Paula Deen's Diabetes Diagnosis: One Meal at a Time

In the cozy kitchen studio at the sprawling home in Savannah, Ga., where she shoots her cooking shows, the Food Network star is assembling a chocolate bread pudding with rum toffee sauce for a January episode. Breaking up a bar of semisweet chocolate, sorting a pile of pecans and dumping in copious amounts of her signature ingredient-butter!-Deen is a woman in her element. Her reverie is broken by her son Bobby, 41, who recently launched a Cooking Channel show dedicated to more calorie-conscious versions of his mama’s belt-busting dishes. “So this is the light version?” he jokes as she pours heavy cream into a pot. “Don’t look!” she orders while she throws in two more sticks of butter. Bobby points out, “You don’t eat this way every day.” The doyenne of deep-fried decadence replies, “No, I don’t.”

Beneath the playful banter, the exchange hinted at a secret Deen would reveal a week later. During a regular checkup three years ago, “my doctor told me, ‘Paula, you developed type 2 diabetes,’ ” Deen confesses. And while she cites contributing factors-her age (she turned 65 on Jan. 19) and heredity (she believes her grandfather’s sister also had the disease)-she insists her diet is not as sinful as many believe. “I’ve always tried to practice moderation, even before I was diagnosed,” she says. When asked if she’s going to change the way she eats or stocks her pantry, Deen says, “No, because I would be so sad if I thought I had to go the rest of my life without a little piece of pie or cake.”

The news shook her husband, Michael, 56, and sons Bobby and Jamie, 44, who didn’t find out the truth about their mother’s health until about two years ago, when they started to notice she was making a few changes. “She did one of the hardest things for a southern person, which is to stop drinking sweet tea,” says Bobby. “And she started doing some light walking.” When they finally sat their mom down for a heart-to-heart, “it was a shock,” says Jamie.

The diabetes news drew fire from critics who feel Deen-whose last cookbook, Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible, was voted one of the worst culinary offerings of 2011 by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine-has made a career of inspiring unhealthy choices. Chef Anthony Bourdain-who once deemed Deen “the worst, most dangerous person to America” for her recipes-lashed out, saying, “When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut and you’ve been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you’ve got type 2 diabetes . . . It’s in bad taste if nothing else.”

Why take so long to divulge her diagnosis? The timing corresponds to the announcement of Deen’s deal as a paid spokeswoman for pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, whose diabetes drug Victoza she uses. When asked how much she’s making from her endorsement deal, Deen declines to give a figure, saying, “We have a financial agreement, but I’m doing this program because I want to inspire people.” Before she could do that, she says, “I had to digest my diagnosis and arm myself with information and teach myself what was happening to me.” She says she’s now steaming more homegrown broccoli and okra from the family vegetable garden and walks one mile on her treadmill every day. She also recruited Jamie and Bobby to join her on her Diabetes in a New Light tour, during which they’ll teach fans to make healthier versions of Deen’s rich fare. But on the flip side, Deen confesses she has yet to kick her infamous smoking habit. “She’s just coming to grips with it,” says Dr. Mehmet Oz, who will be counseling Deen on her bad habits on his talk show Feb. 2. “The patron saint of southern cooking can make southern food that’s good for you,” says Oz. “But whether she’s willing to restructure her life, that’s the big challenge.”

Updated by Asher Fogle
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