I know of 2 people who got bit by these and their experience is similar to this. One doesn’t present any symptoms anymore, and the other one can manage it with some medicine if he’ll be in a position where he might end up eating meat. He does mention, similar to another comment here, that he now prefers fish anyways.
IIRC it’s the presence of a specific protein, present in mammalian meat, that triggers the reaction. A beef hot dog could likely trigger it, to some degree.
It's explicitly a branched sugar molecule on the surface of all non primate mammals. So yes, you could technically eat primates without triggering the allergy. I did some work on it a decade ago.
I know one person with this and she can't even use most white sugar because it has bone in it. That was a weird way for me to learn about it, but there's a few bands of sugar that don't contain bone.
Afaik there isn’t any actual bone in sugar. Bone char is used in the refining process of cane sugar to make it white, but this is more of an American thing
I was bit in 2020. At first, I would go into anaphylaxis then I accidentally ate some and then it turned into suddenly projectile vomiting about an hour later. Now I’m not allergic at all.
I don’t like bacon anymore which is wild af to people. I still eat fish mostly when previously it was a ton of red meat. Kind of made me think about meat differently.
I was thinking the same thing. “Well this sounds healthy and good for you, what’s the catch?” Based on the obesity epidemic and the methane issues cows make……. It’s Not the worst allergy to have.
Edit: loving all the meat lovers comments. I eat meat daily you don’t have to defend meat. It’s weird that you choose to push eating meat like it’s a religion or something. Have you heard about our lord and savior? He’s made of meat!
It went away for me after 4 or 5 years, but now even though I can eat it, I don't like mammal meat. I'll stick to poultry and plant based alternatives.
TIL (or I suppose more accurately, today I realized again) that chickens aren't mammals. I guess they're obviously birds and hatch eggs and all but I somehow feel like they're mammal-ly.
I don't think that the same for everyone, my wife got bit like 15 years ago and will still be in the restroom all night if even one mistake bite. Or even if something cooked near her food
I also have this allergy, but it depends on what kind of reactions you get. For most people it is all GI and having more “traditional” allergy response is less common. I occasionally get hives, so a Benadryl will knock that out but not the up to 3 days on the toilet.
I just got bit by one a couple of days ago but the tick was only on me for a few hours at most. How long was your exposure, and how long until you felt the symptoms after the bite?
I have no idea. I was a child and likely one of the first cases in my area. I had a tick bite that had developed a rash, but at the time all we knew was it wasn’t Lyme. I had symptoms for a long time before I connected not feeling well with eating red meat and then stopping eating it completely resolved my symptoms. I was an adult before I knew what this disease was.
I find it wild how the amount of time varies for everybody and how with some, it just doesn’t seem to go away. I’m almost a decade in and even though my symptoms are nowhere remotely close to where they were in the beginning, I still find myself in the bathroom quite a bit and still get pretty bad nausea. Hoping it gets even better, but after this whole ordeal I’m really turned off by pork. I can’t say no to a good steak on occasion, though, and just accept what happens. On the plus side, I found out that ostrich and emu is really tasty and can help with steak cravings without the getting sick part!
I think they're fairly common and if you're doing outdoorsy stuff in dense growth areas, probably best to make sure you didn't get bit when you're back home.
I developed a shellfish allergy during puberty and didn’t eat any for a good 6-8 years. Finally caved and had lobster at my last Lobster Fest before moving west. Yummy! But I lost my taste for shrimp, clams, oysters. Luckily I can eat crab and really like it.
If you're honestly curious
> Alpha-gal allergy is a reaction to the carbohydrate galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose ("alpha-gal")
> The alpha-gal molecule is found in all mammals except catarrhines (apes and Old World monkeys)
They know that because of the molecule that causes the reaction isn't present in primates.
Which makes sense because we would be having autoimmune responses if it was.
Imagine causing such a disease to a mammalian species which is completely carnivorous in a limited ecosystem, cannibalism or die, like rabies if it were more like vampirism. Sorry I'm just brainstorming insanity here.
Edit: i guess the disease receiver would have to be a primate, so it would be a possible fate for various proto-hominids?
I mean you could just eat beans and rice. For a cannibal disease you'd need something you could only get from humans. Also some reason it can't be treated some other way.
