Rita de Freitas, founder of Red Apple Nutrition, LLC is a registered dietitian-nutritionist and certified LEAP therapist.  Rita earned her degree in human nutrition, foods and exercise from Virginia Tech University. There she completed her supervised dietetic internship in the rural communities of southwest Virginia. Her interest in nutrition first began when she was given the opportunity to intern at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where she worked with the head registered dietitian in the Cardiac Prevention Unit. These experiences helped Rita to understand the prevalence of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and lack of awareness of nutrition prevention.

After completing her dietetic internship, Rita moved back to her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA where she started her own nutrition and wellness practice.  Throughout her nearly 20 years in the field, Rita has worked with a wide range of client partners. From corporate clients such as Consol Energy, Ansys and Highmark Insurance providing corporate wellness programs focused on healthy living and wellness, to individual clients focused on health goals ranging from weight loss to autoimmune disease (i.e thyroid disease, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, lupus, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and other gut related conditions). She is a firm believer in functional and integrative nutrition to help each client find the root cause of their disease or illness through thorough investigation of the person.  Understanding the client as a whole person, not just their symptoms, allows Rita to better evaluate the individual to achieve lasting health.

Rita continues to be active spreading the message of health and wellness through her community.  Through work at Connected Health, affiliations with various physicians and ongoing relationships with current clients, Rita continues to impact the greater Pittsburgh area, while growing her business in her new home of Spring, TX.

Rita joined Dr. Nussbaum and the Brain Health Center in January 2014 providing patients nutrition support with a focus in brain health.  During her time with the Brain Health Center, she has offered several brain health nutrition seminars both in Pittsburgh and Sarasota, Florida.  She also completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2017, which she utilizes in conjunction with her traditional nutritional knowledge to unlock the power of mindfulness and how this relates to brain health and overall wellness.

Rita has a strong passion for cooking healthy, tasteful food.  She is constantly in the kitchen creating recipes and was given the opportunity to provide numerous published recipes in Dr. Nussbaums’s book, “What is the Purpose of my Brain?”.

Rita considers herself extremely fortunate to have chosen a field of study that she is passionate about, and a career in which she can share this passion with others who need her help. To her, nutrition is not just a job, but a way of life in which she can share her love for food and nutrition knowledge with others.

Rita currently lives in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston with her husband, Ernest, newborn baby Theodore and Golden Doodle, Kobe.