Restaurants and Gluten Free Trends

Gluten free trends and how it affects those with celiac

Being gluten free has become so much easier over the past few years since more and more people are either getting diagnosed with celiac or simply because they want to eat a healthier diet without gluten.

This has opened a lot more doors to good resources and experiences. So, what do life style preferences do for people who have celiac disease?

More Menu Options

Before eating gluten free was more common, there were pretty much zero options for eating out. The only safe thing to order would be a plain salad and a water. But with gluten free diet trends there are so many more options!

When going to restaurants or fast food chains on the menus there can be options for gluten free substitutions. These are life savers. Not only can you eat at some of your favorite places, but it is so much more inclusive.

For example, Olive Garden has a gluten free menu and some of the options are the grilled chicken parmigiana or the zupa tuscana. Or if you go to Jersey Mikes, they even have gluten free bread and clean thoroughly to avoid cross contamination.

New Gluten Free Restaurants

With the increase in people eating gluten free, there has also been an increase of food places being completely gluten free.

If you are in Southern Utah, there are two new places that are completely gluten free. There is Aubergine Kitchen and NIX Bakery. Aubergine is a healthy food establishment where they create food bowls with lots of nutrients. NIX is a gluten free bakery that is currently just started business and they are selling things such as English muffins, cookies, and cinnamon rolls.

I haven't had the opportunity to try either place yet, but knowing that everything they make is gluten free is so comforting! These are just the start of what is in the future of gluten free eating.

Lifestyle vs Allergy

Now that we've talked about good things with gluten free lifestyle becoming more popular, it is important to talk about one danger; having establishments not be careful with gluten free orders because it's "probably just a lifestyle and not an allergy". So, you don't have to refuse to eat out, you just have to know what to do.

When going out to eat at a nice restaurant or even a fast food place, people living a gluten free life usually have to ask for specifics when it comes to what is in the food and how it is prepared. Questions consist of things like "what is in the steak sauce?" "Are the fries made in a shared fryer?" and "What on the menu is gluten free?"

When asking these questions, usually the workers will tell you what they know and ask the chefs, but one of the first questions they will ask will be "is this allergy or lifestyle?"

A lot of food places technically have gluten free items, like fries, but because of the way they are prepared, like using a shared fryer with gluten items, it makes them not gluten free. So, if you are simply a lifestyle person there should be no issue, but with a gluten allergy it is not recommended to eat those foods.

So, while this has opened more options and created a larger awareness, there might still be issues finding safe foods since some people don't truly need to eat gluten free. So just be careful!