PAULA DEEN, the self-crowned “Queen of Southern cuisine,” said Tuesday morning on the “Today” show on NBC that she has Type 2 diabetes, a diagnosis she received three years ago. Ms. Deen also confirmed that she is being paid to promote Victoza, a noninsulin injectable medication made by Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company. Ms. Deen, 64, ran a restaurant in Savannah, Ga., for years before she became nationally known through her cooking shows on the Food Network, reveling in dishes like deep-fried macaroni and cheese and Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding. But she said in an interview with the “Today” co-host Al Roker, “I’ve always encouraged moderation.”
Rumors about her condition have swirled for years; they swelled over the weekend after NBC teased her appearance on “Today,” and were greeted with a chorus of emphatic “told-you-sos” from Internet commenters. “No wonder she has diabetes,” tweeted Jennifer Eure, who lives in Franklin, Va., during Monday’s broadcast of “Paula’s Home Cooking.” (Ms. Deen was discussing what kind of breadsticks might pair well with bacon cheese fries.)
More than 25 million Americans, or about 8.3 percent of the population, are believed to have diabetes, most of it Type 2 or “adult onset” diabetes, which can be brought on by any of a number of forces: heredity, excess weight, high blood pressure and high blood levels of sugar, fat and cholesterol.
Ms. Deen did not speculate on any particular cause of her diabetes. But her revelation adds a fresh story line to a rolling national debate about obesity, with elements of celebrity, schadenfreude and the current popular favorite, class warfare. The news comes as the Food Network prepares next week to broadcast “Fat Chef,” a new reality show that illustrates the difficulty many chefs have in managing the temptations and nutritional pitfalls of the job.
Ms. Deen, who began her career selling bag lunches to office workers in Savannah, has long been a lightning rod in the food world, criticized not just for using fattening ingredients, but also for perpetuating negative stereotypes about Southern cooking, endorsing products from the giant pork producer Smithfield and using her culinary following to sell an array of items — from her husband’s coffee brand to bedroom furniture. (“You can definitely tell that these mattresses have been inspired by my life in the South,” she on the Serta Web site.)
In an interview after the “Today” broadcast, Ms. Deen said she and her two sons had made a deal with Novo Nordisk to spearhead “Diabetes: A New Light,” a program to help people live with Type 2 diabetes.
Ms. Deen’s fame has allowed her to nudge her sons forward in their nascent careers as TV chefs. Bobby Deen’s new healthful cooking show, “Not My Mama’s Meals,” had its premiere last month, with recipes like Lighter and Leaner Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches.
Michael Mignano, a pastry chef on Long Island who will appear on “Fat Chef,” said butterfat is a constant companion for chefs in high-end restaurant kitchens, where he has spent most of his career. “The only difference is that Paula Deen does it on TV,” he said.
Mr. Mignano’s first job after culinary school was at Bouley, New York’s temple of modern gastronomy, where he worked under Bill Yosses, now the executive pastry chef at the White House. Chef David Bouley’s famous potato purée, he said, contained so much butter that the mixture actually separated during service, with a layer of butterfat floating on top.
“We would have to whisk it back together to order,” Mr. Mignano said. Although Mr. Mignano weighed almost 500 pounds in 2009, he said he was shocked to receive a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes two years ago at age 34. “It’s not that unusual in the industry to be overweight,” he said, pointing out that most restaurant jobs are not conducive to nutritious eating. “You eat bites of what’s in the kitchen, you get no breaks, you work until 1 in the morning, and you binge on fast food all the way home.”
Virginia Willis, a food writer in Atlanta, said the criticisms directed at Ms. Deen often reflect sexism and stereotyping about the South, in addition to food snobbery. “No one vilifies Michelin chefs for putting sticks of butter in their food,” Ms. Willis said. “But when a Southern woman does it, that’s tacky.” Contrary to popular belief, however, she said Ms. Deen’s fat-laden cooking does not in fact represent the apotheosis of Southern cuisine.
“Paula’s food often reflects modern cooking and convenience foods more than Southern tradition,” she said. “She feels like she cooks for ‘real people’ and for better or worse, that is how many people in this country choose to eat.”
