Meet Dr. Kerry Graff
I spent the first half of my career putting patients on medications, thinking I was “treating” disease. I’ve dedicated the second half of my career to addressing the underlying cause of chronic disease and getting patients off those meds, through lifestyle medicine. I’m a firm believer that these principles create a foundation for true “health” care.
As any doctor, I graduated from college and then medical school. Following a 3-year residency in Family Practice, I started my career as a Family Medicine physician caring for my patients in the way that I was trained – with pills and procedures. But I found myself growing more and more frustrated because I was mostly just managing disease while my patients became sicker and sicker.
In the meantime, I struggled with numerous personal health conditions and modern medicine seemed to be just helping me limp along as well. Neither myself nor my patients were getting truly healed. Then, by simply watching a documentary, I discovered that there was a different way to finally treat chronic illnesses instead of just managing them – through nutrition and lifestyle.
After watching Forks Over Knives in 2013, I adopted a whole food, plant-based lifestyle as an experiment. Not convinced that the docs in the movie weren’t complete nutcases, I wanted to see if it really could be used as a “medical treatment.” After all, if there was any truth to what they claimed, wouldn’t I have learned about it in medical school or residency?! My medical training really couldn’t have left out something that important, could it? Heck, I paid a lot of money for that degree!
But my personal health improved so quickly and dramatically that I was sold. Food wasn’t just medicine; it was better than medicine! I then “retro-trained,” first by completing a Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell in 2014. Three years later, I became one of the first 204 medical providers in the world to become board-certified in Lifestyle Medicine, the first year board certification for this new specialty was offered.
I have helped more than a thousand patients reverse their chronic, lifestyle-related medical conditions through individualized treatment plans, workshops to assess lifestyle habits, action plans that optimize patients’ chances for making sustainable improvements, and classes that educate and support patients who want to adopt healthier diets.
I have been a featured speaker at numerous state, national, and international conferences, as well as a guest on numerous podcasts: Chef AJ Live, Main Street Vegan Podcast, and the Ian Cramer Podcast. I’m also the coauthor of The 4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health-Using the Power of Food to Heal Ourselves and Our Planet.
When I’m not in the office, I can likely be found at the farmer’s market or in the produce department at Wegmans, walking around Canandaigua with my ridiculously adorable dog Bailey, at yoga, out swing dancing, or on a cross-country ski path.
BA Biology, Cornell University
1990 summa cum laude
MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
1994 cum laude
Family Practice Residency, UPMC Shadyside,
Pittsburgh, PA
1997
Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition
T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell, 2014
Certificate in Food and Sustainability T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, 2023
Board Certified:
Family Medicine, 1997
Lifestyle Medicine, 2017
Member:
American Academy
of Family Practice
American College
of Lifestyle Medicine
Dr. Graff is available for Lifestyle Medicine consultations through Love.Life Telehealth