Photo by Chrissy Lee / North by Northwestern
Tali Jona stands in front of the soup station, carefully scrutinizing its nutritional labels. A few seconds later, she sees the dreaded words: “contains gluten.” Empty bowl in hand, she walks away. Salad it is. Again.
No one would ever call Northwestern cuisine gourmet, but for students who can’t eat gluten, the quality of dining hall food doesn’t matter. Almost all of it is inedible anyway.
“I try not to eat in the dining halls because I am very frustrated a lot of the time,” says Jona, a gluten-intolerant Weinberg sophomore. “I just want variety, instead of eating the exact same thing all the time.”
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Sensitivity to gluten can range from intolerances to allergies.
While still serious, intolerances provoke different reactions than allergies. On the severe side of the spectrum lie diseases like celiac and Crohn’s, which are autoimmune conditions.
Here’s a quick biology lesson: Inside your intestines are miniscule hair-like structures called villi, which line the intestine and help absorb nutrients. These help you absorb nutrients— which is why, for celiac sufferers, it’s so devastating when gluten flattens their villi. Not only is gluten not absorbed and passed to the rest of the body, but the body loses its ability to process other kinds of nutrients. You can eat everything in sight and still starve.
Students on gluten-free diets often rely on nuCuisine chefs to help them choose the right foods. The chefs are usually knowledgeable, but sometimes there are exceptions. When Communication sophomore Cordelia Dewdney ate at Sargent her freshman year, she often asked chefs what foods contained gluten.
“They’d be like, ‘Oh no, no, no,’” she says. “Then I would ask another [chef], and they would look in the ingredients, and there’d be flour or barley or something, which I’m allergic to.”
People often don’t realize how many foods contain gluten. Bread, pasta, pastries, even beer—that reliable college staple—are off-limits to gluten-sensitive people. Gluten-free stations, offering basics like wheatless bread and cereal, appeared in all dining halls last year.
Justin Heaton, nuCuisine’s head dietician, says the stations are intended to provide ready-made foods to the increasing gluten-free student population.
“I do see [the options] growing,” he says of Northwestern’s gluten-free food program. “There is obviously the demand for it.”
When asked how soon growth will occur, Heaton says he’s “not quite sure at this point,” but added that nu- Cuisine is “moving forward.”
Students agree that these stations are an excellent first step, since they ensure students can always at the very least make a sandwich. But the problem isn’t that gluten-free students can’t find something to eat. It’s that they often have no choice but to always eat the same thing.
“It would be great if they had one hot dish that was labeled gluten-free,” says Dewdney. “That in itself would make a big difference.”
Jona says she’s gotten used to Northwestern’s limited options. What she can’t accept, however, is how often dining halls add gluten to foods that don’t need them.
“All the soups in the dining hall are thickened with gluten, which is common in mass-produced food, but it’s frustrating because it’s usually something I eat all the time,” Jona says. “It’s almost upsetting. The soups don’t have to be like that.”
According to Heaton, soups are ordered from outside vendors, so the school can’t change their gluten thickening. However, some dining halls are starting to use stocks and sauces prepared by in-house chefs.
“If chefs are making their own stocks and sauces, they would be gluten- free because they wouldn’t have that base,” Heaton says.
Many students say Northwestern’s labeling system also needs improvement. French fries are particularly problematic. Violet Redensek, a gluten-intolerant Weinberg sophomore, once got sick from seasoned fries because the recipe label hadn’t been updated to include gluten. Communication sophomore Weston Jacoby, who has celiac disease, had no idea the fries were cooked in a fryer also used for wheat products, a fact he only learned after talking to the chefs.
“If I’m here for four years,” Jacoby says, “that could be a long-term problem if I’m eating things that are contaminated or mislabeled and I don’t know it.”
When dining hall dishes are gluten- free, they’re not always marked as such. Instead, gluten just isn’t listed as an ingredient. This is due to the possibility of cross-contamination, Heaton says, but students argue labels must be more discerning. They know from experience or staff recommendation certain foods are safe, but their labels do not reflect that. These labeling discrepancies also waste time for students.
“The hardest part is trying to be a frantic college student and trying to find a way to eat healthy,” says Rebecca Rego, a SESP senior with celiac disease. She lives off-campus, but frequently eats at Norris and C-Stores.
“You can’t just run and grab something,” she says. “If it had a label on there, it would be so much easier. I wouldn’t be reading fifty ingredients. It would just be a matter of, ‘Oh, this says gluten-free. Great, let’s go.’”
Northwestern is trying to accommodate gluten-free lifestyles, students say. Students who reached out to nuCuisine have had positive experiences, though the attempts are not always successful.
After her first quarter at Northwestern, Jona met with Heaton. If Jona could provide Heaton with a schedule of times, places and foods for her meals, he’d compose a diverse weekly diet. But like most Northwestern students, Jona knew her life was too hectic to follow a tightly regimented timetable, leading her to turn down Heaton’s offer.
However, for Weinberg freshman Jacob Rosenblum, a custom weekly diet was exactly what he needed. The slightest cross-contamination can cause a reaction for Rosenblum, so none of his food can be cooked in dishes that have touched gluten. Before arriving on campus, Rosenblum called nuCuisine, who assured them they could handle his needs, and Rosenblum says they have.
“I live in Willard, and the dining staff there is especially amazing,” he says, “They know me by my face, so they’re always readily available to help me rather than having to search them out.”
Heaton says another student in Elder currently follows a custom weekly diet as well, but he wishes there was more dialogue between gluten-free students and the administration because not all students know it’s an option.
“We welcome feedback from the students. So if students are having a hard time finding meals, they can always come to me,” Heaton says.
“They’re definitely moving in the right direction,” Jona says. “It’s just taking longer than I, or other gluten-free people, would have probably hoped.”