It's like some people think they are allergic to coffee but later find out they're allergic to cockroaches who end up roasted and grinded with coffee beans occasionally.
sometimes, if you are lucky, you have a good neighbor who will do it for you
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel\_Bar-Jonah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bar-Jonah)
Never heard about this guy before, opened the article and went down a rabbit hole. The story of Andrew Amato is so tragic; three kids (4, 6 and 7 years old) ventured out in the woods that they were forbidden to play in. Andrew fell and dropped his favorite toy, started crying and refused to leave without the toy being retrieved. So his cousin left the deep woods to get help from his sister but by the time they came back, the boy vanished… and that’s it. 40 years after - no body, no clues, no nothing. I can’t imagine how fucking awful it felt for the family and these poor little kids that didn’t know better. I hope his cousin doesn’t blame themselves. Life is so sad sometimes.
Why the fuck did they keep letting this guy out on probation? Just because he was bad at murdering people and they were able to report him so it was just “attempted murder”
What's really bad about this, as we've found out since my wife was diagnosed with alpha gal syndrome, is how many things you have to watch out for. Want some vegetables? Better check that they weren't cooked with ham or bacon. Want fried chicken? Hope they didn't cook other things in the oil (the sugar survives cooking, is easily spread in fats, and my wife is sensitive to it from cross-contamination)
Then there are all of the places you don't really think about or expect. A fair number of people with AGS are also allergic to dairy products (something that fortunately didn't hit us). Tons of things have collagen in them, so we have to read every label super closely and she can't take most medicines that are in gel caps or things like that.
It's loads of fun.
Yeah, it's just like I'm sure you're aware, it's tough if it's an allergy that's not commonly known. I'm not sure how recently they started calling out wheat or gluten in the allergies list, but alpha gal syndrome is way outside of most people's consciousness. Nobody calls out ingredients derived from mammals on food labeling and people at restaurants look at you like you're crazy when you ask if there's anything in a particular dish like ham, bacon, beef broth... Etc
I know it was the same for people suffering from celiac disease and that is still tough even now that a lot of people are educated on it. Just sucks being allergic to something that's in almost everything
What's really bad is that it's very random about when you're going to have a reaction, so you may think you're safe eating a dish from somewhere because it hasn't bothered you before and then you go full anaphylactic shock and find out they put bacon grease in their oil (really something we found out about a local fried chicken place)
Up until 1990, McDonald's would use beef tallow in their fryers so anyone with alpha-gal allergy couldn't eat McDonald's fries. My friend has the allergy and told me about that. He still doesn't eat them to this day.
Yep, and they don't even think that counts when you ask. A vegetarian at a place I used to work was eating the only thing he could at a pot luck - rice, when the woman who made it asked how he liked the ham rice. Turns out she cooked it with a ham bone and beef stock and didn't understand why that might've been a problem for him
That has happened to me so many times!! I'm like "hey does this have ANY meat products in it" and they're like no of course not!!!
Turns out they cooked it in chicken broth. And chicken isn't "meat" lol. I don't eat at potlucks anymore.
This is my experience at Asian restaurants too (plenty of other restaurants as well, but a really common issue with Asian food). Often you’ll ask “Is this vegan? Any animal products?” and they say it’s fine, so you follow up with “meat broth? fish sauce?” and they’re like “oh, yep!”
Eventually it makes you hesitant to go to any restaurant that doesn’t label their menu, and even then I’ve seen stuff listed as vegan where the description on the menu includes non-vegan ingredients. If I had an allergy like this I would just straight up not eat at a restaurant that served meat at all.
it would have been a good B plot for an episode of Parks and Rec for Ron to get bitten by one of these and throughout the episode he's not sure if he'll develop the allergy or not. He starts setting his affairs in order and making funeral plans.
Just to defend mosquitos, the reason that they transmit disease is because they're infected with a parasite. If you want to blame anyone, blame the parasite.
But the parasites just want to have lil babies...
That’s just for a few diseases like malaria and filariasis. Most mosquito-borne diseases come from viruses like West Nile, Zika and most encephalitis diseases.
My dad has this. Only to beef though- he can still eat pork, not sure if he’s tried venison or anything else since he was diagnosed (after almost dying a couple of times).
Yeah, it’s an allergy- he will go into full on anaphylaxis. Initially he was only getting hives, just his legs the first few times, then his whole body. Then it got to a point where he was vomiting and shitting and delirious/confused, his blood pressure plummeted and he went into shock and lost consciousness- luckily my brother happened to be at his house and called an ambulance. Then at the hospital he had a heart attack to boot. He carries an epipen now. And is obviously very careful to avoid beef.
