Paula Deen Cooks Up Fresh Start After Diabetes Denial And N-Word Scorchers: Can She Polish Tarnished Reputation?

Paula Deen is selling her mansion for $12.5 million in a move that signifies what she hopes is a tasty new start after a series of scorching scandals. Now, after a history of accusations of racism and anger from her fans when they discovered that she was recommending cooking with butter and sugar while trying to hide her diabetes from the world, Deen has lost weight while trying to regain her tarnished reputation, reported E! News.

After losing 30 pounds following the loss of several profitable endorsement gigs and cooking shows, Paula is planning ventures ranging from a mobile game to restaurants. But she’s also trying to let go of her past, which includes those fattening Southern dishes that, true to down-home tradition, included everything from cheese-stuffed potatoes to fried apples coated with sugar.

And turning away from that past might even include a move, hinted an insider.

“She has been looking at incredible apartments in New York City to purchase as a second home,” revealed an insider, indicating Paula’s desire to transform her life as well as her body and reputation.

Could Deen take a bite out of the Big Apple, becoming a rival of the many other famous chefs in that unique city who want to cut out their own slice of the elite restaurant pie? Or is it possible that she might even use New York City to leverage a cooking show or even reality TV type of chefs competition?

For Paula, though, getting back the trust of her fans after hiding her diabetes while recommending that they eat sugary, buttery, high-carb foods remains a challenge. She now has written a low-fat cookbook and talked with Dr. Mehmet Oz about her type 2 diabetes diagnosis, reported People.

“I threw out everything that was white. White bread, white rice, white potatoes, white pasta. I did that for four months, y’all! Just four months. I lost 35 or 40 pounds and now I’ve brought everything back into my kitchen, just like anybody’s kitchen. Moderation. Moderation. Eat a cookie, just don’t eat six of ’em!”

While she’s preaching moderation, Deen is practicing making fattening foods again. When she’s stressed, she cooks.

“I love to bake cakes and cookies. If I’m stressed, that’s one of the ways I handle it because I get lost in all those wonderful flavors, and then, poor Michael [my husband] comes in and has to face six or eight cakes. He said, ‘Oh, my god, you got to get through whatever’s bothering you quick.'”

However, can Paula restore her reputation? As the Inquisitr reported, Deen is trying to be candid after getting slammed for denying that she had diabetes.

But Paula now says that even though the news leaked out, she herself denied it.

“I didn’t believe the doctor,” confessed the 68-year-old.

So Paula waited a full six months before she returned to the physician’s office, where she received the same diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. It was only then that Deen decided it was time to change her love of sugary, buttery, high carbohydrate concoctions.

But that’s not the only scandal that she’s trying to forget. She lost her cooking shows and paying endorsements when Paula was forced to confess that she used the N-word and racist epithets.

Deen quickly added that she no longer used the N-word during that confession.

“[It’s] just not a word that we use as time has gone on,” said Deen.

In addition, she revealed that she had envisioned dressing waiters up to look like slaves. She said she thought that would be ideal for a wedding with an antebellum theme.

“Middle-aged black men… had on beautiful black jackets with a black bow tie,” she said of a restaurant that helped her come up with the immediately-slammed concept.

Her career began to crumble at that point. It started when Food Network canceled her show, then endorsement deals, such as her one with Smithfield Foods, fell apart faster than a poorly-cooked souffle.

Can a fresh start gloss over her past more smoothly than icing on a cake? What do you think? Post your comments below.

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Food Network SoBe Wine & Food Festival]