It’s pizza day at the sorority house. Girls are lined up in the cafeteria waiting to fill their plate with as much homemade pizza as it will allow. A sign on the heating lamp above the food says, “GF in back.” Four girls head through the swinging door to the kitchen so they can get a slice of pizza they can eat without getting sick.
The “GF” stands for gluten-free and in this case, it means that the pizza has been made without flour, wheat or barley, which all contain the protein gluten. Gluten is the binding agent in dough, and it’s used as an additive and thickening agent in the foods we eat everyday.
For many college students, bread, pasta, canned soup and cereal are a staple in their diet, but to those suffering from celiac disease or an intolerance to gluten, these foods can be extremely harmful to their health.
Not too many years ago, it was taught that celiac disease was rare in the United States, affecting 1 in 10,000 people. According to the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, this was the formal, official teaching of ’99. Since then, Dr. Alessio Fasano of the University of Maryland told The New York Times that studies have been done to prove that nearly 1 in 133 people have celiac disease. The Celiac Disease Center reports that 97% of people with celiac disease aren’t diagnosed. Eating gluten-free is the only accepted medical treatment to treat celiac disease.
Kelsey Safran, member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has battled celiac disease since the age of 12.
“I saw over ten doctors before actually being diagnosed and spent three years in and out of the hospital.” said Safran. “I wasn’t fully recovered for another two years because all of the intestinal damage that had been done.”
Flour, wheat and barley are all considered gluten and can cause inflammation in the small intestine of people with celiac disease. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, gluten damages the intestines of those with the disease and affects the ability to absorb nutrients properly. No matter how much food he or she eats, a person becomes malnourished. The disease can develop at any point in life.
For another U of I student, the disease has only recently affected her.
Just two years ago, Amy Jarosz was diagnosed over Thanksgiving break, her freshman year of college. After experiencing stomach pains she was administered several tests. She says her experience hasn’t been “too bad” since then.
“I don’t like to complain about it and just suck it up; it could be a lot worse,” said Jarosz.
People with food allergies will tell you that ordering from restaurants or eating food prepared by others is worrisome enough and for those suffering from celiac disease, it’s an even more serious matter. For these people, eating gluten can result in immediate nausea, cramping, headaches, and mouth sores, among other symptoms.
For Jarosz, the most difficult part about being gluten-free is being away at school where she can’t cook her own food.
“Fast food is always tough,” she said. “And any situation where food is provided and I am not able to eat it so I have to hold off on eating until later when I can get my own food.”
Safran agrees that pressure in situations where food is provided can be a challenge.
“More than anything, being gluten free is difficult to manage in social settings,” she said. “It’s difficult when going out to dinner with a group of friends, or if someone orders a pizza and you’re the only one not eating.”
For gluten-free students on the University of Illinois campus, finding restaurants that will serve food to cater to their restrictions can be a challenge.
“I wish restaurants on campus offered gluten-free buns for burgers,” said Jarosz. “That way I’d be able to eat a burger like everyone else instead of always being forced to resort to getting a salad.”
“I really wish Chinese food restaurants would start making gluten-free dishes because those types of food are really hard to make at home, and I really miss them!” said Safran. Recent technology is making it easier for gluten-free eaters to find just what they’re looking for.
Jason Elmore calls himself a, “a gluten-free software developer.” He created the website, and app, “Find Me Gluten Free” for people, like him, who struggle with finding restaurants that cater to gluten-free patrons. What started-off as list written by a frustrated traveler is now quickly becoming a successful business.
“We are the most popular platform to find gluten-free friendly businesses,” said Elmore in an e-mail interview. “We recently received an investment from Mark Cuban, billionaire business-mogul, and we are working hard to provide to tens of thousands of people across North America.”
According to Elmore, “Find Me Gluten Free” strives to raise awareness of celiac disease and believes that people eating gluten-free should be able to do it safely and comfortably. Selling gluten-free food, however, is a privilege Elmore doesn’t project on every restaurant. In fact, he doesn’t believe all restaurants should have a gluten-free option.
