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Gluten-free eating guide to Walla Walla restaurants by ADam Brayton Feature Editor
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ne would think at first glance that Walla Walla would be a difficult place to navigate while being gluten-free. However, restaurants old and new have a great variety of options beyond soups and salads to accommodate for the gluten-free foodie without having many hoops to jump through. Green Spoon Designating specific dishes as gluten-free has become more and more the style of new and trendy restaurants, and Green Spoon does an excellent job at this. Even menu items that would otherwise seem impossible without wheat products (such as the fried chicken and waffles) are strictly gluten-free options on their menu. This makes Green Spoon a good place to go out and try something off the beaten path. Jacobi’s Italian food is often the least navigable of waters when it comes to the gluten-free lifestyle— at least when it comes to dining out. From pasta to bread to breadcrumbs tucked away in sauces and meatballs alike, it’s a veritable dietary minefield out there. Jacobi’s, by comparison to that description, is a veritable paradise: Most menu items offer gluten-free substitutions so that you can enjoy your spaghetti and meatballs without fear. Just ask! Hidden Valley Bakery Located out past the airport, this is a bakery that goes the extra mile. One-third of the bakery’s
3000-square-foot facility is devoted strictly to producing glutenfree bread products, according to their Facebook page. This means that there is no danger of contamination in their baked goods, and that they make a whole bunch of gluten-free goodies. In addition to the expected loaves of bread, they also bake scones, danishes, bagel dogs and focaccia to just name a few. Hidden Valley also caters to vegan and soy-free diets. Aloha Sushi So long as tempura is avoided, sushi tends to be a safe bet when avoiding gluten. This makes downtown Walla Walla’s very own sushi restaurant a pretty safe haven for the gluten-averse. Just ask if your sushi has any soy sauce in it already, for most soy sauces (unless otherwise noted) contain gluten. For dipping, bring your own bottle; it’s worth it. The Garden Vegan Cafe As The Garden Vegan Cafe already caters to the niche vegan community, it’s not a large leap for the restaurant to also provide gluten-free menu items. From salads to soups to rice bowls to smoothies, just about everything on the menu also fits gluten-free criteria. Perfect for the diner who is also willing to forgo meat and cheese. Taquerias So long as you avoid burritos or anything with a flour tortilla, gluten-free diners are in the clear to eat a whole smattering of tacos at any of the taquerias in town. The only thing left to be wary of is carne asada—there is often secret gluten in that delicious meat.
The gluten-free lifestyle is becoming more and more pronounced in American culture. No longer simply a diet for people with Celiac disease, how is gluten-free breaking through to mainstream food culture at Whitman?
Students forgo, avoid gluten to stave off immunodeficiencies from GLUTEN, page 1
Often the risk of an allergy is overlooked because of the trend assumption. Domonoske said that many times in a restaurant, for example, foods outside of obvious wheat products are forgotten when tailoring to a gluten-free diet. “I feel like you have to preface it, that you’re actually allergic to it, because people on that fad diet often don’t think things like soy sauce or salad dressing have gluten in them,” she said. “You have to be specific about what you can’t eat.” But there is another side to the growing trend-like quality of being gluten-free. Since more and more people have adopted the diet, production and accessibility of gluten-free products has increased noticeably. “In some ways it’s because there are more products that are being made glutenfree,” said Domonoske. “So there [are] definitely pros and cons.” This increased demand for— and awareness of—the gluten-free diet is very apparent in Whitman’s dining halls. Since Domonoske’s sophomore year, she has noticed a very substantial increase in gluten-free choices. And even before Bon Appétit’s surge in glu-
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ten-free options, Domonoske was very happy with their cooperation. “Bon Appétit people are totally willing to work with you, and get you what you need,” she said. “They’re super open to buying things if you bring it to their attention, and asking for your opinions.” Reid Café ‘66 offers things like gluten-free soy sauce and pizza crust, and the dining halls will provide gluten-free pasta if requested. And because of the high prices of gluten-free products, Domonoske said that she’s able to eat many more bread products when she eats in a dining hall. “Compared to other dining halls I’ve visited,” Domonoske said, “it’s so helpful of them.” Sophomore Paul Prevou, on the other hand, loves the freedom of buying his own food and living outside the confines of a meal plan. He also finds it to be noticably more cost-effective, contrary to Domonoske’s mention of expensive gluten-free products. This difference is because Prevou isn’t gluten-free due to gluten intolerance. Instead, he’s adopted the diet for slightly different reasons. “It’s not necessarily for the fact that it’s glutenfree,” he said. “But being gluten-free is coincidental with the diet I prefer for fat-loss.” He has his own health restrictions to account for, but it’s not an allergy to gluten. Prevou has an auto-immune disease and is prone to high levels of inflammation. Avoiding gluten helps him keep this inflammation down. “If I can reduce my inflammation levels in any way, I might as well go ahead and do it,” he said. Together with the nutritional component of avoiding gluten-based products, Prevou sees a win-win situation. “I can reduce my inflammation and control my inflammatory symptoms to some extent, and I can also cut fat,” he said. Prevou doesn’t avoid gluten as strictly as Domonoske does. As
a resident of the Phi Delta Theta house, he doesn’t have the freedom to choose the diet he prefers and isn’t currently gluten-free. “Right now I’m just having to go with whatever Bob cooks,” he said. But Prevou also se sses the effect of the fad-like quality of being gluten-free. “If [I] threw around the term ‘gluten-free’ back home, I think a lot of people would laugh at me, but here I think a lot more people are conscious of why being glutenfree is a good thing,” he said. “I’ve never run into so many people with Celiac disease as I have here.” However, Prevou doesn’t really dwell on the label people have been putting on being gluten-free. “I think some people might loosely associate it with the ‘unpretentiousness’ of Whitman students, but ultimately, your diet is for you,” he said. On the other hand, senior Christine Leibbrand, someone with Celiac disease, says she actually hasn’t experienced any assumptions about her gluten-free diet. “I’ve never had anybody assume I’m glutenfree by choice,” she said. She explained that it’s probably a result of people just being aware of her situation since freshman year, but as for people making a choice to be gluten-free, she expressed a bit of confusion. “I can see why people make the choice for health reasons, but it’s always seemed like a funny lifestyle choice to me. From my experience being glutenfree,” she said, “I know you can lose out on a lot of nutritional value from not eating foods with gluten, and eating glutenfree foods often gives you more calories than the alternative.” Regardless of the reasons, the spread of “gluten-free” has become obvious. Whether it’s to follow a fad or an essential health precaution, it seems this multifaceted diet isn’t going anywhere.
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The first documented case of Celiac disease was in the first century C.E. when the Greek physician Aretaeus remarked on the “Coeliac Affection.” This was a catch-all term for food sensitivity. Its cause was not attributed to gluten until the 19th century, by English pediatrician Samuel Gee. SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CELIAC DISEASE CENTER
The gluten-free diet took the sport of tennis by storm when professional player Novak Djokovic had a break-out season coinciding with his choice to swear off gluten in 2011. SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL