January 24, 2023

266: Comfort Food Made Healthy & Delicious with PlantPure Chef Kim Campbell

Kim Campbell, a plant-based nutritionist, is on a mission to turn traditional comfort foods plant-based and to encourage others to embrace the power of nutrition. Tune in to learn more! In this episode, you will learn the fol...

Kim Campbell, a plant-based nutritionist, is on a mission to turn traditional comfort foods plant-based and to encourage others to embrace the power of nutrition. Tune in to learn more!


In this episode, you will learn the following: 

  • How to transition to a plant-based diet and the resources available 
  • The process of creating a plant-based cookbook and the testing that goes into it 
  • Effects of plant-based diets on health and why this information is not widely shared 


Resources: 


About Kim Campbell

Kim Campbell is the author of the “PlantPure Nation” and the “PlantPure Kitchen” cookbooks. Her newest cookbook, “PlantPure Comfort” was just released last December. She developed more than 350 delicious whole-food plant-based recipes using no processed oils. Kim is also the Director of Culinary Education and Development at PlantPure, where she works with her husband, Nelson, building an organization that promotes a whole foods plant-based diet. Nelson directed and produced the groundbreaking movie, PlantPure Nation.

She graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Human Service Studies with a  concentration in Nutrition and Child Development. Kim has been a plant-based cook for more than 25 years, cooking for her family and friends. Her love of culinary goes back to her early childhood growing up in a large traditional family. Kim is gifted at creating traditional American cuisine using 100% accessible plant-based ingredients. She builds flavors and textures that are familiar to most people, helping to make the transition to a plant-based diet easier for people. She is also the daughter-in-law of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, considered by many as the science ‘father’ of the rapidly growing plant-based nutrition movement. 


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Transcript

[00:00:00] Kim Campbell: There isn't really a lot of research out there that supports necessarily being an SOS-free diet. However, if you wanna do that and people enjoy it, obviously there's no risks involved with it. But I think using minimal amounts of salts and sugars, and I say that carefully because if you're using a lot of processed foods, so you're getting a lot of.

[00:00:21] Maya Acosta: You have more power over your health than what you've been told. This is the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions Podcast. I'm Maya Acosta, and I'm passionate about finding healthy lifestyle solutions to support optimal human health. If you're willing to go with me together, we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life.

[00:00:43] Maya Acosta: And increased longevity in a big way. Let's get started. So welcome back to another episode of the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions podcast. I'm your host, Maya Acosta, and today I have Kim Campbell. Welcome Kim. Hi, Maya, nice to be here. It's an honor for me to have you on the show, and I'm gonna kind of give a little bit of a reason why many people hear me on the podcast talk about PlantPure Communities and the film PlantPure Nation.

[00:01:10] Maya Acosta: And whenever people reach out to us and they're asking for support, I always say, Go look for the Pod network because you might be able to find people in your area who can offer support. So we're gonna talk about everything that you're doing. You're gonna give us a little bit of insight to maybe like a part two documentary that will kind of compliment the first film Plantpure Nation.

[00:01:32] Maya Acosta: And we're gonna talk about your work as a chef and your cookbooks. And so there's just so much to explore and I'm excited that you're here. But again, thank you for being with us. 

[00:01:42] Kim Campbell: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to chat. 

[00:01:45] Maya Acosta: Yeah, right. I did say that I'm a talker, so I always have to watch out to not talk a lot. I also wanna kind of paint a picture for everyone else that you're married to, Nelson Campbell, and both of you are very involved in.

[00:01:59] Maya Acosta: Well involved with the family and you're related, associated to the China study. I, I'm trying to put it the best way that I can, that Nelson's father and his brother co-wrote The China study, which is a heavily science based. Research based book that we actually ask a lot of people to read if they enjoy reading science.

[00:02:22] Maya Acosta: So feel free to talk about any of those things. But we enjoy the Campbell family. We enjoy everything that you've done. We take pride in knowing about PlantPure Nation, the film, the pod network, all that you're building. And one of the things that you might touch on today is some of the products that you're probably coming out with as well. So do you wanna talk a little bit about The China Study? 

[00:02:44] Kim Campbell:  I will when I first met Colin, which was back in the eighties, cuz Nelson and I go way back to 1980, early eighties, 81, and Colin was doing his research in China. So he was traveling and he'd be gone for two to three, four weeks at a time and then he would come back.

[00:03:00] Kim Campbell: He was always excited, always sharing his research, the data and things that he was. So I was still in high school when that happened cuz we met when we were young and I was really excited about what was transpiring. So I went to college and majored in nutrition and that wasn't the same nutrition that Colin was talking about.

[00:03:19] Kim Campbell: It was very, very different. So I ended up going into teaching and took a little different path, but then he wrote The China Study and I would say to people who love the science and who have to be. Convinced because of the science. I know we talked about this earlier cuz your husband is a physician and a lot of physicians and a lot of people need the science and the data.

[00:03:40] Kim Campbell: That book is, it's very heavily science-based, but it's also easy to read. I didn't find it. I found it very interesting and the pages were just turning and whipping and I was learning so much. I urge people, I know the book feels. There's a lot of information, but you know, take it in small bites, watch Forks Over Knives, read the China study, and then kind of go from there. Because to me, that is the foundation of understanding, why we should be eating a whole food plant-based diet. Hope that answers a question.

[00:04:14] Maya Acosta: You said it so beautifully. Absolutely. And I didn't realize that you were so young at the time that all this research was happening. Mm-hmm. , I can't even imagine what it's been like for you to have seen what's developed over the 20, 30 years or so of all this work to have seen.

[00:04:32] Maya Acosta: The movement grow to see so many people jump on board. Not only health professionals, but now you have pod leaders and you have people just leading and teaching in their own communities because they understand what you just said. The power behind going plant-based. So it just, it must be amazing for you to be part of all of this.

[00:04:51] Kim Campbell: It really is Maya, because when we were first learning about all of this, we were having our family, we were very young in our twenties and not doing everything perfect, but thinking we were, it was a different world. There weren't the cookbooks and there weren't the food products that are out there now and the knowledge.

[00:05:08] Kim Campbell: But I would say in the last. probably 15 years. I feel like it's really kind of blown up and I feel like there's a lot of physicians. You can go to almost any city now and find physicians who support a plant-based diet, who know about the research, and that wasn't true 20, 30 years ago. I feel like if you go to the grocery store, you can find all kinds of plant-based milks.

[00:05:32] Kim Campbell: I guess plant-based products, if you wanna dive into some of the processed foods, but it's there if you wanna transition to it. So it, it is a very different world than we saw that change after PlantPure Nation too. And I think people are, they're getting more educated. The internet came out and people are watching YouTubes and it's been exciting for me to watch the transformation.

[00:05:53] Maya Acosta: What an honor for you to, I mean, just, it's amazing and I wanna continue to talk about Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Thomas Campbell being involved with the China study and continue to share these resources because I have found that there are younger people and much younger than myself, who are not familiar with this work.

[00:06:11] Maya Acosta: And people come to, as we know, this way of living. Various ways. Some people just get it very early on how animal-based foods can harm the environment. Some people just care about the animals and they make a choice. They don't need all the research. But I think it's also important to continue to highlight those pioneers.

[00:06:31] Maya Acosta: And Dr. T. Colin Campbell was one of the speakers at the recent Lifestyle Medicine conference that I attended in Orlando, and it's always just so. To continue to hear him emphasize that out of all the things, cuz I do talk about lifestyle medicine a lot here on the podcast. Out of all the pillars, food. is the most important and what you're doing.

[00:06:52] Maya Acosta: I wanna acknowledge your work as well with your cookbooks and all that you have done. You have really offered a lot of support and I was watching you during the pandemic when you started going live with your cooking shows. Uh, and um, Nelson was supporting you as well with all the technical stuff. So tell us a little bit about that. And you did say that you might consider Resuming your live cooking shows. 

[00:07:16] Kim Campbell: Right. So we have, I'll back up and talk about the cookbook a little bit because we did these shows during the pandemic early on, you know, people weren't leaving their homes and we decided this is a great time to do cook alongs. I wanted to people to come on live with me and cook and, you know, make mistakes and develop new recipes.

[00:07:36] Kim Campbell: And it was just really fun. And we started out with small groups and it kept growing and grow. So we did these live shows for 50, almost a year. It was just shy of a year. I think we have over 50 shows and we, the same people would come in, I would send grocery lists and I would send the recipe and all the appliances that they needed.

[00:07:56] Kim Campbell: And many people said, you need to write another cookbook. So that's where that came from. I wrote, this is my third cookbook. It's called PlantPure Comfort Food. And a lot of the recipes that are in here are the recipes that we used when we were doing. I call 'em my pandemic cook along. I had testers, I had built-in testers, so I didn't have to send recipes out to people.

[00:08:17] Kim Campbell: People were emailing me and they were saying, oh, you know, I don't know if I like this one, but I love this one. So I used a lot of their information to create the cookbook. I got about a year into the pandemic and I contacted Ben Bella, who was our publishing company. They also published the China study as well and all, they do a lot of plant-based cookbooks, so I told 'em, I think I have a cookbook, and they were excited.

[00:08:39] Kim Campbell: We hired a photographer and it took a while to get it done because of the pandemic, everything took a little bit longer, so I've spent the last year working with them. To publish this cookbook, and it's been done for a while, but because of paper and things like that, it's taken a little longer to get on the Amazon shelves, but they can order that December 14th, which is next week.

[00:09:01] Kim Campbell: And I don't know when this podcast will come out, but it's December 14th. That's where the cookbooks come from. And my background in culinary goes way back to when I was a little kid. I've been doing. for a long time and when I was in college I always thought I should have gone to culinary school. So we went full circle.

[00:09:17] Kim Campbell: I raised three kids and we raised three kids and then taught school for several years. And then I left my teaching job to work with Nelson. And so I feel like I've gone full circle. You know, I started out in dietetics and ended up in teaching and then ended up back in culinary, and now I'm doing culinary educational cookbooks.

[00:09:37] Kim Campbell: So it's been a fun ride. I absolutely love what I do, and I could sit here and talk to you about it forever because I'm. . Just really passionate about it. I feel really honored that I have had the ability to write these books and help educate people to better health. 

[00:09:52] Maya Acosta: Absolutely. I have a background in teaching as well. I taught elementary for a few years, and so I find that once you're an educator, you just know how to use that skill in all areas. You're continuing to educate people. I was recently visiting my sister for after Thanksgiving and she was asking about the summit that we recently had for PlantPure pod leaders.

[00:10:15] Maya Acosta: And cuz she knows my background in teaching, so she's picking my brain asking questions. She's not fully plant-based, but she knows a lot of what I teach. And I told her as we were sitting down for dinner, I said, you know, the majority of what we. Is teach people how to cook , and it's what you're doing, Kim, because it, it doesn't matter what age you are, many of us have to come back to the kitchen and learn a new way of eating as opposed to the way that we were raised.

[00:10:40] Maya Acosta: Many of us with our traditions and our cultural background, we are just used to doing what we were taught at home, what our, you know, our social groups taught us. And so what you do, Through these cookbooks is you're just teaching people how to cook healthier meals that will improve their health and hopefully add to quality of life and longevity.

[00:11:01] Maya Acosta: And it's amazing. It's so different than when I was younger and I thought about cookbooks. I don't know if that makes sense, but when I was younger, it's just like the cookbooks were just another way of creating the, you know, fun and diverse foods. But now I see plant-based foods as a way of healing, truly using food as medicine.

[00:11:21] Maya Acosta: And all of your recipes and all that you're about is whole based, plant-based foods that are s o s. Is that right? 

[00:11:30] Kim Campbell: We don't use any oil and all of my recipes are whole food plant-based. I do use small amounts of sugar and salt, so I'm not sos free, I'm o free , but I, I do think that's important. Free. We talked to Colin about this quite a bit, about, you know, not using any salts in our recipe or any sugars in our recipes. There isn't really a lot of research out there that support. Necessarily being an SOS free diet. However, if you wanna do that and people enjoy it, I, obviously, there's no risks involved with it, but I think using minimal amounts of salts and sugars, and I say that carefully because. If you're using a lot of processed foods right there, you're getting a lot of salts.

[00:12:17] Kim Campbell: So, but if you're cooking your own food and preparing your own food, you can control the salts and you can put it in last, you know, you can. It's really, really interesting when you look at the sodium levels in a pretzel bag that's vegan, by the way. and then you look at the sodium in a recipe when you can put a quarter of a teaspoon and half teaspoon, whatever you wanna put in it.

[00:12:37] Kim Campbell: So I really think it's important to feed people food that has flavor that will draw them in, and then they can pull back salt from there if they want to. 

[00:12:49] Maya Acosta: So, I agree with you, and I've learned this right, like as we educate ourselves about this way of living, I learned that the majority of our sodium comes from processed foods, as you said.

[00:13:00] Maya Acosta: So I too don't shy away from telling people that haven't made a full transition. I don't shy away from that. I just tell them like you do to add your salt at the end of your cooking, the cooking process, and then it's easier to now pay attention to the sodium levels. Even in like the Jarred already prepared marinara sauce and in your beans, and it's amazing, Kim, cuz now I'm highly, highly sensitive to salty foods. I cannot tolerate, say, a cracker that's very rich in salt. It's just awful. 

[00:13:33] Kim Campbell: You taste it. I think the more you away from it, the more you taste. It's the same with sugar. I feel the same way with sugar. I, I've never had a sweet tooth, so when I eat a full-blown vegan cookie, It really hits me in the head and I think, whew.

[00:13:46] Kim Campbell: My stomach, I'm not used to eating that much sugar. So yeah, the more you get away from that, The more you're gonna really notice it and the 

[00:13:54] Maya Acosta: less you'll need. Yeah. So by the way, I live close to one of the few Barnes and Nobles that are left in the country. Right. So I love going over there and I'm always checking out the cookbooks.

[00:14:05] Maya Acosta: That's my passion. And I've seen your books. There's so beautiful. So this one, the Plant Pure Comfort Food is your latest. It'll come out December 14th, or that's when people can purchase. How is that different from your first two cookbooks and is there a common theme when it comes to the recipes? I think so. This cookbook. 

[00:14:24] Kim Campbell: I like cuisine from a lot of different cultures. So Nelson and I love, we like Indian food and Mexican food and Irish food and Middle Eastern, I mean all over the world. So I tried to pick food from different cultures. That wasn't necessarily plant-based. How can I make it plant-based? Those traditional foods like Falafels, which is a street food, right?

[00:14:46] Kim Campbell: Asian dumplings and Irish cold canon soup. Really traditional foods, but making them healthier without the added oils and the cheeses and the meats. So that's where we came up with the name Comfort Food. I would've preferred something. To describe that. It was basically from all different cultures. So titles, I mean, titles are hard to come by, but that's how this book is a little bit different.

[00:15:10] Kim Campbell: There's a lot of unique dishes in here that we would recognize and see in a lot of restaurants. I think all three of my books really dive into comfort food, and I think it has to do with our. Philosophy about food Nelson. And I believe that if we don't meet people where they're at and learn how to make plant-based foods that are traditional and you know, lasagna and pizza and all those things that American people love and people all over the world, we're not gonna bring 'em in.

[00:15:37] Kim Campbell: Cause I think that's the biggest stumbling block to success. There's two stumbling blocks. I believe it's the. and, and then I believe it's the support and having your family members having some kind of a support network. When we see failures, when people try to do this and they fall off the wagon and they just give up, it's usually because they don't have a spouse or a family member who's doing it with 'em.

[00:16:00] Kim Campbell: So doing it with somebody's, I think, pretty important. Anyways, my philosophy is to just. Bathe people in their traditional foods, and that's how I got, my parents were kind of interested in doing this and I have other family members. And that's how I convinced them a little bit. They're still not there yet, that's why I'm hesitating. But.

[00:16:21] Maya Acosta: you know, I'm glad that you touch on that because a lot of us are in those shoes and you would think you've been on this path much longer than I have because you learned about the science early on, and I haven't, I've been on this path going on almost seven years and you know, people ask us all the time is, are your family members plant-based?

[00:16:39] Maya Acosta: And we say, Just, not everybody will be open, but I love it when the family does go out of their way to make sure that they cook, plant-based or that they're open to that. And I have a niece who made a delicious lasagna recently with vegetables, and she's not, Fully plant-based, but because she knew my husband and I were visiting, she cooked what she's now eating more regularly.

[00:17:02] Maya Acosta: My sister say, you should see the large salads as she eats, and it's all, you know, being an example. No judgment. You touch on two great things. First is the taste in food just. , everybody wants to continue to eat delicious food. And then you touched on support and it's difficult, and I say difficult, but now it's easier for me.

[00:17:24] Maya Acosta: So I, in other words, I wanna validate that I understand why people don't make that change. My mom asked me recently, don't you ever get tired of cooking? and I said, yes I do, but I'm never gonna stop because I know that this is the best way for me to live. I mean, I would be a liar to say that I don't get tired, but you learn how to batch, cook and prep and think ahead of time.

[00:17:44] Maya Acosta: You were talking about support and one of the things that I now share a lot more is because of the pandemic. It opened up the doors to order our foods online and make our lives a little bit easier. I now do that, like I'm busy recording and editing and running my podcast, so I now have my groceries delivered and not everybody can afford to do that.

[00:18:04] Maya Acosta: And. . As you know, not everybody knows how to pick a good fruit either. So sometimes I take my chances. Some people don't know how to look for a ripe avocado, for example. Um, so now I wanna go back before we talk about Plant Pure as a business, the food business part of it. So your recipe developments, you talked about having testers and many people may not understand what that is, although you did describe it a little bit.

[00:18:31] Maya Acosta: I'm a tester right now for someone else who's developing their, um, cookbook. And my sister asked me, well, what does that mean? What do you do? And I said, I basically make the recipe and then I give feedback. So where do you find your testers and do you always have 'em for every cookbook? You know what, I know a lot of cookbook 

[00:18:48] Kim Campbell: authors, plant-based cookbook authors that do have a, they have group of, they have literally Facebook groups where they throw recipes out there and they have group test it.

[00:18:56] Kim Campbell: I didn't do that. I used my. Uh, we have some great cooks in the Campbell family cuz we're all plant-based. And I have several sister-in-laws and a sister-in-law who wrote a cookbook. She wrote the China study cookbook. So I kind of throw recipes at them and my own children, they're all plant-based and they're adults now in their twenties and thirties.