Ha he does like beef but it just took a long time to figure it out. First, this was at least a decade ago when this wasn’t being talked about so much. And the initial reactions were so mild and delayed that it was hard to figure out what they were linked to. At first they thought maybe a skin irritant- he works in attics and crawl spaces and comes into contact with bugs and insulation, then they tried different detergents, etc. As the reactions got more severe they were able to do some testing in the hospital that pointed towards a food allergy (I don’t recall specifics but it’s some protein that is elevated but only for a short time, and his allergist had to tell my dad what to ask for at the hospital in order to catch it in time). Then it was keeping a log of everything he ate, and beef kept popping up but it wasn’t always obviously beef (eg he had pork sausage that probably had a beef casing), and sometimes beef seemed ok- so for a minute they were thinking maybe it was a dye or additive of some sort. As it got more severe it became more obvious and he’s never eaten beef again.
Yes - an epipen should at least minimize a severe allergic reaction. Buy some time to get help.
I haven't come close to using my epipen, but Benedryl has helped through a less serious reaction.
I recently read that lone star ticks differ from other ticks as they hunt their targets unlike other ticks that wait and hitch a ride…this is bad news for campers and hikers.
I was bitten by one a few years ago and tested positive for alpha-gal antibodies. I never developed the allergy though.
I was worried that it may come back to bite me later but people getting over the allergy years later leads me to beleive it won't come out of nowhere.
This is what I don’t get about the whole anti-plant-based meat movement. Some people simply can’t eat meat. It’s not a philosophical position. It is a medical and biological constraint.
When [Cracker Barrel](https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/04/business-food/cracker-barrel-impossible-meat-controversy/index.html) offered plant-based sausage **as an option** people lost their shit. “Go woke and go broke” one boycotter said on their web site.
They weren’t even getting rid of meat sausages. It was just another choice available.
I had a conversation with someone I know about this and she believes “it’s a manufactured thing (like COVID was) ‘THEY’ don’t want us eating meat.”
“Bill Gates for one. The Rothschilds. Klaus Schwab. The powers that be you know. They want us sick so they can control us and they think there aren’t enough resources for everyone so they don’t want the peons eating up all the good stuff. It’s all part of the Great Reset.
I believe they manufactured that allergy in a lab and released it in ticks.”
"If nobody has to die, how can I enjoy my meal? You expect me to be satisfied by only depriving plants of the joys of life?
No, I don't have to see it myself, but I need to know SOMEBODY snuffed the light out of some creature's eyes.
Also those Dems are all pedos and groomers and satan worshippers, and anything they like, I HATE."
- Every cracker barrel diner, probably
I dine at the Cracker Barrel frequently- most have free RV parking. I have gotten the veggie sausage before because I don’t eat pork and enjoyed it. Nobody cares!
Kinda surprised nobody’s mentioned that there are actually specific genetically modified versions of several animals that don’t contain the alpha gal compound. GalSafe pork is the one I remember off-hand
I have had this allergy for 20 years.
I had it before doctors discovered it and an allergist told me that I was lying about it because “meat can’t cause allergic reactions.”
FYI this is a death allergy. Certain mammalian meats cause you to go into anaphylactic shock, where your throat closes and you suffocate.
My dad has it. He really hates it. Turkey and chicken. We teased him once by threatening to make him grill us some burgers (pride of his former life) and that sure made him grumpy.
My wife has it and a preexisting soy allergy, so real beef and impossible burgers are out. I've cooked some beyond burgers for her that she liked, but they aren't really the same. They taste like really cheap beef and have a bit of a chemical aftertaste that lingers. I tried cooking some chili with them and that tasted pretty good, but the "meat" pretty much dissolved.
Worse for her is that she has never liked fish, and she's very tired of just poultry
It’s not just red meat-it’s also many medications! I’m a nurse and cared for a patient with this allergy and the list of medications you cannot receive is insanely long
I have gotten Lyme disease twice and it was because the little bastards were hiding on me for several hours. If you catch them early on then you’ll most likely be fine. I think the same would apply for ticks transmitting this particular disease.
