glory." Poetry, or just Google Translate? more ›

With state lawmakers unwilling to pass a penny-per-ounce tax on non-diet sodas and other sugary drinks, most people have given up hope that the so-called fat tax will roll into this year's budget. But State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines—whom you may recall from such classic videos as Soda Vs Milk—is holding on to the dream! In a profile in today's Times, Daines goes into "polemical overdrive," in hopes that the tax "might be revived during 11th-hour budget negotiations, when lawmakers are desperate." In Daines's eyes, the issue is just as much about economic disparity as it is about obesity: more ›

Who says vegetarianism is dead? Last week Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer proposed that NY public schools institute a "Meatless Monday" program, by which students would start their week with spinach and green beans, foregoing bacon strips and chicken wings. “The way to get to kids is to raise the flag: ‘Give up meat one day a week. I’m not going to have Burger King or McDonald’s for one day,’” said Stringer, who edited the "Go Green East Harlem Cookbook." “You’ve got to reach the next generation of New Yorkers early.” more ›

A diabetic mafia don who says he has received poor medical treatment as he awaits trial on racketeering and murder charges suffered a stroke last week—one day after a judge refused his bid to be released because of his health. The Daily News reports that suspected Colombo boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli suffered partial facial paralysis and remains hospitalized. Gioeli says prison officials haven't filled his prescriptions or given him proper food considering his diabetes, though prosecutors say commissary receipts show he subsists on a junk food diet of doughnut sticks, Hershey bars, potato chips, macaroni and cheese and Spam. Officials are now considering allowing Gioeli to keep a glucometer in his cell so he can monitor his blood sugar levels. more ›

A man who had stumbled onto the subway tracks yesterday came within inches of his life but was saved by the sharp eyes and quick instincts of a motorman who pulled the brakes just before his approaching V train struck the man. William Meyer was in Penn Station to catch a Long Island Rail Road train home when he went into diabetic shock and wandered into the subway instead. From there, he began having seizures and stumbled onto the tracks at 32nd Street and 6th Ave. Motorman Eugene Hart thought that Meyer may have already been underneath the train by the time he was able to bring it to a complete stop. Luckily by that point, Meyer had been helped back to the station by an MTA work crew. "I've had problems before, but I never ended up in the subway, on the tracks or falling down," said Meyer, who three years ago was ticketed by police who thought he was drunk during a seizure. more ›

When Andrea Sangermano crashed into two cars on Long Island one night last May, she assured the arresting officers she wasn't drunk or high. And even though she could barely stand up, her breath test registered a blood-alcohol level of .00 percent. Only later did it occur to her to inform the cops that her behavior might have something to do with her being a diabetic in need of insulin. But that didn't stop Nassau County from publishing Sangermano's name and mug shot on their "Wall of Shame" of DWI arrests, where she stayed until yesterday, when a judge dismissed her charges. (The mug shots were also published on Newsday's website.) A spokesman for the county executive apologized but insisted "this is the first time" a defendant has been wrongly placed on the wall of suspects, who are publicly humiliated until proven ugly guilty. more ›

Last summer Shepard Fairey was in town installing his exhibit at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in DUMBO; new pieces also went up around the streets of Brooklyn during that time. more ›

Between the 2002 and 2004, New York City residents gained 10 million pounds, becoming Rubenesque at a rate nearly three times that of other Americans, according to a survey by city health officials. Obesity and diabetes rates in the city soared 17% between 2002 and 2004, compared to a 6% rise in obesity rates nationwide, where there was no marked increase in the rate of diabetes. more ›

This week in New York life is like a box of chocolates – on steroids. (Mmmm, chocolate steroids.) The wicked masterminds behind the 10th annual International Chocolate Show decided that this year the usual three day, 40,000 square foot cocoa orgy just wasn’t going to cut it. So they’ve gotten a number of area restaurants to collectively boost the city’s blood sugar levels by declaring the next six days Chocolate Week. Some notable New York... more ›