I always have a mini panic whenever I tell someone that I eat gluten free. No, I’m not gluten free because it's the new fad diet, nor because I think I will loose weight. I have celiac disease. Celiac is an autoimmune disease. And please don’t say “Oh so like, an allergy.” Because no, it’s not like an allergy at all. Basically, when a celiac eats "gluten," a protein that is in wheat, barley, rye, malt and some oats, it enters our system and when it gets to our small intestines and starts to be absorbed into the vili, our body suddenly thinks it's a foreign substance and therefore attacks, causing the vili to become damaged and even die.

Symptoms vary from celiac to celiac, but my symptoms tend to be: upset stomach, nausea, bloating, and TMI, diarrhea, extreme fatigue, vomiting, pretty much anything you can think of that would have to do with digestion, and sometimes migraines. When I get "glutenated" I mostly get migraines, extreme fatigue, stomach gurgling and some pain, diarrhea, bloating and nausea. My symptoms are not nearly as bad as some people I know. I think this might be because my Dad has had celiac since I was really little, so I didn't eat a ton of gluten (though I indulged in pasta and pastries a lot).

When I was living with my family, it was fine. As I stated before, my Dad was diagnosed with celiac before it was really well known, and my siblings and I were tested young. We all had the gene for celiac, but so far I am the only one who has had symptoms and been diagnosed. My symptoms started around the 9th grade and then I was officially diagnosed in the 10th grade, and I've been living with it ever since.

Thankfully by the time I was diagnosed, my family had already become like a machine in being able to deal with living with a celiac, so it wasn't a problem when there were two. It actually became something I didn't even think about much anymore, because I always knew I would be safe in my house.

Now, I'm 4,000 miles away from home. My extended family doesn't always remember that I have celiac...well, okay that depends on the family member. Some of them took to it pretty fast, whereas other are a little slower. Not that I blame them. They aren’t around me all the time seeing as I live in my own apartment, so it’s not something that is constantly on their minds…which it is for me. Every aspect of my life is dominated by this disease.

For example, I often do not go out and eat with my friends because I always have to be on guard and always have to ask restaurants if they have any gluten free options, always stating it is because I have a disease and not because I’m being trendy, and often there isn’t food I can eat (even salads aren’t safe!). It’s exhausting. You don’t realize how much food dominates your life until you have a restriction.

Last year I was a freshman at UArts, and they require that the incoming freshman have the max (19 meals a week) meal plan. I had been previously assured that there was going to be accommodations for me, but when I got there, it wasn’t what I had thought.

Nothing was ever labeled and the servers often didn’t know if something was gluten free or not. Now, I must give a small shout out to the servers who were kind enough to go and ask the chef for me…but then again, some servers would simply say “I don’t know” and would not try to help. But even then, more often than not, many of the meals were not gluten free at all, and the only option I had was french fries and salads. Sometimes I would eat something and think “well, let's hope for the best.” I couldn’t live off fries and salad.

Oh! And the accommodations that they said they had was a freezer in the back with some gluten free bread, muffins, and cookies. We were shoved into the back. It was all frozen and the toaster they provided was of very bad quality and didn’t toast things well/took forever. I would just take bread out of the dining hall in my bag back to my dorm where I had a better toaster.

During first semester, I was constantly getting sick, to the point where, right before Christmas break, I collapsed/fainted in my shower from sheer exhaustion. I thankfully came to pretty fast and got out of my shower and all that, but that’s when I knew that I needed to stop eating at the dining hall.

I made it work. Sure I had no job, but I had saved a little money from my refund check so I used that and would just make stuff in my dorm. I was lucky enough to get a roommate that knew what Celiac was and how to handle it.

Now I live off campus, and have a job and pay for my own groceries. But, being in full-time school with a job on top of that… it’s hard to get any kind of food. Now, someone who does not have a dietary restriction, they can run to any convince store and get a to-go sandwich for a decent price, or get a hot dog at Wawa or something. This is not an option for me. All the “gluten free” snacks are always more expensive and I have to MAKE everything I eat.

I’m not trying to complain, don’t get it twisted. However, this is something that affects me in daily life, and is constantly on my mind and needs to be brought to light! Especially at places like universities. I’ve heard from many other college students that the dining halls in college aren’t always the best, and I’ve heard from many celiacs and other people with dietary restrictions just how hard it is.

This conversation needs to be opened up, but it won’t happen unless we bring it up. My suggestion is that if you have celiac or another severe dietary restriction, you find out a way to contact the dining services and try and work with them to help with your needs. If this doesn’t work, then maybe look into getting off your meal plan and getting refunded for it.

It’s a really tough situation, and you have to be firm in it. It’s exhausting I know… but it will be so worth it. Now that I’m not on a meal plan, I haven’t gotten sick since. Plus, I have heard from some of the other celiacs in my school that are still one a meal plan that it has gotten a little better, now that they have hired a new head chef.

College is hard enough as it is without having to worry about if your dining hall is accidentally poisoning you, and it's not really something you should have to worry about.

If you are a celiac dealing with this issue, make sure to talk to your dining hall staff, and if that doesn't work... you could always get a doctors note to get you off the meal plan.