Truddie Reif is a creative individual. She is a designer turned graduate dietetics student, finishing her Master of Science in Applied Nutrition at the University of New England. For the past twenty years, she has been an avid plant-based eater who desires to seek out unique cuisines whenever possible, with Tibetan and Ethiopian being her favorites. In a chance meeting with a registered dietitian in 2017, she was inspired to explore the possibility of becoming one herself. This set her on the path to seek licensure in Florida, where she currently resides.

Truddie was born in Belgium to a Belgian mother who speaks English as a second language and an American father. They traveled for the first three years of her life, living abroad in Belgium, Spain, and Japan. She has a sister who was born with Down Syndrome, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and type 1 diabetes. All of these experiences have shaped Truddie into a worldly, empathetic person. At age four her mother solely raised her, near Orlando, Florida. Never entirely fitting into American culture, due to her European roots, Truddie was exposed to many cultures as a child, and that set the foundation for her travels to more than twenty five countries and four continents.

Truddie’s decision to become a registered dietitian was prompted by close friends getting diagnosed with autoimmune disorders, who otherwise seemed young and healthy. Not only is there a growing portion of the population being diagnosed with these conditions, but medical doctors are not addressing them, leaving a gap in care for those patients. Truddie is passionate about nutrition, particularly the gut-brain axis, autoimmune diseases, disordered eating, gastrointestinal conditions, and nutrition informatics. She aims to integrate diet and lifestyle changes to help treat these conditions.