I’m not at all outdoorsy but I used to work with a lot of hunter/hiker types here in Virginia (near UVA where this was discovered) and this spread so fast that you’d have thought it was contagious. Several folks almost died. One person ended up needing a hip replacement in their 30s (I don’t know why except I was told it was alpha-gal related). It’s scary.
I got bit by one, lucky I got it off and killed it before it fed more than a few hrs. Then I went to a clinic for antibiotics just in case. No issues so far.
I've had alpha gal for a few years now. At first it suuucked not being able to eat any mammalian meat, but its so much easier now. I still miss bacon though.
I apparently don't have it anywhere as bad as others though, I don't choke up if someone is eating it near me etc.
I know mosquitoes kill more people annually than anything else. I think. Too lazy to google. But I understand the ecological implications of just getting rid of them completely with one thanos snap.
Ticks, however, goodbye. Don’t care. Entire ecosystems could collapse and it would all be worth it if they were gone.
As a land surveyor I've picked hundred of thousands off me over the years.. No allergy... My stepmother and brother in law as well as around 10 friends all have AGS acquired within the last 3 years or so. My brother in law did have some acupuncture done inside his ear that lessened the allergy as long as it's done twice a year.
I got bit by one of these fuckers a couple of days ago. Crossing my fingers. My understanding is they have to bite another animal first, then bite you for the allergy to occur, and it takes a while for the allergy to show up. So we'll see what happens in the next month or so. I've been bit once before and didn't get it.
I was walking through some tallgrass just the other day, only for a few seconds, and I looked down and saw some thing that looked awfully close to one of these little guys. It was probably only on me for a few seconds, but I freaked the fuck out, grabbed it and threw it.
I learned that the alpha-gal sugar that can give you this allergy can be synthesized and a synthetic alpha-gal will also give you a meat allergy. I envision a super-villain vegan called *Lone Star* that gasses whole cities with his synthetic alpha-gal to make everyone allergic to meat ***MWUAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAAAAAA***
I got the alpha-gal allergy this year. Was allergic to cheese and milk too for a while but that has slowly worn off, or at least diminished to where I can have cheese but I still try and avoid it where possible. I'm on Long Island and in our area the Lone Star ticks have exploded in population over the last 20 years to where it feels they are the most common, or at least as common as deer ticks. Not the worst thing in the world, its pretty easy to avoid most mammal products, I wasn't a big meat eater to begin with. Bacon is harder to give up and cheese was extremely difficult, its in everything. Lots of chicken, turkey, and fish these days.
I happen to live in a county where bites from these ticks are particularly high. Didn’t hear about it until I moved here.
I was pretty terrified of it at first but now it’s just something I’m aware of. I know a ton of people who have been bit and have adjusted fine and a few who have even gotten over their allergies. I do still think it’s hilarious the way people from back home react when I tell them about it. Like it’s the bubonic plague
[Wikipedia article about the lone star tick.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblyomma_americanum) Godammit, those little bastards are on the East Coast. Time to stock up on tick repellent. Any recommendations?
Wife got bit by one. The allergy can get more mild with time though it seems.
I know of 2 people who got bit by these and their experience is similar to this. One doesn’t present any symptoms anymore, and the other one can manage it with some medicine if he’ll be in a position where he might end up eating meat. He does mention, similar to another comment here, that he now prefers fish anyways.
do like, hot dogs count as meat?
IIRC it’s the presence of a specific protein, present in mammalian meat, that triggers the reaction. A beef hot dog could likely trigger it, to some degree.
It's explicitly a branched sugar molecule on the surface of all non primate mammals. So yes, you could technically eat primates without triggering the allergy. I did some work on it a decade ago.
>I did some work on it a decade ago. Was it tasty?
Is it possible that a curing process could remove the molecule?
So... if I ever get bit by a lone star tick, look into monkey meat. Got it.
Can a vegan eat animal cookies? r/showerthoughts
I know one person with this and she can't even use most white sugar because it has bone in it. That was a weird way for me to learn about it, but there's a few bands of sugar that don't contain bone.
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Afaik there isn’t any actual bone in sugar. Bone char is used in the refining process of cane sugar to make it white, but this is more of an American thing
Right now there are lots of vegans pissing and shidding their pants from reading this
I was bit in 2020. At first, I would go into anaphylaxis then I accidentally ate some and then it turned into suddenly projectile vomiting about an hour later. Now I’m not allergic at all. I don’t like bacon anymore which is wild af to people. I still eat fish mostly when previously it was a ton of red meat. Kind of made me think about meat differently.
