In a world full of pizza, ramen and beer, being gluten free isn’t as glamorous as Gwyneth Paltrow makes it out to be. Without a personal chef (or mom), and a limitless budget on hand, a wheat-free world can be simply oppressive. Nothing about being gluten free is cheap, fast or communal. How can you socialize when you want to pull your hair out because everyone else is eating donuts except for you? College is just one big pizza party everyone’s at but you’re not invited to. So, for those of us suffering from this dietary limitation, I’ve learned some helpful tips out of bitterness and frustration that may help you maintain the gluten-free lifestyle, without wanting to pull your hair out:
Box It Up, Baby: I hate to cook. And not cooking when you’re gluten-free is practically suicide, unless you have a collection of frozen dinners and canned soups at the ready, which I always do. But to supplement my lazy habits, I make an entire box of pasta every week and put the leftover noodles in a container to have at the ready for the next week. I also do this with rice and vegetables. It makes for easy meals when your too tired or too busy to cook but are sick of frozen burritos.
Bring Your Own Snacks: I find that when I’m not dangerously hungry, I am able to tolerate other people’s privileged diet much better. So, I’ve learned in the past two years of my suffering, to always bring granola bars or pretzels in my purse, to whip out as a meager weapon when battling the forces of jealousy and temptation. This works especially well at work socials and birthday parties where only cake and donuts are served.
Coupon Like A Mad Woman: If you’re like most college students, or me, your disposable income is limited and spent early on, on things not worth mentioning. So, to help offset the bank breaking costs of a loaf of rice bread or quinoa patties, taking up couponing can really lower the costs. I’ve saved countless dollars on anything from obscure food items to popcorn. No, I don’t whip out a binder in the check out line, but clipping a few coupons off of Internet sites such as coupons.com will do the trick.
Mark Your Food: Sharing a fridge with roommates who may not be as educated in the principles of expensive dietary limitations may try and take your food. Why they would want to, I don’t know, but it happens. So make sure you mark your containers or just explain how sacred the food you hate really is.
Keep It Balanced: When facing dietary restrictions, it’s easy to just forget to eat a meal or replace that meal with something quick and easy like pretzels or frozen yogurt. Especially when you’re on your own and no one is around to remind you otherwise. Because of your limitations, pay extra attention to maintaining the appropriate caloric intake and that the calories you’re consuming are coming from protein and not just the sugar in your smoothie.
Being gluten-free in the confines of college can be an exhausting and fruitless struggle. But believe it or not, there are worse things than being deprived of pancakes and brownies, and if I keep reminding myself of that, it helps keep my bitter rage away from innocent bystanders with cookies. So my fellow gluten-free students: hang in there! And let us all pray for an anti-wheat allergy shot to be discovered in the next several years.