No butter? No bacon? How can something be tasty if there is no animal fat whatsoever? I promised my mom (a chef who favors dairy and meat) that I'd ask Alex Jamieson [1], the chef who glamorized healthy eating as Morgan Spurlock's post-McDonalds savoir in Super Size Me [2], this very question — or at least a version of it. The answer surprised us both.

Alex is a holistic health counselor and personal chef who develops regional, vegan, macrobiotic, and seasonal organic [2] menus for people who have allergies, specific health ailments like cancer and diabetes or for those who simply want to change the way they eat. She was trained at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School [3] and The Institute for Integrative Nutrition [4] and is the author of The Great American Detox Diet [5]. Alex recently pulled herself away from her dark leafy greens — kale is her current favorite — to answer a few questions for LIME.

LIME: What first attracted you to healthy cooking?

AJ: My own health problems. My body started to fall apart in 2000. I thought, "I'm not supposed to feel this bad." So I just decided to go for it. Overnight I changed my diet to be vegan. It was difficult at first, but it made a huge difference.

LIME: What is currently your all-time favorite food?

AJ: I'm obsessed with kale in spaghetti sauce and broccoli with a chickpea miso drizzle. Other times it's chocolate or popcorn (with olive oil and sea salt).

LIME: Andrew Weil listed the top foods not to be missed in 2006. [6] What are your picks?

AJ: Quinoa: it's high in protein, calcium, overall a great high-energy grain; sea vegetables like nori [7] and dulse: [8] they're the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet with iron, calcium, and trace minerals and they're great for detoxifying heavy metals and radiation; and miso: it's very detoxifying and cancer-fighting.

LIME: What are some of the flavor secrets you use for tasty vegan cooking?

AJ: I think whole foods are tasty already. We have become desensitized to the natural flavor of foods because we are so used to processed foods full of sugar and salt. You have to retrain yourself to enjoy whole foods again. I'm all about flavor. I also use condiments like miso and lots of herbs like sage and rosemary. And be sure to get a really good sea salt. Look for salt that is moist and gray, a sign that all of the trace minerals are still present.

LIME: What changes do you hope to see in the future of American nutrition?

AJ: We need to totally change the school lunch program and we need to get Americans to grow their own food. People are totally removed from the process of growing their own food. I talk to kids all the time who don't know that vegetables come from the ground. If you live in the city you can go to the farmer's market and get in touch with the person who grows your food. You can also grow herbs in your window.