<p>One of the best restaurants I found for GF is Legal Seafood. They even have GF rolls!! Here’s a website with other chain restaurants (which I find are more up-to-speed on GF vs local places):</p>
<p>If you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, some of their private label GF products are the same as National brands (the nutrional & ingredient label is identical) - waffles are Van’s, mac & cheese is Annie’s. Both are $1+ less than what my local ShopRite charges.</p>
<p>bumping because i have celiac disease and am curious about college food options…</p>
<p>I have already contacted disability office and the head assured me they could occomidate me (i know her already, i’m a junior and was just recently diagnosed ><).</p>
<p>I’ll be living in the dorms… because that is the only way i can go to college (apartments are out because i cannot afford them :<).</p>
<p>There is so much great advice being offered here I won’t go into too much detail other than to say just ask! If a restaurant is unable to answer your question, you should not eat there. Now here is the really fun upside: we have been to over a dozen college campuses and they all had gluten free zones. Elon had one the safest gluten free zones I have ever seen! Furman offered gluten free pizza and sandwiches made to order. All the CA schools were up to date and had great gluten free and organic offerings. If there was ever a time to be gluten free- this is it!</p>
<p>Nj2011mom: we are regulars at the short hills legal seafood ;they actually know to heat up the rolls when they see my daughter</p>
<p>Momma mocha: D2 starts Elon in the fall; so accommodating. When we first started this process there were some schools that were heads and shoulders above the rest; Elon fell into that category</p>
<p>D is a GF pescatarian (will eat fish/dairy, but no meat). At orientation a few weeks ago all she ate was salad due to the limited offerings, however she’s hopeful during the regular year, things will be better. An easy breakfast fix is to ask them to stock Chex cereal - the chocolate & cinammon varieties are amazing! Once the semester starts, she plans to request that they make GF bread available.</p>
<p>Rutgers has a suggestions board for food service. (You write your request on a napkin & put it on the board!) We’ve been told they take legitimate requests seriously, plus they say they will accommodate all health-related dietary requests.</p>
<p>Ice dragon: depends on your school; at my daughter’s, they encourage students w special diets visit food services to discuss additions that they can get. Other schools restrict it to what is available throughout the current food service provider. It just depends on the policy within each school’s dining service</p>
<p>Joining in on this thread as D has just been diagnosed as strongly wheat and corn sensitive, along with quite a few other seemingly random food sensitvities (watermelon, cashews, mushrooms, along with several others). Has been working with a holisitc nutritionist all summer and is now on a bunch of supplements including probiotics. The blood work confirming the wheat and corn sensitivies just came back about 10 days ago, so she is a week into GF/corn free. The challenge we are finding is that many GF products contain corn, so that pool of products has shrunk from what it initially seemed to be. Pamela’s (saw that mentioned in and earlier post) has some wheat and corn free products. Found a better bread company product frozen pizza and a couple glutino frozen pizzas that meet her requirements. Overall it’s been going better than expected at home – she feels dramatically better in just a week and is motivated to make this work. I’ve been eating GF/corn free along with her just to experience it and can honestly say most of the foods are good.</p>
<p>Her/my biggest concern is when she heads back to school. She already didn’t like the food (although maybe that was cuz she was eating a lot of the foods that aren’t good for her). The dining service is run by a large company that runs the dining program in many schools across the country as well as a lot of corporations. She has set up a meeting in a few weeks with the head of dining services at her school. Any advice on some specific questions she should bring to the meeting. Are schools generally open to buying products suggested by the student with the food issue. Any advice from more experienced parents/students out there would be appreciated. Thanks!!</p>
<p>There are lots of GF products that use rice flour as the primary grain. (Van’s & Trader Joes GF Waffles use Rice, Potato & Soy flour, no corn). In addition to rice, potato & soy flours, I’ve also seen tapioca starch, buckwheat flour and garbanzo bean flour as primary ingredients. Is she sensitive to oats? (a word of caution on oats, make sure they are listed as GF, as wheat flour is sometimes added to packaged oatmeal).</p>
<p>One thing she will need to be diligent on is maltodextrin, as the standard now is that it’s made from corn malt. There are non-corn/wheat based maltodextrins, but they are the exception, not the rule. She will also need to worry about high fructose corn sryup, which sweetens everything from sodas to jams. </p>
<p>This is my favorite GF bread, which can be found at Trader Joes & Whole Foods. It’s quite dense (must be toasted!), but looks like the ingredients will work for her:</p>
<p>Good luck. I hope she likes eggs, vegetables, cheese and meat, as that’s my primary diet! You might want to get an Atkins Diet cookbook, as the recipes are generally GF. </p>
<p>PS - I looked at Udi’s breads, which are now my Ds favorite, and they have tertiary ingredients made from corn.</p>