Chef Paula Deen Reveals Diabetes , Continues Southern Cooking

Chef Paula Deen Reveals Diabetes , Continues Southern Cooking

Paula Deen, the Southern belle Chef who expressed her love of butter and heavy cream, makes no apologies for waiting three years to publicly disclose she has diabetes while continuing to dish up deep-fried cheesecake and other high-calorie, high-fat recipes on TV.

She said she isn't changing the comfort cooking that made her a star, though it isn't clear how much of it she'll continue to eat while she promotes health-conscious recipes along with a diabetes drug she’s endorsing for a Danish company.

"I've always said, 'Practice moderation, y'all.' I'll probably say that a little louder now," Deen said Tuesday after revealing her diagnosis on NBC's "Today" show.

Deen, 65, said she kept her diagnosis private as she and her family figured out what to do, presumably about her health and a career built solidly on Southern cooking. Among her recipes: deep-fried cheesecake covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, and a quiche that calls for a pound of bacon.

While Deen, who lives in Savannah, Ga., has cut out the sweet tea she routinely drank straight through to bedtime and taken up treadmill walking, she plans few changes on the air.

Deen is the pitch person for Novo Nordisk's new online program, Diabetes in a New Light, which offers tips on food preparation, stress management and working with doctors on treatment. She has contributed diabetes-friendly recipes to the website and takes the company's drug Victoza, a once-daily noninsulin injection.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Friday January 20 2012, 2:45 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0