[00:19:17] Kim Campbell: They love to try their recipes. So I, I feel like between that and then Nelson. Become a very good taste tester, and he's become pretty good at cooking too, so I rely on him a lot. I should go into the testing. One of the things that we are testing right now is we have developed a frozen line, which is in available at Publix and Lowe's.

[00:19:40] Kim Campbell: We have burritos. There's a bunch of stores that I'm probably not saying all of them that we, Wegmans for example, is interested. There's several that are interested. Not all of them are on board, but they're mostly east coast supermarkets. So I developed all of those recipes. So as far as testers, we use people it plant pure to test those.

[00:20:00] Kim Campbell: And we've also developed a dry line. And we don't have an official name for 'em. They're kind of like a hamburger helper, so we're thinking of calling them healthy helpers. They're sauce based. There's five different sauces. There's a cheese sauce and an enchilada sauce, and there's a peanut sauce and a curry sauce.

[00:20:17] Kim Campbell: And there's one more that I'm forgetting, and there's a veggie burger. So basically, , these sauces, you can build recipes with them. So we're gonna create an ebook or online resource where people can buy these packs and they can go in and they can build recipes. They can make things like taco soup or uh, scallop potatoes, or a lot of the recipes in my cookbook, um, we're, we're grabbing from those too because I think a lot of people.

[00:20:45] Kim Campbell: They don't wanna just open up frozen food. It's expensive, it's not very filling. It's just, you know, it's, it's not very environmentally friendly, I guess, at times. But if you could have a, a dry line and create sauce and build from there, I think people get the feeling that they're cooking too and they have a little bit of ownership in their food without having to do all the work.

[00:21:03] Kim Campbell: So anyways, when, when I talk about testers, I think about our products too, cuz we've had 

[00:21:07] Maya Acosta: to. I'm excited about the sauces because that's exactly what we need when we first make that transition, like the tomato sauce or a cheesy sauce so that we can replace a standard, say, macaroni and cheese or nacho cheese or whatever it may be.

[00:21:21] Maya Acosta: Cuz I, I'm not too familiar with your sauces right now, but that in itself saves so much time. Like if we can just have it already made and then just add it on top of our potatoes or our veggies, or if we wanna do a pasta. So, Very exciting. When Planter first came out with the frozen line, I actually signed my mom up and I had the food shipped to her home because she has diabetes.

[00:21:48] Maya Acosta: And I started asking around about healthy options and I should have known cause I was a pod leader, but people say you need to try planter the frozen foods. 

[00:21:57] Kim Campbell: Yeah, yeah. It's great. We don't sell 'em online anymore, but you know, you have to get 'em in supermarkets. But it's great for people like that. My, when my father was sick and that he was elderly.

[00:22:06] Kim Campbell: Transitioning to plant-based, we sent him all the foods. So, um, yeah, it's a great support for that. But if you're on the West Coast, it's a little harder to get your 

[00:22:15] Maya Acosta: hands on the food and, um, you know, I had someone on the show once talk about it, it just really sticks with me that the goal is to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

[00:22:24] Maya Acosta: and this is exactly what PlanPure is doing. So let's talk about, there's so much you just touched on in terms of PlantPure. I did say that Nelson was part of our recent summit that we had for pod leaders, and he teased us a little bit about the documentary. I don't know if you'd like to talk about that, A documentary that's coming out next year that will compliment PlantPure Nation, which is what?

[00:22:48] Maya Acosta: Very excited about being part of this organization. What can you tell us? 

[00:22:52] Kim Campbell: I'd love to talk about what we did in Greensboro. So Plant Pure Nation. Go back to the first documentary that Nelson did. Plant pure ne nation really gets into the benefits of being plant-based. But why do we not know this information?

[00:23:06] Kim Campbell: And he tried to pass legislation. He talked to physicians, and you really get the story about why you're not hearing this. Because if it's true, if the China study's true and all this research is out there, Why aren't doctors talking about it? Why is our government not really preaching this to people? So that movie addresses that question.

[00:23:24] Kim Campbell: This movie is very interesting. We did an immersion in Greensboro during the pandemic towards the end of the pandemic, I guess it was in the middle. We brought six diabetics on board and some of them brought their spouses. And we hired another Chef, Fernando Peralta from Pennsylvania, and he and I did all the cooking.

[00:23:43] Kim Campbell: We cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for these folks. And Lori Marvis, our physician in-house physician, came down, spent the 10 days with us. She put continuous glucose monitors on people and got them off their meds. It's an amazing story. I won't tell you how, what transpired during that. I probably already gave away too much.

[00:24:02] Kim Campbell: I get so excited about this Immers. But it just really, for us, we know that this is healing, especially for people who are diabetic, but to actually see it and live with these people and experience it was pretty amazing. And even just watching their change in personality as they got off of their medications.

[00:24:20] Kim Campbell: That, you know, if they were more relaxed, they were sleeping better, they were exercising and doing all of that. So then, you know, Nelson talks about the pandemic and you know why we haven't heard more about this information And I'll stop there cuz I'm just gonna tell you everything Maya.

[00:24:35] Maya Acosta: Yeah, we'll stop. I wanna sort of comment on how you covered the first film because I want to at least get an idea of what you hope to accomplish with the second film. What the first film did for me when I watched it, and it was early in my understanding, this way of living, is that after I watched it, Having been a former elementary school teacher at a public school, right, so we understand big food.

[00:25:02] Maya Acosta: After I watched the film PPI Nation, I understood the politics of food. I got it and it broke. And policy, and it broke my heart. Although I had the training through eCornell, you know, plant-based nutrition. I got it. But in a documentary, it's so much more powerful. And I broke my heart because I remember as a school teacher, I would see the awful food that our students were fed.

[00:25:27] Maya Acosta: Pizzas that looked like cardboard paper or boxes, you know, burgers and fries and all this other stuff, and. Broke my heart because the children that can't afford quality food at home are subjected to this way of eating in the public school systems. And then why it is very difficult. So at the end of the film, because I always wanna encourage my listeners to watch the film, which you can still watch on YouTube, free of charge at the end.

[00:25:51] Maya Acosta: Nelson proves how difficult it is, the monster that we're facing. That's how I describe it, of creating change. And he speaks to us at what I felt was a heart to heart level. And he says the way the change is gonna happen won't be from the top down. It has to start at a grassroots level. To create change, meaning we have to be the ones that call for the change and start supporting our own communities.

