This is one in an occasional series on Iowa influencers who are finding new ways to tell the story of the state through social media.
Taylor Grasso went from suffering from an eating disorder where she was obsessed with restrictive dieting to helping others on social media learn how to add food to their plates to build a balanced lifestyle.
Grasso is a registered dietitian who teaches what she refers to as “approachable nutrition.” In a day and age where misinformation about nutrition and diet culture saturates the internet, the Iowan uses her social media accounts to offer a trustworthy source for people looking to learn how to eat.
“The best diet is a well-balanced diet,” Grasso said. “It is not some trendy diet. There is a reason diets go out of trend. It’s because they can pick up, and they might work for a short period of time, but the likelihood that they will be sustainable is not very likely.”
Patients’ interaction with dietitians is rare and usually only in cases of eating disorders or diabetes, Grasso said. So she decided to take her knowledge to the internet to make accurate, everyday facts about nutrition more accessible. She shares her knowledge on her Simply Healthy accounts with more than 420,000 followers on TikTok and 30,000 on Instagram.
“I wanted to give people access to more valuable and honestly truthful nutrition information,” Grasso said.
Taylor Grasso’s desire to help others with nutrition comes from her own struggles with eating.
Grasso competed in cross country and track while attending Dowling Catholic and Waukee high schools.
Throughout most of her high school and college experience, Grasso suffered from orthorexia, an eating disorder where she was obsessed with healthy eating and restrictive diet behaviors. While competing, she compared her figure to other girls. Grasso was also in an unhealthy relationship that worsened her self-esteem and confidence.
It started off “innocently,” Grasso said. She was working out to make herself feel better and focused on calorie counting.
“Overtime the exercising got more and more and the calories got less and less,” Grasso said.
When Grasso went to college, she went through “pseudo recovery phases” where she would eat more but then return to restrictive dieting. Then Grasso went through a bad breakup. So she signed up for a marathon and was barely eating 1,000 calories a day. Her hair started to fall out and she lost her menstrual cycle.
“I just wasn’t healthy from the inside out,” Grasso said.
After Grasso ran her marathon, she felt her body was depleted. It was a wake-up call for her. When Grasso found the concept of intuitive eating paired with working on her mental health, everything clicked. She understood why dieting wasn’t working for her.
“What I am doing doesn’t also doesn’t work for a lot of people,” Grasso said.
Grasso decided she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life obsessing over food. She also learned about intuitive eating, which is an evidence-based self-care eating framework of 10 principles.
“Everything I had thought I was doing right was everything that I was actually doing wrong,” Grasso said. “And that’s why I wasn’t seeing the quote, unquote results that I wanted to see.”
Some of the improvements to Grasso’s health also came from focusing on her mental health and surrounding herself with a strong support system.
“I think anybody who has struggled with an eating disorder always has a little voice in the back of your head,” Grasso said. “But what I have come to realize is that I don’t have to act on that voice anymore. And it also pops up a lot less than when I was younger, which is what I consider recovery.”
Grasso saw and felt how much healthier she was when she wasn’t following such a restrictive diet. For those struggling with an eating disorder, Grasso recommends reaching out for help as a first step.
More:Here’s how to tell if someone has an eating disorder. And how to get them help
“As I realized those behaviors weren’t something that was healthy, reaching out and asking for help made a huge difference for me and that can be really scary to do,” Grasso said. “But having that support system is really what can get you over that hump of recovery.”
‘I am teaching people how to eat rather than how to diet,’ says dietitian Taylor Grasso
When Grasso started studying dietetics and working with clients, she realized that many people viewed nutrition only as a method for losing weight. Grasso knew nutrition served a greater purpose. It supports all of the body’s functions and isn’t just about what the scale says.
“I realized I didn’t want to be telling girls you need to eat 1,000 calories and work out six times a week,” Grasso said. “And I also knew it didn’t work.”
Grasso wants to change the narrative around nutrition on social media from shameful and guilty to fun and positive.
“So when I talk about approachable nutrition, I want people to understand that one, nutrition doesn’t have to be as complex as the internet makes it seem,” Grasso said. “And number two, it can be done in a really balanced way.”
Building a balanced plate is Grasso’s method of helping people approach nutrition without the restrictions of dieting. A balanced plate consists of what Grasso refers to as “the power four”: carbohydrates, protein, fats and color.
“Not that I am really selling anything, but I always say I am selling sustainability, which is not necessarily sexy,” Grasso said. “Like we want to see those quick fix solutions and intuitive eating is something that takes time. You think about all those years you have heard about diet culture. That is going to take some time to unwind and retrain the way you think about food.”
Another method Grasso suggests to her clients is eating what you want and adding what you need. This allows people to enjoy snacks or sweets. For example, pairing chips with more nutrient-dense foods like apples and a cheese stick.
“That’s going to be a much more satisfying snack than just chips by itself,” Grasso said. “What I say all the time on my page is I am teaching people how to eat rather than how to diet.”
How to start approachable nutrition
Building a balanced plate can be one step to altering your mindset around food. Try adding items to a plate that include Grasso’s “power four.”
“So instead of focusing on eating as few calories as possible or weight loss, can you try to get at least three of those four components on your plate at least three times a day?” Grasso asked.
For those trying to tackle the deep-rooted aspects of intuitive eating, Grasso said it can be good work with a practitioner. For those who can’t access a practitioner, there is also a book called “Intuitive Eating” that helps get people started on the method.
“I think the book does a good job at giving you bite-sized chunks to work on,” Grasso said. “That is something I really work on with clients is removing the all or nothing mindset that we often times get with dieting, where you are all in or you are all out. Intuitive eating is much more gray.”
Grasso has even helped her husband, Zack, who has Type 1 diabetes. Before they met, he assumed he should eat as much protein as possible and forget about everything else. Zack Grasso describes his understanding of nutrients before meeting and after as “night and day.”
“As I started dating Taylor, my world was rocked a little bit,” Zack Grasso said. “I actually started to understand I needed more than just protein. I needed to pair my protein with carbs, fats and fibers.”
‘My content was something I needed back when I was struggling,’ says dietitian behind Simply Healthy
Early in her career, Grasso worked as a dietitian for Hy-Vee and as a wellness programs director for the University of Colorado. After moving back to Iowa in 2023, she worked with a supplement company while building her personal social media platform. At the end of 2023, Grasso’s accounts started to take off. She decided to leave the job and start her own private practice while building on her social media influence.
“My content was something I needed back when I was struggling,” Grasso said of her eating disorder. “So that has always been my hope that it just reaches the right people to hopefully prevent them from getting as far into it as I did.”
The services Grasso charges for are more individualized plans, whereas her social media consists of generalized concepts she feels people should know.
To become a registered dietitian, Grasso completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Iowa State and a dietetic internship, similar to a medical residency. This differs from nutritionists or health coaches.
“It’s kind of hard to differentiate,” Grasso said. “If someone is looking into working with a nutritionist or a dietitian, this is not me by any means saying there are no good nutritionists or health coaches, it’s more about looking into the credentials they have.”
Zack Grasso said it has been amazing to see her hard work come to fruition.
“It has been really awesome to see other people gravitate toward her education,” Zack said. “I think what people really gravitate toward is her authenticity. That’s something I see every day. So it’s really cool to see others appreciate her for who she is.”
Where to find and follow Taylor Grasso?
Known for: Owner of Simply Healthy and works as a non-diet dietitian. She teaches the practice of intuitive eating while sharing balanced meal ideas through social media.
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Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at kkealey@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.
