A month after being widely criticized for revealing she has diabetes and a lucrative endorsement deal for a drug to treat her condition, celebrity chef Paula Deen says she’s ready to show a lighter side to her famously fatty Southern-style cooking.
Deen has even lost quite a bit of weight since her diabetes announcement. “I’ve dropped two pant sizes and I feel great!” Deen told People.
Deen, 65, says she walks 30 minutes a day and cut her portion sizes in half.
But Deen doesn’t believe in obsessing over how many pounds she’s lost. “We don’t own a scale in our house,” says Deen. “Every six months I go for a physical and find out. Now it’s time to see the doctor. She’ll be so happy if I’ve lost weight.”
Even though Deen plans to make some changes to her popular Food Network cooking show, don’t expect her to swear off butter.
“I am who I am. But what I will be doing is offering up lighter versions of my recipes,” Deen told The Associated Press.
“I will have a broader platform now, trying to do something for everybody,” she said. “But you know, I’m Southern by roots. I was taught (to cook) by my grandmother and nothing I can do would change that.”
Last month, Deen was criticized by many in the health and culinary worlds when she announced that nearly three years before she had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Roughly 23 million Americans are believed to have Type 2 diabetes, a condition blamed in part on obesity and unhealthy lifestyles.
During those years, she continued to promote her butter- and bacon-laden cooking on television and in books and magazines, and to profit from lucrative endorsement deals with companies such as Smithfield ham and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
But the harshest criticism was triggered by her simultaneous announcement that she also would be a paid pitch person for drug maker Novo Nordisk’s new online program, Diabetes in a New Light, and for its pricy drug, Victoza, which she takes.
Many wondered why she appeared to wait until she had a paying endorsement before revealing her diagnosis.
Deen’s recipes include deep-fried cheesecake covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, a quiche that calls for a pound of bacon, and a French toast casserole made with two cups of half-and-half and a half-pound of butter.
Following her announcement last month, Deen said she had stopped drinking the sweet tea she used to sip all day and had taken up treadmill walking. On Friday, she told NBC’s “Today” show that she has been eating less and exercising more.
Though Deen said she last month wasn’t planning to change her approach to on-air cooking, on Friday she said that when she begins shooting new episodes of her show this spring, the recipes will offer something for everyone, including people who want healthier recipes.
But it may be a while before viewers see the difference. Because filming and production schedules are set well in advance, it could take up to two years before those episodes are aired.