[00:26:19] Maya Acosta: And after I watch the film, which I feel like I watch twice every year, um, that's when we said we wanna be leaders and we wanna help support people. And it's never even right now when I'm speaking, I, I get chills and move me so much, Kim. It moved me so much that I believe so much in what PlantPure is doing and with the communities and the education and the cookbooks and all that you all have done has continued to inspire me.

[00:26:46] Maya Acosta: But now that I know that there's another film, what do you, since I know you don't wanna give away too much, what. Do we hope to accomplish with the second film? Again, 

[00:26:56] Kim Campbell: you touched on it really well. You talked about the fact that we need to come at this from a grassroots level and we need to, you know, come together and kind of make those demands from the higher, you know, from the people in the higher up positions.

[00:27:10] Kim Campbell: And this film touches on it too, cuz you know, we all went through a pretty rough pandemic and during the pandemic, you know, we knew, we learned, we didn't know early on. We learned as the pandemic went on that people who were dying of covid were people who suffered from certain conditions such as diabetes.

[00:27:30] Kim Campbell: I'm getting tongue twisted here. You know, pre-conditions, diabetes, heart disease, obesity. These were some of the conditions. These were the people that were dying of covid. , we discovered that nobody was really talking about nutrition during this time period. And I remember thinking it myself. You know, there were lots of things that were talked about, but nobody was really talking.

[00:27:51] Kim Campbell: And again, that's a thread that's run through for years and years. I mean, Colin's been fighting this battle ever since I've known him. So again, here we have a pandemic. And the first thing that I thought within the first six months of Covid, was, well, if this doesn't do it, I don't know what will aren't.

[00:28:07] Kim Campbell: We gonna talk about health and nutrition and being in a position of immunity and preventing the worst possible outcomes of Covid or any virus for that matter. That was disappointing for me. And here we are, two years out. from when the pandemic started and they're still not talking about it. . Mm-hmm. . 

[00:28:29] Maya Acosta: So it became very controversial and political to, I don't even wanna say the word, but I just don't wanna get into that topic. But, uh, yeah, 

[00:28:38] Kim Campbell: I don't either, Maya, and, but I will say that I feel like when we're going through something like this, you would think that we would be talking. Pre-existing conditions and what's causing people to have these, why do we have so much obesity and so much diabetes lifestyle? So you can figure out how to edit that.

[00:28:59] Maya Acosta: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And when you think, I mean, once you read the science and you see that, you know, physicians and healthcare providers are working closely with patients that understand, you know, that teach plant-based nutrition along with nutritionists and dieticians, are those people are able to see how.

[00:29:16] Maya Acosta: Type two diabetes patients improve how you can reduce hypertension, how you can improve certain conditions that are the preexisting conditions that you're talking about, that greatly impacted people who were exposed to Covid. And you know, God knows we protected our mother as much as we could. She has type two diabetes and has had three strokes and she was the one person we didn't want to, um, get sick.

[00:29:43] Maya Acosta: It's true that I think a lot of us came, like in the community, had hoped that this would wake. Our society to the fact that we have control over our health. We have the power to improve our health through changing the way that we eat, especially the horrific standard American diet full of processed foods and additives that is just killing us.

[00:30:05] Maya Acosta: And then hurting our younger generations, like you would think that that would've been a wake up call to, okay, I'm ready. I learned my lesson. I should be healthier. Our daughter is a 

[00:30:15] Kim Campbell: nurse and she was working at bedside care during Covid, and so she got a front-row seat to all of this was working with Covid patients as well. So one of the things that she said is the food that they're feeding these patients is beyond toxic. And just like you were talking about children in school systems. I mean, I've been in schools for a long time and I know what they're feeding kids, but when you think of a hospital, my mother's in the hospital right now having surgery.

[00:30:41] Kim Campbell: When you think about what they're gonna feed her when she comes out of surgery, the last time she was in the hospital, they gave her pizza and macaroni and cheese, and then they gave her. That was her meal. And I thought, oh my goodness. My father wouldn't, you know, he had prostate cancer and colon cancer, and when he was hospitalized, one of the first foods they started to feed him after surgery was egg whites.

[00:31:05] Kim Campbell: And then it was yogurt. And so I, you know, I just don't understand it. I think we know better than, than that. I mean, okay, so let's say you're not plant-based. You still would be feeding your patients plenty of fiber and fruits and vegetables, but they're not even doing that. So I get really disgusted when I hear those kinds of stories and you know, you have a mother who you know is struggling with health issues.

[00:31:31] Kim Campbell: when they're being hospitalized and then they're being told by the, their physicians and their caretakers, they don't need to eat plant-based. It's so frustrating.

[00:31:40] Maya Acosta: Yes, it is one of the second points. The second point that you had made was on support and I just lightly wanna touch on the pod network that plant peer developed.

[00:31:52] Maya Acosta: And you might have heard, cuz I know you're a pod leader as well, that you know, our momentum kind of stall, like it just came to a halt. The momentum that we all had in working in supporting our communities and many of us. Volunteers, like we do this free of charge. You know, in other words, we help educate people in our areas.

[00:32:13] Maya Acosta: And so about a couple of years ago, PlantPure communities kind of brought together a another group called POD Advisory Committee to help. It's about nine of us to help kind of revive or brainstorm what pod leaders may need to support them. And so we've been doing. Finding ways to either help them educate their members via Zoom or even I've encouraged a lot of pod leaders to go on various different podcasts because you can continue to educate the public that way, even if you're not meeting in person.

[00:32:45] Maya Acosta: I don't know if you'd like to share anything about your experience as a pod leader, the changes you've seen within pods or anything like that. 

[00:32:52] Kim Campbell: We had a pod here in me, North Carolina, and we consolidated with another pod in Chapel Hill cause we have pod leaders there. So the three of us kind of worked together cause we felt like we were having two meetings a month and the same people were coming.

[00:33:06] Kim Campbell: So I said, well, let's just have one pod. So we kind of came together, which has been really nice. Initially, I will say our pod was small. You know, it was, it was a few people and then it kind, it grew and it grew and people started coming from, you know, they would drive an hour to come to a pod meeting. We did.

