Meg Haworth

Eating out wheat and dairy free can be a challenge.  If you are blessed by the “Gods of gluten-less living” or the “Angels of lactose intolerance” you will find a rare food server who knows how to help you get the most out of dining out without severe food reactions.  When this happens, it's a moment to be deeply appreciated.  You will feel confident that you can walk out of the restaurant without running to a bathroom to effectively waste every penny of what you just ate, or knowing you will be taken out by a pounding migraine for two days. 

Once at a low-end chain diner in a remote area of Delaware, I read the menu to find that the only thing on it that I could eat without risk was the senior plate.  It consisted of baked chicken, steamed vegetables and rice.  When I ordered it, the waitress said; “You can’t order that, it’s a senior plate.”  I replied with all the calmness I could muster, “I have food allergies and am unable to eat anything else on your menu.” 

She ran through the menu saying “Why can’t you have this?” to several of the menu items.  I gave her all the reasons, as an intense feeling of frustration coupled with a serious desire to shake her rose up within me.  I was in my twenties at the time, watching my girlfriends order hamburgers, sandwiches, pasta and ice cream.  I was so ready to get up and find the manager when the waitress finally said, “This plate is lower priced for seniors and you’re not one.”  “What?!  This is a price issue?  Charge me more if you have to, this is all I can eat here!”  I was quickly losing my composure.

In the end, I got the senior plate but not without a battle. Now, there’s a type of discrimination you’ve probably never heard of.   In retrospect, this was a funny moment illustrating how completely uninformed people can be about what has become a nationwide epidemic of food allergies.  That took place in 1996 and hopefully does not happen anymore. 

If you or someone you love is just learning to navigate the gluten and dairy free world, just adhere to a few simple rules while dining out:

1.    Educate yourself on ingredients like modified food starch (a glutinous thickener) that can show up in the food and make you very sick.
2.    Ask lots of questions about how the food is prepared.
3.    If the food server does not know how to answer your questions, send them back to the kitchen.
4.    If the chef doesn’t know, run.  Run to another restaurant where they care about food and their people.
5.    If you get stuck in remote areas of Delaware, refrain from shaking the waitress, insist on the senior plate and pray to the above mentioned Gods and Angels that you don’t spend the next few days recovering from a massive food hang over.

Have you had a crazy food server experience?  Share it here on this blog.  For more information from Dr. Meg, suggestions for recipes, blogs you’d like to see or  questions, contact her at

drmeg@eatdrinkordie.com or www.DeliciousAndHealthy.com