Were Taco Bell’s vegetarian options your drive-thru go-to before you got your Celiac diagnosis? If so, I come bearing tidings of great joy! Ok, maybe not in a totally Biblical sense–but pretty close. But here you are: there are gluten-free options there!
ImmusanT not to the rescue at this time
Had you been following the Celiac drug testing results for ImmusanT’s Nexvax2? The hopefully one-day-upcoming-soon injectable therapy? The one that should allow us to start safely eating as much gluten as we want? If so, you probably heard that the Phase 2 testing was not what they hoped for, and the whole dosing protocol had to be revisited. I was completely depressed when I heard that. I am so tired of dealing with this stupid disease.
***2024 Update – the ImmusanT Nexvax2 failed. I have the link to it in my post here.
Taco Bell to the rescue!
In the depths of my despair, I tweeted this to Taco Bell Canada:
To my surprise, they tweeted this back:
With one quick clarifier from their super-friendly Social Media Ambassador, my life suddenly got so much better!
Taco Bell…oh YUM!
Eating on the road is so hard for us Celiacs. We get sick of the same meal bars, protein chips, kale chips, whatever other triangle shaped chips, etc. that we carry in our cars and in our bags. We road warriors want real, hot food. And sometimes we don’t want to spend a ton of dough at restaurants to get it! Taco Bell is tasty, convenient, budget-pleasing…and now has gluten-free items. It checks off all the boxes. (American readers, please call Taco Bell’s head office or check their allergens online. They may differ from Canada)
With a little bit of “is this too good to be true?” trepidation, I approached the counter of my former “on the way out of town” Taco Bell in Ajax, Ontario. (I wasn’t brave enough to go straight drive-thru, as I needed to watch them prepare my food). Placing my order (two beans-instead-of-beef hard shell Taco Supremes with hot sauce…my old favorite!), I told the cashier that I had Celiac disease and needed a fresh glove change and gluten-free handling.
She immediately turned around and told the manager, who promptly selected a food prep team member, and talked them through “customer says they have an allergy” handling, and supervised the construction of my tacos! I was so impressed, and it really fanned the fuel in the former flame of my Taco Bell love.
So happy to have Taco Bell back in my gluten-free life
Here I am, working on my birthday, in my car, eating Taco Bell once again, a happy, messy camper…the first time in almost two miserable post-diagnosis years. Most people wouldn’t look at this as a celebratory scenario. But for me, it was!
It’s amazing how having a little thing like convenient (and fairly healthy…we are talking fresh veggies and plant protein on a corn shell) road food taken away from you makes you really appreciate it when a company cares enough to help you eat at their franchise. And BTW? I was completely fine after eating my tacos.
Thank you Taco Bell Canada! You’ve made road life easier for the Celiac population…and you’ve made me personally very happy!
This is awesome! I don’t have celiacs but I do have a gluten intolerance and can get bad stomach pain from it. I miss eating out. I have to go to London Ontario on Friday and I’m hunting down a Taco Bell. My only gluten free fast food option in my area is Domino’s and I get sick of it after a while lol.
Thank you 🙂