Paula Deen, America’s favorite Southern chef, has built her reputation on traditional comfort foods made with lots of love and even more butter – and people either love her or hate her for it. She’s been criticized for years for promoting an unhealthy diet at a time when over two-thirds of American adults are overweight and one-third are considered obese. Yes, her food is loaded with fat and calories, but she swears she’s not eating like that everyday, and neither should viewers. It’s more like every other day.
Unfortunately, it looks like she should have pushed that to once a week. After months of speculation and rumors of living with diabetes, Paula Deen is going public with a diagnosis that millions of Americans suffer from today: Type 2 diabetes.
“I’m great,” she said on NBC’s “Today’ show Tuesday morning. “I’m here today to let the world know that it is not a death sentence.”
Although she found out she had diabetes over 3 years ago, she waited to go public until she could bring something to the table. She was not, however, trying to protect her reputation. After all, she DID tell you it’s all about moderation!
“I’ve always encouraged moderation. On my show I share with you all these yummy, fattening recipes, but I tell people, in moderation. In moderation, you can have that little piece of pie,” she said.
According to CNN, she’s launching a campaign with her two sons, Bobby and Jamie, called Diabetes in a New Light as her new partnership with Novo Nordisk, a maker of diabetes medications. The Deen family is offering new, lighter versions of their favorite recipes and advice on managing the disease.
Paula Deen making light recipes?! It’s hard to believe with her love of Southern cooking, but then again Bobby was born and raised on that food and he makes some great looking healthy recipes! I guess we’ll have to wait and see what she comes up with. If Paula can do it, we can all give it a try.
Nearly 26 million Americans are living with diabetes, and another 79 million are pre-diabetic. But you can’t blame Paula for sharing her love of food with America. After all…
“Honey I’m your cook, not your doctor. You are going to have to be responsible for yourself.”
