Every weekend, fast food restaurants fill with dozens of University of Oregon students and glow against the rainy Eugene nights. Friends chat over pizza, fried chicken and cookies as they breeze from one event to the next. The food they consume is simply the backdrop to their evening. But for students with gluten allergies, food is a nagging part of their foreground.
Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), a leading research institute and non-profit, estimates that 2.4 million Americans suffer from wheat-related allergies as of 2024. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, celiac disease — an autoimmune disorder causing severe gastrointestinal symptoms from gluten and gluten cross contamination — affects about one in one hundred people globally.
Many of Eugene’s beloved fast food restaurants are reported to have limited gluten-free options. A large portion of students with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease haven’t set foot in many of the most popular venues like Dave’s Hot Chicken. Those who have eaten at these restaurants describe disappointing experiences. “I mean, I’ve gone to Dave’s with my friends but there’s literally nothing,” said Lara Clute, a UO student with celiac disease, “I had the pickled veggies in a cup — definitely not the experience of a normal college student.”
Clute, like many other gluten-free students, sticks to eating at a few restaurants that they’ve deemed safe, whether that’s because of how educated the restaurant staff is, how many precautions are followed for cross-contamination, or simply how many gluten-free choices they can order. This significantly limits their options when it comes to eating out.
Due to the lack of choices, some gluten-free students said they consistently make potentially unsafe food choices while on the go, while others opt for not eating at all.
Zach Rains, a member of Chi Psi with celiac disease, is always busy between school and events with his fraternity. “It’s easier to just not eat than to actually eat sometimes, which I’ll typically find myself sometimes doing,” he said.
In contrast, Bee Baumstark, a student with a gluten allergy, sometimes feels that they have no other choice than to eat at restaurants that may not be the safest. They wish they could avoid cross-contaminated food, but it seems too difficult in a college environment.
Social dynamics also contribute to restaurant stress for gluten-free students. Students express feeling anxious when they’re the only one in the group who can’t eat at a restaurant. It’s common to feel like a burden or annoyance even when people are willing to change plans. Clute’s thought process while eating out with a group balances between the need to self-advocate and the desire to not appear too “picky.”
Baumstark has a similar thought process, emphasizing how alienating constantly advocating for safe food and restaurants can feel. Finding safe food to eat is always on their mind, but the majority of college students don’t give it a second thought. Gluten-free students agree with Baumstark — it’s exhausting.
Restaurant dilemmas are mirrored in another common place college students eat — dining halls. UO’s housing website boasts about allergen-free options with the disclaimer, “Because many dishes are made in the area where gluten has been prepared or used in recipes, we cannot guarantee housemade options are 100 percent gluten-free.” Opting for the term “made without gluten” negates some of the responsibility for supplying safe options, especially for celiac students.
Students who ate in the dining halls their freshman year reported repeatedly eating the same few meals. “There [were] about five things that I switched around throughout my whole freshman year,” said Rains.
Not all of UO’s dining hall options are created equal either. Elainie Myers, a student with a gluten sensitivity, said their experience on the Carson dining plan was “miserable.” They felt that most things at Carson were gluten-based and there were a limited number of meals they could eat each week. Carson had a gluten-free pizza, but it was only available at certain times that would conflict with Myers’ school schedule.
When students transition to living off-campus, new difficulties arise pertaining to grocery shopping. Gluten-free food is known to be more expensive and harder to find. A quick search on Safeway’s website corroborates this fact. Searching the term “bread” returned a myriad of options for as low as $2.49, while “gluten-free bread” returned less than a page worth of options, the cheapest of which was $5.99.
“I’m always at the grocery store and I’m always spending so much money,” says Baumstark. Some places, like Whole Foods or Market of Choice, have more gluten-free items, but are out of budget for a typical college student.
Ready-made options are typically unavailable for gluten-free students too — ramen is an example. There have been times when Myers reports getting home from a long day only to find that they have nothing for dinner. They would then have to head back out to buy ingredients and come back home to cook — an inconvenience with an already packed schedule. Ready-made options would be ideal for busy days but that simply isn’t an option for many gluten-free students.
Students’ limitations around restaurants, dining halls and grocery stores contribute to stress and anxiety already present in college environments. For Baumstark, navigating food with a gluten sensitivity feels more stressful than college; the time and money invested in eating gluten-free is a burden. Many gluten-free students find that they get sick from accidentally ingesting gluten more often when in college, making it difficult to get schoolwork done. Baumstark also spoke candidly about how this affects their body image and past eating disorder. It is triggering to constantly have significant pressure around food and to get sick so often from it. Gluten can also cause bloating when consumed by allergic individuals, leading to feelings of dysmorphia.
Because gluten allergies’ presence is overwhelming, students have learned to deal with them alone. But it still makes a profound impression when the people in their lives make efforts to show them support. The biggest struggle of a gluten-free life for many students was the lack of understanding.
It’s impossible to change the practices of every restaurant, dining hall and grocery store. But it is possible for those who have someone gluten-free in their life to learn a bit more, reach out or be willing to do something as simple as changing restaurants. Just knowing someone has a marginal understanding — on a late night drive to the grocery store, sitting at a restaurant table with an empty plate or risking getting sick out of necessity — can be enough.
