It's evening by the time we arrive at Grace's home located on a mountain slope in Hsichih. As soon as she steps in the door, Chen, fresh out of a taping session, makes a beeline for the kitchen to prepare. I ask if she would like to take a break before starting the interview. Her reply--"No need. I'm not in the least bit tired."

Chen introduces tonight's dishes. "The vegetarian shrimp floss is my own invention! You mix minced water chestnuts with slightly roasted pine nuts--this mixture serves as the shrimp substitute. Add some frozen veggies and--voila--a dish that is both nutritious and pleasing to the palate," Chen pronounces. Many of her tasty creations started out as restaurant dishes which she then fiddled with at home. Her new book will include many other easy, timesaving recipes.

"These very popular 'silver-wrapped-into-gold rolls' are also very simple to make," she explains. You stir-fry blanched mung-bean sprouts and shredded chicken in cold oil, stuff the concoction into tofu skins, and dribble homemade sesame seed sauce over the top.

"Legumes are rich in protein and easy-to-absorb unsaturated fatty acids which are very important for growing kids and nerve activity...."

Silver-wrapped-into-gold rolls: First blanch some mung bean sprouts and chicken strips, then stir-fry them in cold oil. Stuff them into tofu skin (tofu skin is usually triangular, which means it holds less and the contents can easily spill out; rectangular skin is better suited for this dish). Complete the dish by sprinkling on home-made sesame seed sauce.

Life-changing event

My beautiful hostess is a superb chef and knows nutrition like it's nobody's business. It's hard to believe that at one time you couldn't drag her into a kitchen. She couldn't be bothered with the hassle and hated the idea of being around kitchen grease.

Grace's husband, former GIO minister Su Chi, was diagnosed with liver cancer and had a tumor surgically removed in 1991. This unexpected turn of events forced her to rethink her responsibility for her spouse's health.

"After the operation, the surgeon, a doctor of Western medicine, said there would be no restrictions on my husband's diet," Chen recalls. After thinking about it, she realized that the source of her husband's cancer was most likely his lifestyle which included frequent dining out and a schedule full of social dinners. This prompted her to pore over literature on cancer and health and to decide to turn their lives around, starting at the dinner table.

Fifteen years later, Grace has used her well known Seven Dietary Strategies to successfully stave off any relapses of liver cancer in her husband. At the same time, she has transformed herself from a "pill-popping wreck" haunted by colds, headaches, stomachaches, and other "body-aches" into a svelte figure bubbling with health and vitality. In the two years since it hit the market, her popular book The Whole Food Codes sold nearly 200,000 copies.

The more she studied, the more concerned Grace became about modern society's crisis of diet and the stronger her determination grew to promote healthy eating. She began dragging a blender along with fruits and vegetables with her to her lectures, so that she could demonstrate how to make healthy drinks and allow audience members to taste them in hopes that doing so would warm them up to the idea of organic food. After sampling her drinks, Grace has heard many comments like, "Not too shabby" and "This is actually easy to make." After taking her dietary advice, a number of individuals have seen drops in their cholesterol and uric acid levels as well as reductions in their waistlines, while others have seen improvements in the condition of their skin, encouraging them to stick with their new diets.

Why wait till you're sick?

The past few years have seen her career as a journalist gradually wane, but the space has been filled by her new job--promoting healthy dietary practices. In addition to speaking engagements and writing books, her brother and she have opened a health food restaurant in Chunghe where they develop new health food dishes to encourage the healthy to stay that way. "Why wait until you're sick, until you've paid a hefty price, before changing your dietary habits? What's more, with some illnesses, once they've got you, there's no shaking them off," she shares.

She points out to people who would like to adopt her dietary suggestions that they can pace themselves: start off by eschewing fried foods (including fried, deep-fried, and stir-fried), as ingesting too much fat opens the gates to a plethora of illnesses. Next, embrace the "2/8 diet," that is, two parts meat and fish and eight parts vegetarian (of which three parts should be fruits and vegetables and five parts grains). Also, gradually replace the rice in your diet with unpolished multigrain items.

Energy juice is the health enthusiast's secret weapon. This tasty drink is easy to make and absorb. "When buying produce, just pick up a couple of extra boxes of mung bean sprouts," Grace explains in The Whole Food Codes. Some believe that it's better to chew your fruit and vegetables, but according to research by American organic drink pioneer Dr. Ann Wigmore, fresh blended vegetables are more easily assimilated. Quickly pureeing foods using quality equipment can help the body to completely assimilate nutrients by breaking up fiber cell walls. It's a great prescription for improving the immune system.

Stick with it for 21 days

Individuals who are sick will have to overhaul everything about their diets, from the food they eat and how it's prepared to what is served up at each meal of the day. During the two years following her husband's surgery, their diets were almost completely vegetarian and they ate no processed foods or foods fried in heavy oil. They also ate wholegrain rice and took breakfast more seriously.

"Don't worry that your taste buds won't be able to adapt. Studies show that if you stay the course for 21 days, your taste buds will change," she explains. You will also witness "amazing improvements" in your health during the first two to four weeks.

Of course, it won't be all smooth sailing, but you'll be able to come up with a diet that best suits you. For example, Grace had nobody to teach her when she first started, so she experimented with things like "rejuvenation water" and sugar cane juice. Not only did they taste nasty, you could never be sure that the products were safe or whether the supply would suddenly dry up. They found it hard to stick with them and eventually gave them up.

When she first started making energy drinks, she couldn't find a good blender, so everything came out tasting like sludge. Finding a good machine solved all of that and now her energy drinks have become the ace up her sleeve for her family's health over the past ten-odd years.

Grace bags it for lunch and does dinner at home practically every day. She worries about those who eat out on a daily basis. She blames the practice for adversely impacting both health and family relations. It's actually very easy to cook for yourself. What's more, buying groceries and preparing food add spice to life. She likes to encourage writer friends of hers by saying, "When you're tired of writing and you go out to eat, you have to wait for your order to arrive anyway, so you might as well use that same time to make yourself some noodles at home." It lets you put your mind on something else and enjoy the process of making your own meals, while giving you the opportunity to eat something healthy.

Expressing her heartfelt desire, she says, "Healthy living is straightforward, but you have to do it for yourself. I truly hope that we can somehow manage to make modern society just a tad more user-friendly."