Mocktails for mothers-to-be
Photos courtesy of Kerry Criss September 17, 2019
UD alumna co-writes book with non-alcoholic, plant-based drinks
For women who drink before pregnancy, putting down the glass for almost a year can be challenging. Some ease into the change, while others go cold turkey. The timing of the change can create awkward moments if, for example, the woman continues to join friends at a local bar or attend happy hours. Friends might ask why the woman is not drinking when she is not showing and has not told those friends of her pregnancy.
That challenge, in part, inspired University of Delaware alumna Kerry Criss to co-write the book, Drinking for Two: Nutritious Mocktails For the Mom-To-Be. The book was scheduled for release on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, and has easy-to-prepare, non-alcoholic, plant-based mocktail recipes that are designed to nourish mother and baby.
Activities like meeting friends for drinks or having a glass of wine at dinner are so engraved in our culture. For some pregnant women, it can be isolating to be the odd one out during these social activities. Criss and her co-author Diana Licalzi, both nutritionists, hope moms-to-be feel empowered to join in.
“Our goal with the book was to get the conversation started and get people thinking a little differently and raise awareness on the topic,” Criss said. “Also just to give people a general overview of our philosophy on nutrition and also guiding people to reliable resources for nutrition health during pregnancy. There is a lot of noise out there — between social media influencers and the news — so it can be hard to figure out what's a reliable source of information.”
A change in plans
Criss’ path to becoming a nutritionist was not a direct one. When she started at UD in 2008, her plan was to become a doctor and she majored in neuroscience.
She landed a position working in the lab of Anna Klintsova, a professor and director of the behavioral neuroscience graduate program in UD’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, which is part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Klintsova’s lab focuses on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Criss was the first person at UD to get a master’s degree through the then-newly introduced 4+1 program in neuroscience. Although she did not settle on nutrition at the time, Criss opted not to go to medical school.
“I had a lot of moments where I questioned what I was doing and was this the right thing,” Criss said. “Would it be easier if I just stuck with the track I was on? I had those moments all the time.”
But she realized that becoming a doctor was no longer in her heart. What fulfilled her passions was the fetal alcohol research. She ended up working with the lab for about six years. She ultimately stumbled onto nutrition once she took a step back and thought about what she enjoys to do. She loves to cook and experiment in the kitchen.
Criss said it was scary to take that leap.
“I didn’t even know what a dietitian was when I started college,” Criss said with a laugh.
But it was the right move for her. She ultimately went on to Simmons College and Tufts University to earn a second master’s degree in nutritional epidemiology.
Whipping up the book
Licalzi came up with the idea for the book and asked Criss to join the project, particularly because of her passion and research background from working with Klintsova.
“That topic of alcohol exposure during pregnancy was something that’s really close to my heart,” Criss said. “Personally, I’m very passionate about it and it’s a topic that dietitians should be addressing if they’re speaking with pregnant women.”
The mixed messages around whether or not it’s okay for women to drink during pregnancy makes Criss very uneasy. Some people tend to think about the extremes when it comes to alcohol and pregnancy, but there is always a risk.
“I think it’s hard to know whether one glass of wine in your second trimester is going to have a negative lifelong effect on a developing child, but why run the risk when it is something that is 100% in your control,” Criss said. “I think there is a real need to have better education and come at it from a standpoint of empowering women to have the knowledge that this is something that they can control.”
What the duo ultimately created was a recipe book of more than 45 plant-based mocktails. It was truly a labor of love. It took more than a year to come up with the drinks, test them, make changes and take all the photos.
Many of the drinks include ingredients that can help alleviate various pregnancy symptoms. Keeping the drinks low in sugar turned out to be a challenge — but they were determined to make sure all the drinks contained some nutritional value. That ultimately meant scrapping recipes that just weren’t working.
Looking back, although she did not end up pursuing a career in neuroscience, Criss said the time in the lab at UD had a major impact on her life.
“My experience in the lab was so formative,” Criss said. “It's not just the subject matter, it was also the environment. I cannot speak highly enough of my relationship with Dr. Klintsova and the people that I was working with and a lot of people in the department. They were so supportive.”
Drinking for Two: Nutritious Mocktails For the Mom-To-Be comes out mid-September and will be available for purchase in various stores including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
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