I, Stephanie Snipes, am a reformed junk food junkie. That's right, I'll admit it. I didn't visit many drive thru windows in my day, but I did fill my grocery cart with the finest fat, sugar and salt filled snacks this side of the Mississippi. Since losing 96 pounds (and counting!) I've learned a thing or two (or three):

1. All foods do not need cream and butter to make them taste good
2. Vegetables do not need to be coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried to be delicious
3. A big bowl of pasta isn't the only way to make a bad day better

Believe me it took awhile to get here. I would listen to health experts ramble on about how spinach was so delicious and think, "Have you had fettuccine Alfredo?" 

Then, I started eating healthy and sure enough, spinach started tasting good -- and sweet potatoes and quinoa and Greek yogurt. I wouldn't have thought it possible. So, when I had a chance to chat with health food expert Michael Pollan after our Food 101 show, I jumped at the chance. Michael shares with me his thoughts on weight loss, veggies and the worst mistake a dieter can make.

Stephanie Snipes: You're known for helping people learn to eat healthy, what advice do you have for people who need to lose weight as well?

Michael Pollen: [Eat] lots of vegetables. If you're eating like, a pound of vegetables a day you get full on that. There's so much roughage.

SS: A pound a day? Wow.

MP: Actually, we know that in countries where people eat a pound or more of vegetables a day they have very low rates of obesity, very low rates of cancer. So, the thing to do is find the things you can eat a lot of without getting into trouble, and that really is vegetables, by and large.

SS: But not all vegetables are good, right? What should we avoid?

MP: Potatoes. There are the starchy ones, the ones with tons of sugar. Some people avoid beets too. They're really sweet. Leafy greens, you can not go wrong. I can't imagine a diet where you couldn't have all you want of leafy greens. A little garlic, a little olive oil, it can't be beat. ... Getting off that processed food diet. That really is the key.

SS: In my attempts to lose weight in the past I fell right into the 100 calorie pack trap.

MP: Oh yeah, or how about no-fat foods. I think that is the biggest racket out there. These no- and low-fat foods where they ramp up the sugar to make up for the fact it doesn't have any fat. Fat is not bad. Fat is one kind of calorie. It actually helps you feel full. Carbohydrates don't have that effect. So even though per unit of weight, fat has more calories than carbohydrates you end up eating more carbohydrates.

That's the biggest mistake I think people make is assuming fat makes you fat and carbs don't. And, they move their diet over [to all carbs] and then get in all sorts of trouble. The average American woman has put on 19 pounds since we went crazy about fat and we're eating more. We're binging on carbohydrates. So, watch the carbohydrates and find lean forms of protein you can eat.

SS: I find if I eat carbs I just want more and more and more. I'm never satisfied.

MP: You get into this really bad roller coaster around insulin. That's why eating lots of vegetables, lots of fiber, which will keep you full for a long time, is really important. But, we've been trained. You know, breakfast in America is like a shot of sugar. Start with orange juice -- big shot of sugar. Cereal, [which are] refined carbohydrates-- another shot of sugar. And then you're on that roller coaster for the whole day. So, eat a lot of protein at breakfast.

SS: I think a lot of people out there avoid eating vegetables and other whole foods because they don't think they taste as good as what they eat now.

MP: You do have to adjust. Because one, if you eat a lot of fast food you're used to so much salt and so much sugar that everything else tastes bland. But it only takes a few weeks to recalibrate and then you can have a proper amount of sugar and salt. I hate to use the word addiction but you get this threshold and then you need that much more sweetness to feel like anything's sweet. We're in this arms race with sugar. … Readjusting your salt and sugar threshold I think is a really important thing.

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