Any College Students Out There?

[Sillyyakdidi]

Hey everyone, I just joined this site a few days ago. My name is Di, and I'm 22 and in college. I've been a gluten-free gal since '04, and am having alot of problems ... Is anyone else out there in college right now? How do you deal with eating on campus? What do you bring to school to snack on? How do you deal with all the social problems when everyone wants to play beer pong and go out to eat pizza or at big chain restauraunts....Help!!!

[BRUMI1968]

Hi. I'm in college - am 38, so a bit on the old end of things for college - but I NEVER eat on campus. Well, on Wednesdays they have baked potatoes or baked sweet potatoes, and sometimes I have that. But otherwise, I take food.

I take:

trail mix (homemade)

bacon in a zip lock bag (a current problem of mine: bacon addiction)

Tupperware dishes of pasta salad (rice pasta)

bananas

Lara bars

thermos of tea

meat roll ups (think sandwich w/o bread)

I recently got a new backpack, and I also recently found the camping section of a store near us. So now I have a super lightweight spoon, a salt/pepper shaker.....it's fun.

boiled eggs

salad rolls (made with rice paper stuff - this is a good summer one)

walnut butter and apple slices

I don't know. It's hard. That is part of why I spent the good money on a backpack. I have to be so bloody prepared everywhere I go. I have to take my own kitchen. I only have 2 days a week when I'm on campus long enough to HAVE to eat there. The other day is only 3 hours on campus, so I just take drinks/snacks. I'm still getting the hang of it.

Good luck.

Sherri

[Sinenox]

Heya, also 22 and in college, just recently diagnosed here.

I wish I could be helpful on the food side. I ended up using an off campus kitchen for all my meals since the refectory wouldn't help me. It helps to talk to the chefs on campus first hand. Frequently they'll try to accomodate. I know that some companies, such as Bon Appetite, are better than others. Have you spoken to your school about it? Can you make food in a kitchen area in your dorm or in your room? If not, maintaining a gluten-free diet is practically impossible. If you have some extra cash budgeted for gluten free food (and no matter what people say it's expensive) and transit, that's helped me a lot.

As far as beer goes, there are a few different gluten-free brands and Bevmo (if you have one of those near you) recently picked up a couple. I think Trader Joes also has one or two, at least in my area. I try to bring my own. Luckily at a lot of the big parties on my campus you're encouraged to bring your own, tag them and take them when you want, so it works out.

In terms of quick, cheap food: Thai Kitchen is my Raman. They've got 4 gluten-free flavors and you just heat water and pour. Fruit is good too and someone on this site has a link to a list of gluten-free candy, which is helpful in general and around halloween. I'm in college in SoCal, so Chipotle and In-N-Out are staples for me when grabbing quick food or eating out with friends. I try to figure out which coffee shops are kosher early on and go back to them often. Also, I found that going shopping once a week and then preparing a bunch of premade meals was often my best option, when it came to making food in the room. I imagine you probably have a more sanitery set up than I did.

Good luck.

[Sinenox]

Oh, one more thing:

I frequently offer to go pick up the keg. That supplies me with a car so that I can get to the store and grab the gluten-free beer while I'm there, or whichever hard gluten-free liquor is on for the night. That's the nice thing about red cups, too. No one really knows what you're drinking or how drunk you are. You can also refill gluten-free beer bottles with tequila-juice blends or whatever's your fancy.

[GlutenWrangler]

Hey,

I'm 22, going back to college next fall. I've been unable to go for the last few years because celiac disease did quite a number on me. I definitely wouldn't eat anything on campus. You may want to think about talking to someone in health services on campus to see if they can accommodate your needs. I think I read somewhere that they have to try to help you out. The social side is rough. You can go anywhere with your friends, but unfortunately, you just can't eat. It's definitely not easy, but its good to have friends who understand. I hope you are fortunate enough to have some good friends like that.

-Brian

[printmaker81]

Hello there, I'm 25 and in school, too. The gluten-free diet can be a little expensive and inconveinent for the college budget, but it is a good bit healthier than the average college-age cuisine. Those Thai Kitchen rice noodle soups are cheap and a gluten-free form (and tastier, too IMHO) of ramien. So, you can be cooking your $1 noodles with everyone else.

When it come to going to parties and such, I got myself a flask that I carry to pretty much every party where there will be boozing. It keeps me gluten-free, limits how much I can drink, and best of all earns me toughness points with my buddies. It's a real image booster when you're a smallish girl.

The pizza thing is really annoying and sort of hard to get around. But I've found that my friends use me as an excuse to get different food. I live in a pretty multi-cultural area, so we like to go for Indian, thai and sushi a lot. I've also found that alot of the friends I've made in school since going gluten free are better about watching out for me because they never knew me before I had to be gluten-free.

The items I always have in my workspace at school are peanut butter and caramel rice cakes, Thai kitchen soup packs, fresh & dried fruit, Amy's organic soups which you can find in most groceries, popcorn, fritos, nuts, rice crackers & humus.

I definitely do recommend a flask though. It will be the conversation piece rather than why you can't drink beer

[GeoffCJ]

I'm a graduate student at UC Davis.

