Paula Deen Gave Up Mashed Potatoes To Help Lose Weight

Paula Deen built her world and her career around fattening southern foods. Through restaurants, cookbooks and media appearances, she advocated the tastiness of deep frying, adding butter and using lots of sauce. Despite some very vocal detractors, her outlook went over very well for years, at least until she was diagnosed with diabetes.

Deen admitted as much in a somber reveal back in January, and in the five months since, she’s been forced to take a very hard look at her own eating habits. Luckily, the plan she came up with has worked quite well so far. In a new interview with People, she gushes about losing thirty pounds since she went public, but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. She’s been forced to drop her beloved mashed potatoes and replace them with Greek salads and baked fish. I actually like baked fish, but that doesn’t mean I would ever pick it over mashed potatoes, all calorie and health concerns being the same.

Deen was actually diagnosed with diabetes prior to her public reveal, but she says it took her awhile to accept the condition and start changing her life. Only since she opened up has she really embraced truly eating better quality foods, and that full commitment has made all the difference.

Don’t expect her to start bashing unhealthy and delicious foods anytime soon, but in the future, she has vowed to be more aware and more balanced in the approach she preaches to others as well.