The hardest part about eating in New Orleans and in college in general was the dining hall food. I don’t want to go too in depth on it here because it isn’t relevant, and I don’t want to talk trash about Sydexo, because the staff has been incredibly helpful at times and I know they are putting effort into making gluten free eating easier. The fact of the matter is, having Celiac just sucks sometimes, and theres no way to sugar coat it. Having to eat in the dining hall is just one of those times. I feel like there are no healthy options there, so nutrition has felt hard to me, but not for the same reasons for why eating a balanced diet might feel hard to other people in new Orleans.
I’m not neglecting to eat my vegetables so I can eat a beignet, po’ boy, of something else breaded and fried, because I don’t have those options. I feel like for others, they can find it hard to eat healthy here because of the surplus of options. For me, I feel like it can be hard to eat healthy on campus because of my lack thereof. Off campus, however, there are tons of delicious and healthy options, because salads and Buddha bowls and other balanced meals are easy to make gluten free!
Living a balanced life here, especially nutrition wise, has come down to UberEats, Rimon (the restaurant on campus in Hillel), walking to Ba Chi, and instacart. I get rice cakes, goat cheese, turkey, gluten free bread, yogurts, protein bars, and other easy and healthy options in my dorm so I don’t have to sacrifice my nutrition for convenience, especially because there is a lot of gluten free bread available in the commons for me. I could make a waffle every single morning (essentially my only breakfast option in the dining hall) but that wouldn’t make me feel good, so having groceries in my room is something that’s really helped me.
On campus, aside from the dining hall, I also have occasionally grabbed breakfast at Rollin’ and Bowlin’, an acai and toast place near my dorm that has certified gluten free granola and can make the avocado toast on separately toasted gluten free bread!
Overall, I think I’m making progress finding a balance between the types of food I have available to me on and near campus. There are things that could be plausibly improved that I’m working on (specifically in the dining hall) and I feel like we could be making steps towards real progress!