Paula Deen is known for her true southern cooking, a culinary talent that did no
favors for her health. So what eating habits did she indulge in on her journey back to health?
Keep watching to discover what this TV personality eats on a daily basis.
Deen is no stranger to using butter in some of her most popular recipes.
For example, desserts like her gooey butter cake contain 16 tablespoons of butter. There
is one ingredient that she's since turned to that you might think contains lots of butter,
but actually doesn't have any at all. That would be buttermilk. That's right, there isn't any
butter in buttermilk. It may seem like an odd name for a product that is totally devoid of butter,
but once you learn where it comes from, it all makes perfect sense.
Buttermilk is the liquid left over after churning butter,
and when it comes to recipes that require cream, buttermilk is a great alternative. Not only is
buttermilk free of butter, it's also significantly lower in fat than its cream counterpart.
One cup of buttermilk contains only 2 grams of fat, which is much less than the 98 grams of fat
found in a cup of cream. Even better, buttercream contains double the amount of protein as cream.
It's no wonder then that a more health-conscious Deen has added buttermilk into her daily rotation.
When it comes to choosing foods for her daily meals,
Deen pays close attention to the color on her plate.
Carbs, according to her, are a killer. As much as she enjoys the taste of foods like white bread,
white rice, white potatoes, and pasta, they just don't have much of a place in her diet anymore.
"All the stuff that tastes so danggone good, y'all."
When talking about the changes she made to her
lifestyle once she found out about her diabetes, she told Good Housekeeping,
"I went home to my kitchen and I threw out everything that was white."
Deen's commitment to kicking white foods to the curb paid off. In a span of only four months,
she lost 40 pounds. She then found herself competing on season 21 of Dancing with the
Stars in 2015. She was eliminated in week six, but her healthy habits are still dancing on.
For those who don't have a superhuman amount of willpower, it should be noted that Deen
isn't saying to completely wave goodbye to carbs forever. She allows herself to have a
little white flour every once in a while, but most days she avoids it as much as possible.
If you ever have a chance to sit down for a meal with Paula Deen,
take note of the landscape of her plate. Limiting carbs means there is more room
for other things such as veggies. Since her change to a healthy lifestyle, she's doubled
the amount of green vegetables she includes on her plate. In an interview with Shape, she said,
"I really have been eating more of them – more veggies and more salads – and loving it."
When it comes to Deen's plate now, she probably isn't scooping heaping spoonfuls
of recipes like her fresh green beans that call for bacon drippings and butter.
Instead, she's talking about what she calls the "fabulous array of good vegetables,"
which are at the fingertips of those living in the south.
"We eat more vegetables in the south than any other area I've ever been to."
Those vegetables help keep Deen's appetite in check throughout the day
and fill her up faster than her old favorite carbs would.
Before Paula Deen's big transformation, there was one thing you would always find in her hand,
as the Georgia native never went a day without a glass of sweet tea.
In 2012, she told Prevention Magazine,
"I would start drinking it at 11 o'clock in the morning, and it would be on my bedside table when
I went to bed. I figured I was just consuming 1 cup of sugar a day just in my sweet tea."
That one cup is well above the amount recommended by the American Heart Association,
which says that women shouldn't consume more than 24 grams of sugar per day.
So in an effort to eliminate empty calories, Deen traded in her sweet tea for unsweetened tea. And
it turns out that she's pretty satisfied with the decision! As she told Shape,
"I began to enjoy flavored teas – peach, lemon, passion fruit, and I even discovered a mint
julep flavor – that had less sugar or was sugar free. These really hit the spot."
When planning her meals, Deen doesn't forget to add protein to her plate.
One of her favorite cuts of meat is country style pork backbone. As a true southerner,
she still shops for her old fashioned meat at the general store. Only now when she brings it home,
she makes sure that her meat doesn't take up more space on her plate than her vegetables do.
Her new rule of thumb is serving up only a fistful of meat per meal.
That's equal to about 3 ounces, which is what the USDA and FDA deem a single serving.
In the past for Deen, a serving of meat may have consisted of chicken fried steak.
Now, she'll either sear her steak in a skillet or she'll put it on the grill. She's managed to
be pretty creative in the kitchen when it comes to cooking meat. In place of butter for added flavor,
she's now been known to squeeze fresh juices of oranges and limes to create a marinade.
With all the recipes she has under her belt across more than a dozen of her cookbooks,
she has plenty of ways to spice up her meat to enjoy every day.
Diet foods may not be at the top of Paula Deen's list,
but substitutions may very well be. There's one in particular that she stands behind,
and that is Greek yogurt, which can be a healthier alternative to many
things because of its low calorie count and the fact that it's high in protein.
If you're looking to go healthy like Deen, she recommends using Greek yogurt as a substitute
for cream in sauces, fillings, and desserts. Just see what happens when you swap it for
the butter in mashed potatoes or use it in place of sour cream. The conversion is simple.
