NEW YORK (AP) -- Paula Deen, the Southern belle of butter and heavy cream, makes 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 unhealthy 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, who will turn 65 on Thursday, said she kept her diagnosis private as she and her family figured out what to do, presumably about her health and a career built solidly on Southern cooking. Among her recipes: deep-fried cheesecake covered in chocolate and powdered sugar, and a quiche that calls for a pound of bacon.

"I really sat on this information for a few years because I said, 'Oh, my gosh, what am I going to do about this? Is my life fixing to change? Am I no longer going to like my life?" she asked. "I had to have time to adjust and soak it all in and get up all the information that I could." 

While Deen, who lives in Savannah, Ga., has cut out the sweet tea she routinely drank straight through to bedtime and taken up treadmill walking, she plans few changes on the air.

 

<관련 한글 기사>

고열량 음식 전문 요리사 당뇨병 투병 사실 숨겨

고열량 음식 요리법으로 유명해진 미국 여성 요리사가 최근 당뇨병에 걸린 사실을 공개했다.

폴라 딘(65)은 3년 전 당뇨병 진단을 받았지만 가족에게만 사실을 알리고 그녀가 출연하는 TV쇼 등에서도 전혀 언급하지 않았다.

이 요리사는 설탕과 초콜렛으로 뒤덮인 튀긴 치즈케잌과 설탕을 입힌 도너츠 사이에 기름에 튀긴 베이컨 등의 요리법을 소개한 바 있다.

건강을 우려하는 활동가들과 동료 요리사는 그녀가 미국인들의 건강에 끼치는 악영향에 대해 지적했지만 폴라는 “나의 요리를 그대로 받아들이지 말고 적당히 조절해야 한다.”고 강조하며 고열량 음식 소개를 그만두지 않을 것을 밝혔다.

그러나 폴라는 당뇨병을 이겨내기 위해 잠이 들기 전 자주 마시던 달콤한 차를 끊고 자주 걷는 등 삶에 변화를 계획하고 있다.