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Subscribe to RSSIn a TODAY exclusive, celebrity chef Paula Deen reveals that the recent rumors are true: She has Type 2 diabetes. She tells Al Roker that she supports "eating in moderation."
Paula Deen came clean to TODAY’s Al Roker that she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes three years ago. The 64 year-old Georgia-born chef is the Queen of high-calorie, fat-laden, Southern comfort food said she kept the disease hidden from her many food followers because she had to “figure things out in my own head.”
“I wanted to bring something to the table when I came forward,” she told TODAY. “I’ve always been one to think that I bring hope.”
It seems that the “something” Deen is bringing to the table is her promotion of a diabetes drug and an online diabetes management program.
There’s an ethically nasty hypocrisy to the timing of Deen coming clean about her condition. Obesity and genetics are leading causes of type-2 diabetes, not just somone's diet. But it’s possible that what Deen has proudly, aggressively and lucratively promoted in her TV kitchen for years may be a factor in her illness. If you are making a living promoting foods that give the American Diabetes Association fits -- such as saturated fats (butter!), bacon and sour cream -- you certainly have an obligation to let your fans know as soon as you know that you have a disease that is tightly linked to the food you are shilling.
Not only has the First Lady of the Deep-Fryer been less than transparent about her disease, she has inked a multimillion dollar deal with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk for its once-daily treatment. It is hard to imagine a stickier ethical affair than making a fortune promoting foods that make people fat -- thereby increasing their risk of diabetes -- and then having the nerve to try to sell them a drug to treat the diet-related disease that she has had secretly for years.
Deen never told anyone to eat only what she prepares on TV. She told TODAY that her show is entertainment and that "you have to be responsible for yourself." But, she has frequently laughed-off the well-known health risks of a diet rich in fried and fatty entrees. Strictly following her dietary directives puts her viewers and readers at risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and arthritis.
One of her rival TV food floggers, Anthony Bourdain, has called Deen "the worst, most dangerous person to America" for glamorizing unhealthy recipes. I am not sure she makes it to the top of my most dangerous list. But, given her lack of ethics about what foods she has promoted in the past and a lack of honesty about a disease known to be closely tied to those very foods, I certainly would be extremely wary about following her advice about either what to cook or what medicines to take in the future.
More on Paula Deen:
Did Paula Deen's diet cause her diabetes?
Deen: Diabetes diagnosis won't change how I cook
Struggling to overcome secret shame of diabetes
Leave a Comment:
Diabetes is more complicated than that. It really is a disease. If you do not have the gene for diabeties, and even if you do, neither gaining weight or eating sour creme is going to make you diabetic. Paula Dean is about cooking delicious food. Her area of expertise is not diabetes. Stop judging diabetics because you do not have the disease. It is really never helpful to tell people things they know already.
I don't think the article is judging those with diabetes, only Paula Deen. Calm down, no need to be so offended.
Apparently YOU don't know a damn thing do you? I have Type-2 diabetes. I was 288 lbs. I am now 215 lbs. and the doctor just took me off of one of my two diabetic meds. Sure she cooks delicious food, but that doesn't make it HEALTHY food. So know what you're talking about before you open your mouth.
Article raises good point -- eat my bad food, it's real good, then buy my diabetes medicine
OTOH I have seen Bourdain drunk on the Travel Channel (that means drunk at work) he should move out of the glass house before throwing stones
Agreed. While I agree somewhat with his criticism of Deen (I said somewhat: I think he is being too harsh, but hey, that's his nature), he has some nerve to criticize anyone.
What nonsense. There is nothing wrong with any food as such, just don't stuff yourself to oblivion. You want to cook with butter, cook with butter, just use a little portion control (what we used to call "common sense") when you sit down at the table. You want sour cream on that baked potato? Go right ahead, but how 'bout keeping it to a tablespoon or two instead of half a cupful? The healthfulness of a food is not measured by whether or not we can gorge on it without consequences. Nobody ever got fat because of a cooking show. And as for Bourdain, he's an elitist, an embittered snob who can't bear Deen's success, for reasons that have nothing to do with her cooking.
Like anything else, eating in moderation is important for everyone, not just diabetics. Paula Dean's food is no worse than Emeril or the food on DDD. Just for this author's information, butter is better than margarine from a health standpoint since most margarine has trans fat which is much worse than saturated fat. Even fried food is OK if good oil is used to do the frying. My only problem with Paula's announcement is her being paid to endorse Victoza, which is a class of drugs that have been shown to have problems with pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.
Everyone knew this was going to happen. No need to rub it in.
eat like a pig and make a million endorseing victoza only in american
ron the roofer...a lot you know! You can't eat like a pig on Victoza. You feel full and can only eat a small portion. I have been on it for a month and have lost 18 pounds. Just by eating less, and no desire to snack. It seems to be a good drug.
The chickens are coming home to roost. But in Paula's case, the chickens are coming home to be deep fried in bacon grease and smothered in gravy...
I'm sad for Paula, but not all that surprised. Maybe she should look into a healthier diet to treat her diabetes instead of drugs? There's lots of interesting information available at this noncommercial, science based site (nutritionfacts.org). To quote the good doctor: "It is too bad Paula Deen missed this opportunity" to tell her fans "that type 2 diabetes can be prevented, managed, treated, and even cured". Read more at
Of course that fat hypocrite's diabetes was caused/brought on sooner/worsened by her diet! Even if you have the genes for diabetes you'll get it later/less severely/or not at all if you keep your weight down, exercise and eat healthily. The % of the population with diabetes is going up and genes don't change in a generation!
If we let nature take its course, diabetics would die young before they could pass on their genes and maybe we wouldn't have diabetes anymore. But obviously we won't do that. But supporting a "Southern food guru" who callously kept pushing "buttah, buttah, buttah y'all" while HIDING her illness is just wrong.