Paula Deen has Type 2 diabetes

FOR 10 years, wielding slabs of cream cheese and mounds of mayonnaise, Paula Deen has become television’s self-crowned queen of Southern cuisine and one of the country’s most popular chefs, with an empire built on layers of gooey butter cake, fried chicken and sheer force of personality.


On Tuesday, she suddenly unveiled a new career for herself: herald of a healthy life. In an interview on the “Today” show on NBC, she revealed — as has long been rumored — that she has Type 2 diabetes, a diagnosis that she said she received three years ago. In an interview with The New York Times, she said the delay in announcing it had been part of a necessary personal journey. “I wanted to wait until I had something to bring to the table,” she said.


Now, Ms. Deen, 64, has brought to her own table a multiplatform endorsement deal with Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company that makes Victoza, an noninsulin injectable diabetes medication that she began promoting on Tuesday morning. She and her sons, Jamie and Bobby (who do not have diabetes), are all being paid to spearhead the company’s upbeat new public-relations campaign, “Diabetes in a New Light,” which advocates using the drug along with eating lighter foods and increasing physical activity. All the same, Ms. Deen said she would not change her own lifestyle or cooking style drastically, other than to reduce portion sizes of unhealthful foods. “I’ve always preached moderation,” she said. “I don’t blame myself.


Deen told the “Today” show on Tuesday that she has already cut out the endless glasses of Southern-style sweet tea.


“That’s a big trick for a little Southern girl,” Deen said. “I calculated how much sugar I drank in empty calories, and it was staggering.”


Diabetics have to be especially careful about what and when they eat, even if they are on medication to control their insulin.


“People can still eat sweets,” she said. “But they have to be stragetic about it. What and when they eat is extremely important when you’re diabetic.”


Deen has said she’ll be tweaking her recipes to include healthier ingredients, swapping out fat-laden meats for leaner choices and slashing the sugar.


But even if she loses weight and gets her diabetes under control to the point where she does not have to take her daily injectable insulin, she will be a diabetic for life.


“It never goes away,” said Bauer. “All you can do is control it with careful diet and exercise.”


Deen is just of many millions of Americans living with Type 2 diabetes.


According to the American Diabetes Association there are appoximately 25.8 million adults and children living with the disease.