[00:33:25] Kim Campbell: We have different topics that we touched on. We showed films. We did q and as. We actually brought Colin into a pod meeting. Well, that, that made our pod meeting grow. We had a lot of people for that pod meeting, but we've had gardeners come and talk to the group about that. I took 'em one time on a grocery store tour.

[00:33:42] Kim Campbell: That was a lot of fun. , we clogged up the aisles nicely, I think there's a lot of things that you have to find out what your pod is interested in, what are their interests, and find out from plant pure communities what the resources are, because there's many resources you can do. Restaurant campaign, I know that we did that here in.

[00:34:02] Kim Campbell: Durham and Chapel Hill Square Foot Gardening. You probably can answer that question better than 

[00:34:08] Maya Acosta: I can. Maya. Yeah. Well, I like what you just pointed out is that every group can be different depending on the level of education in terms of knowledge. The knowledge they already have about living a plant-based lifestyle and the resources in the community.

[00:34:23] Maya Acosta: I've never done. A grocery store tour. I'm very curious about it. I just, I've never known if I like, need permission from a manager to take a small group and show them how to do groceries. So there are some things I haven't done, but I've done the film screenings, which are very powerful. I've done panel discussions and potlucks and testimonials are powerful, and I have now a speaker.

[00:34:49] Maya Acosta: On Tuesday, and I've partnered with another venue that's plant-based. And then we have some health experts that wanna speak at, at this event too. So I'm assuming, and the momentum will start to pick up, but it's been slow. People just don't gather like they used to. So I, I feel like the main way that I'm getting the message out now is through my podcast.

[00:35:08] Kim Campbell: That's great, Maya. And we didn't have the momentum either. We were doing a lot of hot meetings outside sort of picnic areas, and we had the same people would come, and I think a lot of people were a little bit nervous initially, and then we. The last two meetings have been indoors and we've had them.

[00:35:25] Kim Campbell: There's a facility in Chapel Hill where we have them and we have had such a good turnout. I think people are excited to get back out and to connect with other people. We have a meeting tomorrow, so we usually do what you do. We have a potluck, which is like eating a huge Thanksgiving spread every time we have a.

[00:35:44] Kim Campbell: We ask anybody if they have any stories they'd like to share, and seems like we always get somebody that wants to share their plant-based journey or something. Sometimes we have people do cooking classes. Kathy Hester lives not far from us in Durham. She's a couple, so she'll do, she's done a couple of of different classes, so I think you just have to find out what people are interested in.

[00:36:07] Kim Campbell: We had a woman come and do. I can't remember what it was, but it was like a yoga type session meditation that was kind of fun. But you would be amazed. You start learning what people's passions and expertise, you know, like your husband's a physician and mm-hmm. . You have people come in and they can share their knowledge with people. We've had physicians come in and speak to the group. So yeah, lots of different things.

[00:36:28] Maya Acosta: That is so important to educate people, especially like you said, when you can have a physician address the group. That's powerful because not all of us have a personal physician that can speak to us about nutrition

[00:36:41] Maya Acosta: So when we can do it in a setting, like in at a, like a speaking event or something like that, that's really effective. So now I noticed that you. PlantPure is launching a new culinary program. Can you tell us about that? 

[00:36:55] Kim Campbell: So after the film, well, the culinary program is kind of, I sort of touched on this before, our dry line are sauces and Okay.

[00:37:03] Kim Campbell: We're gonna pair that with the film. So when the film comes out, we'll also have the food coming out so people can make their own meal plan. So I've been working, since this cookbook was finished, I've been working on getting recipes ready. For that so that people can put themselves on a, a meal plan. They can buy the food and create, build the recipes from there.

[00:37:24] Kim Campbell: So that's gonna kind of go together. Let's hope it happens at the same time. 

[00:37:28] Maya Acosta: Yes, please tell us, you say we can build our own.

[00:37:33] Kim Campbell: Yes, you can build your own, you know, basically meal plan like we did in the immersion using these meal packs, because a lot of the recipes that we use in the immersion utilize these flavors and these packs and recipes that came from the cookbooks.

[00:37:47] Maya Acosta: So, yeah. Yes. And by the way, since you touched on the immersion, again, I was excited to learn that Dr. Lori Marvis was the doctor that was involved in this immersion program. I know who she is. She has a podcast and I'm a huge fan of her work. And so Nelson had mentioned it at the summit and I was like, what?

[00:38:06] Maya Acosta: Like I had no idea cuz I ran into her at conference, the Lifestyle Medicine conference and we chatted a little bit and it's like, oh, well this is great to know that she was involved in this. 

[00:38:15] Kim Campbell: She was wonderful and she was great with the participants, very knowledgeable. She spent a lot of time educating them about, you know, the, their diabetes and how it relates to food.

[00:38:28] Kim Campbell: I learned a few things with those, with the continuous glucose monitors. That was very interesting. We could watch how people, how the food. Changing quickly and you could watch what things were making the blood sugar go up, what things were, you know, not That was fascinating. 

[00:38:44] Maya Acosta: That's incredible. I just wish people had more and more access to those kind of things so that they could, cuz I think that when you get regular labs like that, well, um, when you can check your biometrics and get immediate results and, and you can see where you're at, you're more likely to wanna do something about that.

[00:39:02] Kim Campbell: So, so as we're. Can I just, I just wanted to say this about the immersion and the film, and I don't know how well that was portrayed in the film. I think Nelson did a pretty good job with this, but the people, as they were eating plant-based, they loved the food. They absolutely loved all the food that we served them, and one of the participants said, I haven't eaten this much food in my entire life, and he was loving it.

[00:39:29] Kim Campbell: We didn't give him snacks or desserts because every four hours there was a. and they were really enjoying it. And that particular person now has gone home. He and his wife are both plant-based. Mm-hmm. , and he sent me pictures of his food. He's trying to get his friends to do this. He's a wonderful cook, but he had amazing results.

[00:39:47] Kim Campbell: So I just have to give a shout out to the Food is Medicine. It's not just salad and Potatoe. So much more. The food was just really, really good and thank Fernando Peralta for helping us with that. 

[00:40:00] Maya Acosta: So I am so excited. I don't know if we were given an idea of when the film is coming out. 

[00:40:06] Kim Campbell: Um, the film should come out in early 2023 and we're, I think we're looking at February, but there may be some sneak peeks to it, so stay tuned.

