About Me

Maddie Pasquariello, MS, RD

As a Registered Dietitian with a Master’s Degree in Nutrition Communications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, I have a passion for cutting through the myths of the diet industry and helping active individuals find their optimal, personalized health plan.

I completed my Master’s Degree at Tufts University and my Didactic Program in Dietetics at Simmons University in 2018, after which I completed a 1400-hour supervised dietetic internship through the Keith & Associates Dietetic Internship’s distance program. This program includes clinical rotations in four domains: food service, clinical (hospital) setting, community, and business/entrepreneurship. I completed my board exam in October 2021. The rigorous nature of this dietetic internship is what sets the field of dietetics apart.

Currently, I am working in continuing education in the field of performance nutrition and fitness, and am currently completing my NASM personal training certification.

I received my undergraduate degrees in Psychology and French Studies from Brown University in 2015. I currently live in Brooklyn.

Photo Credit: Sophie Sahara

Photo: Sophie Sahara

What is a dietitian and how does it differ from a nutritionist?

This is the question we dietitians get asked most frequently! A dietitian (or Registered Dietitian, or Registered Dietitian Nutritionist) is an expert in food and nutrition who has met the following criteria to earn the credential:

  • Completing a Bachelor’s Degree at an accredited college or university.

  • Completing the coursework required by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND). This entails, for most of us, pursuing additional lab and science classes beyond our Bachelor’s Degree. 

  • Completed the Dietetic Internship, a rigorous, 1000-1400 hour program with individual nutrition rotations required by ACEND, in the divisions of clinical nutrition, food service, community, and more – my program also required an entrepreneurial rotation.

  • Passed a rigorous national examination administered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) across multiple domains, including clinical nutrition and management.

  • Completed continuing professional educational requirements to maintain registration.

How is a dietitian different from a nutritionist? The first thing I say when someone asks me this is: everyone you know or have ever met could, technically, call themselves a nutritionist. Why? Because there technically aren’t any credentials required to be a nutritionist. 

RDs, on the other hand, are clinical professionals trained to work in hospitals, sports nutrition programs, private practice, community health settings, universities,  research programs, and more.