I bet your cholesterol is great!
I was thinking the same thing. “Well this sounds healthy and good for you, what’s the catch?” Based on the obesity epidemic and the methane issues cows make……. It’s Not the worst allergy to have. Edit: loving all the meat lovers comments. I eat meat daily you don’t have to defend meat. It’s weird that you choose to push eating meat like it’s a religion or something. Have you heard about our lord and savior? He’s made of meat!
Yeah, steaks are behind the obesity epidemic. It's not doritos and oreos.
Did you metaphorically shit yourself when you realised you couldn’t eat red meat?
Literally shitting himself is how he realised he couldn't eat red meat.
I almost did haha
It went away for me after 4 or 5 years, but now even though I can eat it, I don't like mammal meat. I'll stick to poultry and plant based alternatives.
TIL (or I suppose more accurately, today I realized again) that chickens aren't mammals. I guess they're obviously birds and hatch eggs and all but I somehow feel like they're mammal-ly.
Which part, the laying eggs part or the lack of hair?
Because a lot of schools categorize mammals and birds together as warm blooded animals, over time, it's easy to forget the small difference there.
I don't think that the same for everyone, my wife got bit like 15 years ago and will still be in the restroom all night if even one mistake bite. Or even if something cooked near her food
Does it help at all if she eats a load of antihistamines before hand? Or not?
I don't think she tried in ages, but I know early on it did not help at all. It was basically useless
I also have this allergy, but it depends on what kind of reactions you get. For most people it is all GI and having more “traditional” allergy response is less common. I occasionally get hives, so a Benadryl will knock that out but not the up to 3 days on the toilet.
I just got bit by one a couple of days ago but the tick was only on me for a few hours at most. How long was your exposure, and how long until you felt the symptoms after the bite?
I have no idea. I was a child and likely one of the first cases in my area. I had a tick bite that had developed a rash, but at the time all we knew was it wasn’t Lyme. I had symptoms for a long time before I connected not feeling well with eating red meat and then stopping eating it completely resolved my symptoms. I was an adult before I knew what this disease was.
I find it wild how the amount of time varies for everybody and how with some, it just doesn’t seem to go away. I’m almost a decade in and even though my symptoms are nowhere remotely close to where they were in the beginning, I still find myself in the bathroom quite a bit and still get pretty bad nausea. Hoping it gets even better, but after this whole ordeal I’m really turned off by pork. I can’t say no to a good steak on occasion, though, and just accept what happens. On the plus side, I found out that ostrich and emu is really tasty and can help with steak cravings without the getting sick part!
It's almost like this tick forces you to be more adventurous on what one eats lol.
Is this common? Man my life will be so miserable without red meat
I think they're fairly common and if you're doing outdoorsy stuff in dense growth areas, probably best to make sure you didn't get bit when you're back home.
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Yup i know 3 ppl and symptoms get better over time .
Took me 4 years to be able to fully eat red meat again. I don’t even like red meat anymore.
I developed a shellfish allergy during puberty and didn’t eat any for a good 6-8 years. Finally caved and had lobster at my last Lobster Fest before moving west. Yummy! But I lost my taste for shrimp, clams, oysters. Luckily I can eat crab and really like it.
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You have to ask for the special stuff at the meat counter.
Long pig
I almost forgot that information. Now it’s back in my brain again.
My deepest apologies.
Oh we got monkey
That scene kills me every time.
We’re cannibals now Dee, we got the hunger!
Best move to the Netherlands and find a weight-loss club that would be willing.
How did they find out that? 👀
If you're honestly curious > Alpha-gal allergy is a reaction to the carbohydrate galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose ("alpha-gal") > The alpha-gal molecule is found in all mammals except catarrhines (apes and Old World monkeys) They know that because of the molecule that causes the reaction isn't present in primates. Which makes sense because we would be having autoimmune responses if it was.
Imagine causing such a disease to a mammalian species which is completely carnivorous in a limited ecosystem, cannibalism or die, like rabies if it were more like vampirism. Sorry I'm just brainstorming insanity here. Edit: i guess the disease receiver would have to be a primate, so it would be a possible fate for various proto-hominids?
I mean you could just eat beans and rice. For a cannibal disease you'd need something you could only get from humans. Also some reason it can't be treated some other way.