[00:40:17] Kim Campbell: I don't know if you've seen it, 

[00:40:18] Maya Acosta: Maya or not. No, not yet. 

[00:40:22] Kim Campbell: Probably our pod leaders will get a sneak peek to it. I know our pod is, I'm going to get a sneak peek. It's done. 

[00:40:27] Maya Acosta: Done now, so Yeah. Well, I'm too excited. Like I said, I always promote PlantPure Nation, so now I have another film to promote. Yeah, yeah. Kim, you're so involved in so many things.

[00:40:38] Maya Acosta: You have this cookbook that will be released soon, but I'm still gonna ask anyway. What are some of your future goals or anything else that's coming up in 2023? You've already sort of talked about the culinary program with the sauces and the film, but anything else that you would like my listeners to know about?

[00:40:55] Kim Campbell: Yeah. My plan is to start doing more cooking videos live. So hopefully if they're not live, they'll be, we'll get them out to people one way or the other through YouTube. So I'd like to get back into that. Cause I think people really need that support and the resources. But my passion is these immersions.

[00:41:12] Kim Campbell: I just. Love the immersions. I love the people. I love the results. I just, so I told Nelson I wanna do that for rest my life. I just wanna do immersions till the cows come home. So that's one thing we've been talking about, doing them in our local community and bringing people in. We've been talking to some facilities here who could help with the food and finding a physician who will help us.

[00:41:34] Kim Campbell: So that's what my passion is. I, I'd like to, Retire and cruise into that role. , 

[00:41:40] Maya Acosta: yes, because that's when you know that you're creating real change. Yes. With these immersions, does PlantPure communities or PlantPure the website, still have information on the 10-day jumpstarts? Is that something that we still wanna promote?

[00:41:54] Kim Campbell: Yes. I believe we still have that. I think you can do the immersions online.

[00:41:58] Maya Acosta: I just have always known them as 10 day Jumpstart among leaders, we just say Jumpstarts. I don't know if there was. Maybe that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason that I ask about, I've known other people who have tried to do immersion programs, not at a level like yours, but at a lower level.

[00:42:18] Maya Acosta: And you talked about why people don't stick with things. Mm-hmm. . And one of 'em is, if you're not providing delicious foods, people will not eat. The food again. And if you're not continuing to offer that support, then they will also not continue. So I do believe in immersion programs and I would love to be able to do something like that in my own city as well, where I'm mm-hmm. In some capacity supporting people who are ready to make that change. Right. Because once they see the results after an immersion program, they're just more likely to continue this way of. Yeah. 

[00:42:51] Kim Campbell: Oh, I agree. And I think what we had, the support that we had in our group, I mean even right down to the film people, it was a small group.

[00:42:58] Kim Campbell: I think I was cooking for a total of 15, 20 people, something like that. It was just so nice to all be together and living the lifestyle and talking about it. So that's something I think if people really are get serious about wanting to get healthy and really wanting to change, I think going to an in-person immersion and handheld handholding a little bit. 

[00:43:22] Maya Acosta: I think that's very effective. Yeah, it really is. So are there any websites or social media that you'd like to share? And I will add 'em to the show notes as well. 

[00:43:31] Kim Campbell: Of course. It's Plant pure nation.com. That's where you can go and get recipes and information about Plant Pure.

[00:43:38] Kim Campbell: And then there's Plant Pure communities.org. That's our nonprofit arm that, that houses basically all of. Uh, pod leaders and our pods. So if you wanna start a pod or you wanna find out if there's a pod in your community, you can go to plant pure communities.org and go there. As far as social media, we have a Plant Pure Nation Facebook page.

[00:44:00] Kim Campbell: We have a Plant Pure Nation Instagram page. , I'm plant Pure Chef, so I have a separate account, but I'm actually managing all of that above. So you can reach me through Plant Pure Shaft, Facebook plant, pure Page Instagram, and you can also reach me through Plant Pure Nation. So we're kind of a small organization.

[00:44:19] Kim Campbell: So my daughters used to do the Plant Pure Nation social media, and then they got jobs and left. , so now I do it. . . 

[00:44:27] Maya Acosta: Oh, and one other thing, because you did mention the nonprofit portion of it, if individuals wanna support your work, say through donations, what is the best way to do that? 

[00:44:37] Kim Campbell: You can go to plant pure communities.org, and I believe there's an area on that website for donations as well. So thank you for mentioning that.

[00:44:44] Maya Acosta: Okay, wonderful. Well, I was just gonna say we, I'm sorry. There's a little delay. delay, right? Sorry. We have worked a lot 

[00:44:53] Kim Campbell: on a tight budget for both Plant Pure Nation, but plant pure communities. We have a lot of volunteers and community and pod leaders and we've had so many people who are passionate who have helped us to kind of keep this engine going.

[00:45:07] Kim Campbell: And so thank you to people like you, Maya, and you know people, other pod leaders across the country. So. Yeah, we run on a tight budget. 

[00:45:16] Maya Acosta: Yeah. Well we believe in the work that you're doing and, uh, we're all excited to see what 2023 will bring. I just have this feeling that new leaders will rise and pods will grow.

[00:45:29] Maya Acosta: Because, and you know, the support that people need will take place. And even if you don't have a pod near you, you can either start a pod or just gather all these resources from Plante Nation and PlantPure communities.org because there's, I mean, that's the first thing I did when I became a pod leader, is I went through all the resources and created a folder.

[00:45:48] Maya Acosta: And that's kind of like how I got started. I. What movies I should watch, what books I should read, how to run a, a potluck. I mean, you just learn so much. There's so much work that's already been done ahead of time to support one another. And our goal is to help improve the health of our community, really.

[00:46:07] Maya Acosta: And the community can be local, but it also can be virtual. 

[00:46:11] Kim Campbell: So I have a question for you, Maya, because I think this is a really interesting concept as you created a podcast. This podcast is part of your pod program. Can you share a little bit about that? I, I know you did earlier, but just once again, cuz I, I wanna share this in our pod meeting tomorrow cuz it's such a great way.

[00:46:30] Maya Acosta: Information out there. Yeah. Well, thank you for asking. I started my podcast in the fall of 2018, and I wanna say that same year is when I became a pod leader. We had already done walks and other things in our community, but what I initially wanted to do was highlight the people that are creating change in my community in Dallas.

