Patti LaBelle's New Attitude About Diabetes: "I Didn't Have A Clue"

Patti LaBelle’s New Attitude About Diabetes: “I Didn’t Have A Clue”

When award-winning singer, actress, Dancing With The Stars contestant and so much more, Patti LaBelle learned she had diabetes after passing out onstage nearly 20 years ago, the legendary singer said she thought that meant no more fun. No more fun with life. No more fun exercising whenever she wanted. And definitely no more fun in the kitchen where she loved to cook.

“The past few years, I’ve been paying attention to my health,” says singer Patti LaBelle. “I can live with this thing called diabetes. I sure can.”

Patti wasn’t always so sure of herself. Fifteen years ago, the rhythm-and-blues diva passed out on stage during a singing performance. That night, the doctor asked if she knew she had diabetes. “I didn’t have a clue,” Patti says. “I hadn’t gone to the doctor because nothing was hurting me.”

The diagnosis made her angry, even though she knew diabetes ran in her family. It had taken the lives of her aunt, her grandmother and her mother, whose legs were amputated before she died in her mid-60s.

“I knew a lot of things and ways of eating would have to go,” Patti says. Yet instead of taking charge of her disease, she spent the next four years ignoring it. “I’d make fried chicken for everybody, have a piece, and say it was OK.”

Eventually, the soul singer decided she needed a new attitude, just like the title of her 1985 chart topper. “I realized my blood glucose levels weren’t getting any better,” she says. “So I knew I had to…