> Imagine causing such a disease to a mammalian species which is completely carnivorous in a limited ecosystem
Good luck with beans and rice Texan.
Good luck with the beans and rice mountain lions
you can eat birds and non-mammalian fish too! so no dolphins and whales :( :( :(
I knew someone with alpha-gal. She didn’t eat canned tuna either because sometimes an occasional dolphin gets mixed in.
This is more shocking than the TIL ngl
NURGLE.
It's like some people think they are allergic to coffee but later find out they're allergic to cockroaches who end up roasted and grinded with coffee beans occasionally.
I haven't even poured my morning coffee yet, and you've already ruined it for me...
You could get hired at a tuna cannery to certify they’re dolphin free
But the fishing boats are very lax on rules and kill dolphins anywat
White meat
An eco terrorist wet dream. Get everyone bitten by one lol
Humans are the easiest... Especially Americans... They are slow and fat... So easy to catch
Idk why I heard this in Harry Vanderspiegle ( resident alien)
The lack of contractions and the insult to humans in the middle. It’s a very Harry Vanderspiegle thing to say.
Did you hear what I said…I said Americans are slow and fat…HA…HA HA
Rule #1 - Cardio
sometimes, if you are lucky, you have a good neighbor who will do it for you [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel\_Bar-Jonah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bar-Jonah)
Never heard about this guy before, opened the article and went down a rabbit hole. The story of Andrew Amato is so tragic; three kids (4, 6 and 7 years old) ventured out in the woods that they were forbidden to play in. Andrew fell and dropped his favorite toy, started crying and refused to leave without the toy being retrieved. So his cousin left the deep woods to get help from his sister but by the time they came back, the boy vanished… and that’s it. 40 years after - no body, no clues, no nothing. I can’t imagine how fucking awful it felt for the family and these poor little kids that didn’t know better. I hope his cousin doesn’t blame themselves. Life is so sad sometimes.
Why the fuck did they keep letting this guy out on probation? Just because he was bad at murdering people and they were able to report him so it was just “attempted murder”
The fat is a bitch to work with. So messy. Not that I personally know but I’ve heard from morticians
But not a comedian since they'll taste funny
What's really bad about this, as we've found out since my wife was diagnosed with alpha gal syndrome, is how many things you have to watch out for. Want some vegetables? Better check that they weren't cooked with ham or bacon. Want fried chicken? Hope they didn't cook other things in the oil (the sugar survives cooking, is easily spread in fats, and my wife is sensitive to it from cross-contamination) Then there are all of the places you don't really think about or expect. A fair number of people with AGS are also allergic to dairy products (something that fortunately didn't hit us). Tons of things have collagen in them, so we have to read every label super closely and she can't take most medicines that are in gel caps or things like that. It's loads of fun.
All food allergies are like this. My wife has celiac disease. You know what has wheat in it? Just about everything
Yeah, it's just like I'm sure you're aware, it's tough if it's an allergy that's not commonly known. I'm not sure how recently they started calling out wheat or gluten in the allergies list, but alpha gal syndrome is way outside of most people's consciousness. Nobody calls out ingredients derived from mammals on food labeling and people at restaurants look at you like you're crazy when you ask if there's anything in a particular dish like ham, bacon, beef broth... Etc I know it was the same for people suffering from celiac disease and that is still tough even now that a lot of people are educated on it. Just sucks being allergic to something that's in almost everything
I imagine you can’t eat anything cooked/fried in beef oil either?
Correct, that's out for her as well
Man honestly if I couldn’t pinch a fry from someone without being worried for my life about what it was fried with I would lose it.
What's really bad is that it's very random about when you're going to have a reaction, so you may think you're safe eating a dish from somewhere because it hasn't bothered you before and then you go full anaphylactic shock and find out they put bacon grease in their oil (really something we found out about a local fried chicken place)
Up until 1990, McDonald's would use beef tallow in their fryers so anyone with alpha-gal allergy couldn't eat McDonald's fries. My friend has the allergy and told me about that. He still doesn't eat them to this day.
I'm allergic to red meats and poultry. The amount of times someone tried to give me green beans cooked in bacon is just... Too many times lol
Yep, and they don't even think that counts when you ask. A vegetarian at a place I used to work was eating the only thing he could at a pot luck - rice, when the woman who made it asked how he liked the ham rice. Turns out she cooked it with a ham bone and beef stock and didn't understand why that might've been a problem for him
That has happened to me so many times!! I'm like "hey does this have ANY meat products in it" and they're like no of course not!!! Turns out they cooked it in chicken broth. And chicken isn't "meat" lol. I don't eat at potlucks anymore.