[00:46:51] Maya Acosta: Some of those earlier interviews are with people in here that either had like a prep kitchen or. Prepping meals to support community as a business or people that are doing like food demos or athletes or whatever you name it. If I knew about them, I showcased them on my podcast early on. So it was really local, uh, because I think that that's how you support one another is you help highlight.

[00:47:17] Maya Acosta: And then, um, I, I really put a lot more emphasis, uh, when the pandemic happened and my group no longer. We used to do like two to three events every month and that included like screening a movie or offering a lecture and or walking with us cuz we're part of Walk With the Doc. So we did that as well. And I wanna add, While I'm talking about guest speakers is that i e we made it about health because my husband is my co co-leader.

[00:47:46] Maya Acosta: And so we took the opportunity to talk about all those, um, chronic diseases that afflict many of his patients. And that's the other reason why I started the podcast too, because some of the patients could not, they're very advanced with their DC so they could not attend our in-person gathering. So it seemed.

[00:48:04] Maya Acosta: To just tune in, to listen to the conversations, uh, that I would have. But I also outreached to people that, uh, were not necessarily plant-based, but that were experts in the field. Like for example, of stroke rehabilitation. So I had an individual come and address my group in person about how to recognize the signs that you're having the stroke and what happens after that.

[00:48:27] Maya Acosta: Like how do you rehabilitate from that? And then I would. After things like that, I would always have the plant-based component of how we can prevent disease through the way that we eat our, um, plant-based lifestyle. And then the pandemic happened. We stopped meeting and I had this inner sense of desperation, Kim, of, oh my God, there were people that were about to make the change or who needed the support, and now we've.

[00:48:53] Maya Acosta: And I didn't know what to do, so that's where my reach expanded. And I just started bringing in more people, but no longer local, but from around the world, mainly the states who were experts in highlighting them in the field of nutrition. And I also wanted to make it about just lifestyle medicine. . Some people may not be ready to make that whole transition into nutrition, but there are things that they can still do, like manage their stress and take care of their mental health because we know all of that impacts how we eat.

[00:49:26] Maya Acosta: So if we're highly stressed and we're workaholics, we're more likely to eat processed foods. And if we're, when mental health or have other issues like that, we're more likely to eat those foods that we think will alleviate the stress. So it all, I feel like it all plays a role in terms of how we take care of ourselves.

[00:49:43] Maya Acosta: Eat, whether we're getting enough rest or sleeping, that impacts how we eat as well. But I have found. , I'm now impacting people that I may never meet in person. So I have listeners in South Africa, I have listeners in Mexico and, and people send me the messages and they say, thank you for sharing this information.

[00:50:05] Maya Acosta: So the podcast is a wonderful, wonderful way of reaching people. We are used to thinking of our pods as being here in person in our city, and I'm hearing of more people in the plant-based world that are starting podcasts. So, 

[00:50:19] Kim Campbell: Yeah, I think  it's a, it's a great idea. Especially if I know if our pod leader had a podcast, I would be listening. Um, and I think a lot of people, um, in our community and our pod community would listen too. So that's wonderful. I, I love what you're doing. You're saving 

[00:50:35] Maya Acosta: lives. Great. That's great. It because of you and PlantPure, uh, all that you guys have done, and if you. Have any questions about, um, podcasting, feel free to reach out.

[00:50:45] Maya Acosta: But I will tell you that it's a wonderful thing to have those testimonials. So the lives that you're impacting, to hear them to come on the show, that's what's moving. That is what, why, uh, documentaries are so effective because the message comes from that person that has who's live, uh, has been impacted.

[00:51:06] Maya Acosta: The lives that are impacted and you're highlighting in a documentary, it's no different when you have them on, uh, on the podcast. It's, those are the stories that move all of us and give us the energy to continue to do the work. Yes. So that's why film is so powerful cuz it just, that's it does it highlights the.

[00:51:27] Maya Acosta: So as we're wrapping up, is there anything else that you'd like to share with my listeners? A final message? Um, or maybe one thing that they can do today to improve their health? 

[00:51:36] Kim Campbell: Yes. So I think my message to people out there who are thinking about going plant-based or who've just started going plant-based is be forgiving with yourself.

[00:51:47] Kim Campbell: It's a journey and some people do it overnight and they do it beautifully. and other people, it takes a little bit longer. Be patient with yourself. You can always correct it with the next meal, you know, you mess up for breakfast and you know, lunch is four hours around the corner. So just, you know, don't be too hard on yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in this, who have experienced it, and just give it a try because it's really, it's not.

[00:52:18] Kim Campbell: And the world we live in today, there are so many resources out there and so many different food options that you can look into. But yeah, just be forgiving and surround yourself with like-minded people, I think. 

[00:52:30] Maya Acosta: Thank you. That's a beautiful message. Thank you, Kim, for being on the podcast today. Yeah, this was wonderful.

[00:52:38] Maya Acosta: Thank you. You've been listening to the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions podcast with your host, Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this podcast, do us a favor and share with one friend who can benefit from this episode. Feel free to leave us an honest review on Apple Podcast. That helps us to spread our message. Thanks for listening.

Kimberly CampbellProfile Photo

Kimberly Campbell

Cookbook Author

Kim Campbell is the author of the “PlantPure Nation” and the “PlantPure Kitchen” cookbooks. Her newest cookbook, “PlantPure Comfort” will be available December 14, 2022. She developed more than 350 delicious whole food plant-based recipes using no processed oils. Kim is also the Director of Culinary Education and Development at PlantPure, where she works with her husband, Nelson, building an organization that promotes a whole foods plant-based diet. Nelson directed and produced the groundbreaking movie, PlantPure Nation.

Kim graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Human Service Studies with a concentration in Nutrition and Child Development. Her passion has always been nutrition education for children, families, and adults. Kim has been a plant-based cook for more than 25 years cooking for her family and friends. Her love of culinary goes back to her early childhood growing up in a large traditional family. Kim is gifted at creating traditional American cuisine using 100% accessible plant-based ingredients. She builds flavors and textures that are familiar to most people, helping to make the transition to plant-based diet easier for people.

She is also the daughter-in-law of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, considered by many as at the science ‘father’ of the rapidly growing plant-based nutrition movement.