I don't really eat on campus. There is a salad bar that I've used when desperate, but I worry about CC.

Luckily, my wife is awesome. She makes me lunch somedays, somedays I make my own. My favorite are spring rolls. Rice paper, rice vermacelli, lettuce, dicon, carrots,mint, meat, and fish sauce.

The pizza thing is tough.

[heathen]

hey, i'm 25, and in college still... i commute, so i pack my lunch. i tend to go with a lot of fruit--applesauce, mandarin oranges, and those little raisin boxes. my sandwich substitute is usually gluten-free lunch meat wraps with sliced cheese or cream cheese. and you can get that stuff relatively cheap. when my friends go out for pizza, i usually run to wendy's on the way and grab something for me. or get a salad (be sure to say without the croutons) at the pizza place.

as for the drinking, i can't even manage to finish off a gluten free beverage without getting sick, so i refrain. my digestive track just wasn't meant for alcohol. and whenever they start in on me, i tell them to back off, or i'll use their bathroom when i get sick. i have to admit, it took a while to get the thick skin, but after being haphazardly glutened, i just don't want to go there any more.

other "cheap" gluten-free foods i like: rice noodle "ramen," annie's gluten-free mac and cheese, puffins honey rice cereal, enjoy life snickerdoodle two-packs, nut thins (almond and cheddar), enviro kidz krispy rice bars (chocolote and berry)

and don't be afraid to venture into your local grocery store to find stuff that's more in the budget. you might have to do a some more investigating, but it's totally worth it. also, walmart and kroger chains are carrying more and more gluten-free stuff. alot of the walmart brand food will say "gluten free" on the packaging. and the annie's gluten-free canned soups are pretty good for those cold, yucky days.

if you have access to an oven, the frozen chebe bread dough for sandwiches and breadsticks are great. i spread them with gluten-free cream cheese, spaghetti sauce and hormel pepperoni. it's like a mini pizza. the bread takes a while to bake, so i usually take a nap or catch up on reading in the meantime. also, i burned out on the amy's no gluten microwave meals pretty quickly, so i don't recommend them more than once in a while.

i always keep food in my car just in case i can't find anything to eat. and i usually keep a box of raisins in my backpack, so i don't have to rely on the vending machine having a candy bar i can eat--it never does.

good luck. i can't imagine being a resident student with celiac. i would have starved or had to go home every weekend to get more food.

[emcmaster]

Hi Di -

I'm 21 and in my last semester of college. Fortunately I'm only taking 2 classes, so I don't have to pack food to eat at school, but I do pack food to eat at the office (I'm a mortgage broker).

Take a cooler with you full of foods to eat. I eat things like cottage cheese with blueberries, yogurt and an apple, leftovers, etc. You can also make Lara type bars at home and bring those with you.

As for the social scene, I don't feel any pressure whatsoever to drink beer or eat anything I can't handle. The people we go to bars with are our friends and if they pressured me, they wouldn't be our friends anymore. If people want to go out to eat at some place I can't eat, I eat before I go or bring something with me. Don't worry what others think - make sure you stay healthy!

Elizabeth

[prinsessa]

I go to college at night, so I have the problem of eating dinner. I usually bring a Lara bar with me (which I found for much cheaper at Costco) or a little bag of nuts and a piece of fruit. If people start getting rude about you not being able to eat certain things, then don't hang out with them. I have found most people to be very supportive (especially college students). I know some hard ciders are gluten free and look a lot like beer. The pizza thing is hard, but you could always bring your own gluten free pizza with or just eat before going. I always bring my kids own pizza when we go to a pizza party.

[Sillyyakdidi]

thanks for all of your help everyone!

[chick2ba]

Hi, I'm Ashley. This is my last semester as an undergrad and I

[Guest Norah022]

I got diagnosed at the end of my junior year and now about to start my second semester of my senior year. I lucked out and live in a duplex so i have a kitchen where i can store food and cook whatever i want. Its on campus since my entire campus is residential so I don't need to worry about bringing food with me to class since i have time between classes to go home and cook. My only problem is sharing the kitchen with 3 gluten eating roommates who dont quite understand Celiac's disease. So i have been glutened quite a bit.

[NicoleAJ]

I'm in grad school, so things are slightly different for me. But I do have one comment to add. Of course the people you care about most will be supportive and helpful, watching out for you as much as they can. But, let's face it, at parties, people can be really obnoxious if you're not doing what they're doing, and you shouldn't think twice about those people. But sometimes you're just sick of feeling left out of activities that seem fun at the time. Though I've never been the biggest beer pong fan (even before my diagnosis), I have, on occasion, played--just for the heck of it. One time one of my friends volunteered to be my surrogate drinker, which I thought was really nice of her. But the few other times I've played, I've filled the cups that I'm responsible for drinking with water and then set aside separate cups of gluten-free cider, beer, or a mixed drink that has not been contaminated. When someone throws a ping-pong ball in my water-filled cup, I dump out the water and drink the cup of gluten-free alcohol that has been set aside....Just an idea. (definitely not advocating mass alcohol consumption--I'm not a big drinker at all).