Paula Deen teams with Novo Nordisk on diabetes

NEW YORK - For 10 years, wielding slabs of cream cheese and mounds of mayonnaise, Paula Deen has become television’s self-crowned queen of Southern cuisine and one of the country’s most popular chefs, with an empire built on gooey butter cake, fried chicken, and force of personality.

Yesterday, she unveiled a new career for herself: herald of a healthy lifestyle. In an interview on the “Today’’ show, she revealed that she has Type 2 diabetes, a diagnosis she said she received three years ago.

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She told The New York Times the delay had been part of a necessary personal journey. “I wanted to wait until I had something to bring to the table,’’ she said.

Now, Deen, 64, has brought to her own table a multiplatform endorsement deal with Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company that makes Victoza, a noninsulin injectable diabetes medication that she began promoting yesterday. She and her sons Jamie and Bobby (who do not have diabetes) are being paid to spearhead the company’s new public relations campaign, which advocates using the drug along with changing diet and increasing physical activity.

All the same, Deen said she would not change her cooking style drastically, other than to reduce portion sizes of unhealthful foods.

“I’ve always preached moderation,’’ she said. “I don’t blame myself.’’