In the seventh grade, I had to start cutting dairy out of my diet. At that point, it was perceived as lactose intolerance, and I couldn’t have ice cream, pizza, or mac and cheese without taking a Lactaid pill. Eventually, those stopped working. I avoided foods with large amounts of dairy in them, but it could still be used to cook.
Fast forward to now, and even if something has a slight milk powder in it, I am riddled with migraines, nausea, and the most awful stomach pains you could imagine. I have had to cut dairy completely out of my diet because it turns out I am not intolerant of the lactose enzymes; I am allergic to one of the other proteins in dairy. This makes daily meals on a college campus very difficult.
Dorm life has its setbacks for anyone, but for me, it is the lack of access to allergen friendly food. For starters, the convenience of the Sparty’s stores in most dorms is helpful until there is a struggle with finding options that are dairy free. Sure, they offer ramen, soup, some sandwiches, and cereal, but a lot of the filling options – especially for breakfast – contain cheese or another form of dairy. I have learned that for me personally, I can’t get the egg bites, breakfast burritos, or any of the wraps. I can have a few of the mini breakfast sandwiches, but I have to take the time to scrape the cheese off of them before heating them up.
When it comes to lunch and dinner options in the grab-and-goes, I am even more limited to my options. Most of the entrée items that we can get in our combo exchanges are pizzas, mac and cheese, sandwiches and wraps with cheese incorporated into them, salads with cheese mixed in, or ramen. Most of the options I just named are off the list for me immediately, and the others require extra steps to make sure it is safe for me to eat. Sometimes I get lucky with the grab-and-go that is located upstairs in Holden Hall when they make salmon, chicken, or tamales. Outside of this, I end up limited to the same few options every time I cannot make it to a dining hall: chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, or ramen.
Now, there are nine dining halls on MSU’s campus that rotate menus daily and post their menus on their respective apps. Most of the halls have a chicken sandwich, burger, and pizza station that have set-in-stone menus, but the main lines rotate. Some days, this is a lifesaver, and I end up with several different options to eat for meals throughout the day, but there are periods of time where the main rotating choices always include some form of milk. This leaves me stuck with a burger, salad, or chicken sandwich. The unfortunate thing about the salad bar is that a majority of the dressings are dairy based as well, so I also have limited options there.
Sure, there are options, but it gets exhausting eating the same few meals almost every day. Because of this, I find myself pushing off meals because I don’t want the options available to me. It also is difficult because I don’t have constant kitchen access and dishes to make myself food when options aren’t available to me. Yes, my dorm has a community kitchen, but it is a pain to rent the key, provide my own cookware that I drag from my dorm, and buy things on the spot because I do not have much storage when it comes to food.
Overall, life on a college campus with a food allergy is quite difficult to endure on certain days, even with the steps that the culinary teams make to attempt to provide for those that can’t eat certain meals. Dear MSU, if you’re reading this, please make allergen friendly food more accessible outside of Thrive in Owen Hall.
Sincerely,
a girl with dietary restrictions.