“If a restaurant cannot do gluten-free properly, they shouldn’t claim to have gluten-free options,” he said. “Of course, it’s each individual’s personal responsibility to make sure they feel comfortable with the education and procedures of a restaurant, but if a restaurant knows they cannot do gluten-free properly, they should be honest about it. Honesty would save people from getting sick a lot of the time.”
One tool Elmore and his team implement on the “Find Me Gluten Free” website is a rate and review comment space that allows people to write about their experiences at each restaurant. For those with celiac disease, this is invaluable because even if restaurants claim to be gluten-free, heightened sensitivity to the protein can cause people to become sick to their stomachs from only the slightest bit of gluten.
If you search for Champaign on the site, several restaurants in the area show up. Monical’s Pizza Restaurant, the Central Illinois chain, gets a number of reviews. One reviewer said, “There are few places we feel safe to eat but this is one of them! Our boys get ‘special’ (what 4 yr old calls gf) pizza and even a ‘special’ cookie!
The staff we have dealt with are very knowledgeable.” Grace Terzakis, a senior at the University of Illinois who eats gluten-free said, “I love Monical’s because I can order delivery pizza when my friends do because they offer both gluten-free pizza and regular pizza.”
Patrick Alvey is the Vice President of the Monical Pizza Corporation who has been with the company for the last 35 years. For the last 5 years, Alvey and his team have worked on creating a product opportunity to safely sell a gluten-free option. Although Alvey says the sales are never high, they remain constant and the customer feedback is what has kept the option alive.
“The sales of this product have resulted in some of the most heartwarming feedback we have ever received on a product,” said Alvey. “Our profit margin on the gluten free pizza is quite small, but the fact that we can now bring the ‘joy of pizza’ to our celiac/gluten intolerant guests has been very rewarding.”
As the number of celiac diagnoses continues to grow, restaurants and food production companies are becoming more flexible in order to cater to this to this niche of people.
One University of Illinois housing facility has recently been working to provide alternative food options to people with celiac disease and gluten-intolerance. Bromley
Hall, a private certified dorm, located at 910 S. Third Street, is home to over 700 university students and has been catering to the needs of students with allergies and gluten-intolerance for the past ten years. Tice Food Service is the Bromley subsidiary that creates flexible meal plans and buys trustworthy brands to ensure accommodations for gluten-free residents. Despite Tice’s best efforts, there’s a constant struggle to create a balance for the few students that need special food.
“Buying gluten-free food is hard from a food service standpoint, if they don’t eat it everyday, I’m pitching it away,” says Jim Hudson, Food Service Director of Tice Foods. “There’s gluten in everything!” he said, “anything that’s got artificial coloring or flavoring, additives or preservatives.”
Despite the expensive costs of buying gluten-free food, Hudson and his team do their best to create a cafeteria that has plenty of options for gluten-free students. Bromley allows these students to bring their own outside food into the cafeteria, a privilege denied to students without allergies, and lists gluten-free items on the menus for each day. A salad bar is set up everyday with fresh ingredients and a deli bar allows residents to make their own subs. For gluten-free students and those with allergies, everything is labeled with ingredients. “We make it as easy as we can for them to identify what’s in the foods,” said Hudson.
For the students that have to be extra-cautious when eating their food, it’s a huge help to have labels and ingredients everywhere so they don’t have to worry. “I’ve heard Bromley does a really good job catering to gluten-free people,” said Grace Terzakis. “Had I known that as a freshman, I would’ve definitely lived there.”
In a world where it seems like every corner has food created with gluten, people with an intolerance are finding more ways to live a “normal” life and to eat the foods they once loved. Brands like Udi’s and Amy’s Kitchen have grown considerably in the past few years and can be found at Meijer, County Market and Wal-Mart in the Champaign area. The optimism that surrounds this disease actually lies in the fact that more and more people are being diagnosed. With more information comes a larger consumer base and a growing need for gluten-free option. “More and more brands are making gluten-free products and restaurants offer gluten free information,” said Jarosz. “As long as you stay informed, it’s completely tolerable.”