Diana Licalzi - Drinking for Two

Diana and Kerry met serendipitously while volunteering for an after-school program that teaches cooking classes at a local elementary school in Boston. They were fast friends: they studied together, worked out together, and even played matchmaker for each other. Now, theyve written a book together!

When they met in 2015, they had just started their first semester at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, the first nutrition graduate school in North America and one of the most respected nutrition institutions in the world. Heres a little background on their unique and formative experiences with nutrition and their journeys to pursuing their dream job as registered dietitians:

With a Puerto Rican mother and an Italian father, Diana was raised and immersed in two deeply rooted cultures that hold food central in their traditions. Diana grew up in Puerto Rico, where she noted the poor eating habits on the island and recognized that culture, barriers to education, and a relatively weak economy conspired against proper nutrition. As a registered dietitian with a familiarity of Latin culture, Diana knew she could make a meaningful difference in the lives and health of Hispanics. Diana earned a Masters in Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, and entered the Dietetic Internship at UC San Diego Health, where she completed her clinically-focused supervised practice in several different fields within nutrition including diabetes, cardiology, oncology, and weight management. After successfully passing the Registered Dietitian Examination in 2018, Diana launched a private practice offering nutrition consultations to individuals in both English and Spanish focusing primarily on diabetes and weight management.

Kerry worked in an alcohol research lab at the University of Delaware for more than six years while earning Bachelors and Masters in Neuroscience degrees. Kerry was a competitive figure skater growing up. Though proper nutrition was essential to her training, she struggled with disordered eating and body image for many years. Despite the omnipresence of nutrition in her life, Kerry did not appreciate its influence or importance to health until after she stopped skating. Her desire to become a registered dietitian stems from her personal journey with nutrition, which gives her an appreciation of the power of food to harm and to heal. Kerry always hoped to pursue a career that would allow her to directly impact peoples lives, and dietetics represents the perfect blend of science, people, and food. Her experiences in the neuroscience lab sparked her interest in early life experiences and pregnancy and fueled her desire to work in maternal-infant nutrition as a future dietitian.

A registered dietitian nutritionist (RD or RDN) is a nutrition expert who is credentialed by the Commission on Dietetic Registration, a body of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND). To become an RDN, one must complete rigorous coursework at an accredited institution and more than 1200 hours of supervised practice, in addition to passing a national exam. The education is comprehensive, covering food science to nutrient metabolism to epidemiology and statistics. RDNs must complete continuing education to maintain their credentials and to keep up with current research. Note that not all nutritionists are RDNs.

Though they were pursuing different degrees at Tufts (Diana earned a Masters in Nutrition Science and Policy, and Kerry received her Masters in Nutritional Epidemiology), they shared the same end goal: to become a registered dietitian. Now both Kerry and Diana are practicing RDNs, having completed their dietetic internships and passed the national exam. It was important for them to pursue this credential so that they can practice as trained and respected healthcare professionals. They were fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to simultaneously complete the coursework necessary to become a dietitian while attaining graduate-level degrees. This gave them additional experience and education that will support their career goals and will also allow them to stay competitive: all rising dietitians will be required to get a masters degree starting in 2024.

This book truly represents the fruits of their personal friendship and fusion of their professional strengths, combining Dianas knack for recipe development, Kerrys interest in nutrition during pregnancy, and their shared love of food, nutrition education, and a whole food, plant-based approach to eating. They were struck by the fact that very few books on nutrition in pregnancy, including cookbooks, provide alternatives to alcoholic beverages or drink recipes beyond smoothieseven though they all say that alcohol should be avoided! Whats more, mocktails and their alcoholic counterparts are often loaded with sugar, syrup, and other undesirable ingredients. Seltzer water is great, especially with all of the fun flavors out there, but will that quench your thirst for a margarita on Taco Tuesday? With all of this in mind, Diana and Kerry set out to fill the gap and develop recipes that are not only free of alcohol but nutritious and flavorful.