Just use the same amount of Greek yogurt that you would sour cream. You might notice a little bit
more tartness in the flavor, but when it comes to the creamy texture, Deen celebrates Greek yogurt.
Fruit smoothies used to be one of Deen's favorite breakfast choices.
That was until she learned that carbs shouldn't be eaten alone.
A fruit smoothie is pretty much all carbs, and those carbs will immediately turn to sugar.
So that's why Deen learned to add peanut butter. Peanut butter falls very low on the
glycemic [gly-SEE-mihk] index, a scale that ranks foods based on what happens to blood sugar after
eating specific food types. Foods like peanut butter that digest slowly have a lower GI score.
This may work for Deen when it comes to her fruit smoothies,
but not with her beloved peanut butter pie. She's been unsuccessful
at creating a healthier version of that particular dish. According to her,
"It doesn't taste good if you do a lighter version."
So even though a dose of actual peanut butter may be on Deen's daily menu,
her peanut butter pie can be enjoyed only on occasion.
For a post-meal dessert, Deen is used to whipping up delicious treats like her famous Gooey Butter
Cookies. But now that she's had to say goodbye to things like cream cheese and butter, she's found
some pretty tasty alternatives. In an effort to keep her diabetes in check, she's discovered a
newfound love for dessert on a stick. See's brand Lollypops have been a saving grace for Deen and a
great way for her to curb her sweet cravings. She's particularly fond of the butterscotch.
The Lollypops do also contain butter and heavy cream,
but that's not a huge problem as they come in a much smaller package than other desserts
that Deen has indulged in. After 10 minutes, her cravings are eliminated. Small amounts of sugar
every now and then are okay for those with type 2 diabetes, so she's in the clear with this option.
If you've never heard of boiled peanuts, Paula Deen is shaking her finger at you.
This southern favorite is one of her go-tos in between meals. That shouldn't come as a
surprise, since her home state of Georgia is reputedly the peanut capital of the world.
According to Deen, you can't eat boiled peanuts without plenty of salt.
It's a good thing for her and anyone who's health-conscious that boiled peanuts have
half the calories of regular peanuts. They're also easy to eat. And Deen for one doesn't need
any extra frills. She just cracks open the shell and enjoys them as they are.
"I used to always say, 'I soak my nuts.'"
"Ha ha!"
"But now I'm gonna boil my nuts."
"Yeah. (laughter)"
The best time to enjoy the freshest peanuts is between June and September.
Those raw peanuts take about an hour and a half to cook.
Outside of the fresh season, Deen can still enjoy her boiled peanuts,
but she'll just need to pick up dry ones from the grocery store that can take up to 10 hours
to cook. She believes that the end result is worth the time it takes to wait for her favorite snack.
The American south is no stranger to okra, a green, finger-shaped vegetable that provides
a good source of vitamins and fiber. It's also a staple vegetable that you'll find always growing
in Paula Deen's garden. Her favorite way to eat it is in succotash, which she believes works as
a delicious side dish. If you're looking for something to eat with almost no calories,
this is a great option. Deen also likes to boil her okra,
add a little pat of butter, and then season it with salt and pepper.
Sometimes, Deen finds herself unable to resist her southern fried ways when it comes to okra.
On her cheat days, she may deep fry it in buttermilk and flour. But she
assures her fans that those are only the days when she's "cooking like grandma,"
which she needs every once in a while to stay on the wagon.
Most days, though, her okra cooking falls much more on the healthier side of the scale.
When Paula Deen decided to make a healthy start by throwing away everything white in her kitchen, she
did make one exception. That was cauliflower, a vegetable that has become her "very good friend."
Using cauliflower was her way of pretending that she could still enjoy mashed potatoes. She created
a mashed cauliflower recipe, which got the mashed part down, while skipping the actual potatoes.
This is a meal that takes only 10 minutes to make. All she does is pop one medium head
of cauliflower florets into the microwave with a quarter cup of water until tender.
Then she dumps the cauliflower into a food processor with a few extra
ingredients until smooth. It's that easy. For a garnish, she recommends sliced chives.
Deen also has a roasted cauliflower recipe that's healthy and low in carbs.
She bakes the cauliflower in the oven and tosses it in a seasoning of olive oil, lemon juice,
Dijon mustard, thyme, and salt. Both recipes align with Deen's new healthy lifestyle, and with all
the ingredients on her approved eating list, these are easy recipes to incorporate into daily meals.
It may have taken Paula Deen a few decades to figure out the not-so-secret way to maintain a
healthy weight. But now that she's figured out a routine that works for her, she's sticking to it.
Ultimately, it all comes down to moderation. That doesn't mean you can't allow yourself to indulge
in some less-than-healthy food. But when you do indulge, it should only be every once in a while.
"Eat a cookie. Just don't eat six of 'em!"
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Mashed videos about your favorite celebrity chefs are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.