Welcome to my blog.

I will start by introducing myself. I’m Kristie Palfreyman, a family nurse practitioner with my Masters Degree in Nursing. I have a small clinic in Farr West, Utah where I see both family practice and urgent care patients. The major focus I have with caring for my patients is helping them to discover wellness through diet. As I went through school, I did not get a intensive learning course about nutrition (no health care provider does-isn’t that ridiculous?). It wasn’t until after school, and I was working at Farr West Urgent Care & Family Medicine that I was introduced to the research of nutrition and health pioneers such as T. Colin Campbell, PhD. and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.,  as well as evidence based research compiled and interpreted by Dr. Michael Greger, M.D.

My friend and colleague (& my kids’ pediatrician), Dr. Carey Lloyd, MD gave me my copy of The China Study. He told me that by following a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet, I would experience such positive results, that I would WANT to exercise (seriously?!).  I began my journey reading the book, The China Study, and was amazed by the results that Dr. Campbell reported on just by following a plant based diet. The results were so positive in fact, that I wanted to make sure that they whole plan wasn’t hokey.  If someone claims to have found the fountain of youth, you tend to be a little skeptical.

As I progressed through the research, it became evident that a plant-based diet is crucial to health. When you nourish your body, you give it the tools to function and repair as it was designed to do. This lead me to have some paradigm shifts in my thinking: As a health care provider, there were obligations that I felt to my patients. Among them was the desire to teach the best evidence-based way to treat illness. For hypertension and high cholesterol, I can treat you with medications that will offer side effects ranging from muscle soreness and pain to intimacy difficulties. -OR- I can teach you the tools how to improve your diet thereby lowering your cholesterol, decreasing your blood pressure, giving you more energy and well-being, and even improve your relationships. Which one should I do? Hmmm… It seemed to be an obvious choice.

The only problem, is that, if I was to recommend a whole-food, plant-based diet, I should lead by example. I had to change what I was doing and how I was living my life. I recognize that it can be tough to say, “no” to french fries and hamburgers. I want to be able to say to my patients that, “I’m doing this with you.” I also recognize that I am not perfect in my choices, that no one is perfect. However, if we can make great choices 90% of the time (or better), we will achieve 90% improvement. This life is a continuum of choices, and it really does make a difference if we make more good choices than bad ones.

So, a little over a year ago, I started eating a WFPB diet. I purposefully started without adding additional exercise. I wanted to test Dr. Lloyd’s assertion that soon I would feel SO GOOD, that I would want to exercise. I cut out animal products (including dairy & eggs), and increased my intake of vegetables, fruits, beans, grains of all sorts. I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I was full. I was never hungry, never felt deprived. In the beginning, there were times when I felt a little cold, and I wondered if I needed some meat. So, I ate a hamburger and did not feel guilty about it. I’m not perfect, and I certainly don’t pretend to be perfect. Over the course of 5-6 weeks, and probably a little faster, I felt a marvelous change happening! I had energy, I didn’t have achy bones, I woke up alert. And the funnest thing, I wanted to PLAY (insert the word exercise)! I think the grown-up word for play is exercise. I jumped on my elliptical and went 30 minutes without stopping, no soreness afterward. I stopped then because I was afraid of overdoing it on my first try. Within 2 more weeks I was up to 45 minutes. I had minor muscle soreness, but nothing that didn’t go away within a day. Amazing!

So, I began recommending a WFPB diet to treat illness such as constipation, diabetes, heart disease and others. Those that have followed the advice have universally had positive results. I have had patients treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, diabetes, eczema, obesity, and many other diseases with remarkable results. As part of the blog, I will be adding videos of testimonials of some of these marvelous patients of mine.

I give credit to the title of this blog to Dr. Michael Greger, MD. I was at the Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference in Anaheim last week (9/2016), and heard Dr. Greger give one of his masterful presentations. He impeccably went through the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S., and illustrated that a WFPB diet would treat, reverse and in some cases, cure most of them. The exception was accidents-it’s hard to correlate good health to car crashes. He pointed out that there was not a separate special diet for each disease. It’s simple, there really is, “One diet to rule them all.”

One of the things that I believe is that diet and healthful information should be freely available. We should be able to access research, and be able to decide for ourselves if there is worth and truth in it. I’m prepared to debunk fad, unhealthy diets like the high protein diets, fast food, and the like. I want to give you resources to improve your health and feel better. I don’t want to see you in my clinic, with diseases that could have been prevented if only you knew about it before.

I will include recipes and food substitution ideas. It should be reasonable to improve and fix what is ailing us. I am not one for 20-ingredient recipes. I am not a gourmet cook, and I don’t think it is reasonable for you to become one either. We are all busy, and I hope to offer information that will make your life more simple and more rich with joy, fun, and love.

In addition, I don’t advocate guilt. I do not want you to change because of a negative stimulus. I want you to change because you want to feel better. I want you to continue the change because you find value in the change. If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to ask. I can’t answer specific questions about treating your own specific diseases, if you need to have a prescription or personalized treatment, please come see me in the office. But, I deeply hope to give you tools that will get you started in a very positive direction.

If you want to learn more about a plant based diet and it’s health effects, I would recommend you do a couple of things to get started. Here are some ideas:

1. Read The China Study, by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD. and Dr. Thomas M. Campbell, MD (available at your library for free)
2. Watch Forks Over Knives, available online or on Netflix (free)
3. Download the Plant Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide from The Plantrician Project (free)
4. Visit Nutrition Facts for the latest in evidence based nutrition research. Here you can search for disease specific treatment information. Just about everything from Alzheimers to zoonotic diseases. Give it a browse! (free)
5.  If you are ready for some action, and would like some guidance with a plan, the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine offers a 21-day Kickstart Program that will get you going with support and ideas. (free desktop and App!)
6. Get How Not to Die, by Dr. Michael Greger, MD. (not free, but totally worth it)

Let’s do this!

Kristie