Paula Deen criticized for hiding diabetes for three years

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Paula Deen, the Southern belle of butter and heavy cream, is making no apologies for waiting three years to 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. “You can have diabetes and have a piece of cake. You cannot have diabetes and eat a whole cake.”

Health activists and one fellow chef called her a hypocrite for promoting an unhealthful diet along with a drug to treat its likely effects. Deen added her support of the Novo Nordisk company to a collection of lucrative endorsements that include Smithfield ham and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

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, which had global sales of $734 million in the first nine months of 2011.

Outspoken chef Anthony Bourdain never has been a Deen fan. He told Eater.com of her diabetes announcement: “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.”