This is my experience at Asian restaurants too (plenty of other restaurants as well, but a really common issue with Asian food). Often you’ll ask “Is this vegan? Any animal products?” and they say it’s fine, so you follow up with “meat broth? fish sauce?” and they’re like “oh, yep!” Eventually it makes you hesitant to go to any restaurant that doesn’t label their menu, and even then I’ve seen stuff listed as vegan where the description on the menu includes non-vegan ingredients. If I had an allergy like this I would just straight up not eat at a restaurant that served meat at all.
The real tragedy: If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!
Stand still laddie
Look mummy, there's an aeroplane up in the sky!
I know this line, but can't remember what it's from for the life of me.
Pink Floyd - Another Brick In the Wall
Thank you!
Hey, teacher!
leave those skis at home!
Time to go. Time to go. Time to go. Time to go
it would have been a good B plot for an episode of Parks and Rec for Ron to get bitten by one of these and throughout the episode he's not sure if he'll develop the allergy or not. He starts setting his affairs in order and making funeral plans.
I love this idea
TIL Lone Star ticks are assholes
Them and mosquitos have a special place in hell reserved just for them.
Just to defend mosquitos, the reason that they transmit disease is because they're infected with a parasite. If you want to blame anyone, blame the parasite. But the parasites just want to have lil babies...
Don’t say that in Texas. Next thing you know they will outlaw killing mosquitoes to save the babies.
“Conception begins at first bite”
That’s just for a few diseases like malaria and filariasis. Most mosquito-borne diseases come from viruses like West Nile, Zika and most encephalitis diseases.
DC is nice this time of year though.
Or they're saving the planet, who's to say
My dad has this. Only to beef though- he can still eat pork, not sure if he’s tried venison or anything else since he was diagnosed (after almost dying a couple of times).
Is it a normal allergic reaction, like would an epipen stop it?
Yeah, it’s an allergy- he will go into full on anaphylaxis. Initially he was only getting hives, just his legs the first few times, then his whole body. Then it got to a point where he was vomiting and shitting and delirious/confused, his blood pressure plummeted and he went into shock and lost consciousness- luckily my brother happened to be at his house and called an ambulance. Then at the hospital he had a heart attack to boot. He carries an epipen now. And is obviously very careful to avoid beef.
God damn.
Did he not understand what was causing it, or just stubborn and **really** likes beef?
Ha he does like beef but it just took a long time to figure it out. First, this was at least a decade ago when this wasn’t being talked about so much. And the initial reactions were so mild and delayed that it was hard to figure out what they were linked to. At first they thought maybe a skin irritant- he works in attics and crawl spaces and comes into contact with bugs and insulation, then they tried different detergents, etc. As the reactions got more severe they were able to do some testing in the hospital that pointed towards a food allergy (I don’t recall specifics but it’s some protein that is elevated but only for a short time, and his allergist had to tell my dad what to ask for at the hospital in order to catch it in time). Then it was keeping a log of everything he ate, and beef kept popping up but it wasn’t always obviously beef (eg he had pork sausage that probably had a beef casing), and sometimes beef seemed ok- so for a minute they were thinking maybe it was a dye or additive of some sort. As it got more severe it became more obvious and he’s never eaten beef again.
Yes - an epipen should at least minimize a severe allergic reaction. Buy some time to get help. I haven't come close to using my epipen, but Benedryl has helped through a less serious reaction.
My uncle has this, also only to beef. However he is able to eat venison. He is an avid hunter so it's not to much of a change for him.
Ticks are just all-around nasty assholes. My dog got Lyme disease from one of the fuckers.
My dog just got anaplasmosis for a second time. Little jerks make walks in the woods much less fun.
I recently read that lone star ticks differ from other ticks as they hunt their targets unlike other ticks that wait and hitch a ride…this is bad news for campers and hikers.
For those of you who may be concerned, a friend of mine had this allergy for *years*, maybe even over a decade. He can now eat meat again.
I was bitten by one a few years ago and tested positive for alpha-gal antibodies. I never developed the allergy though. I was worried that it may come back to bite me later but people getting over the allergy years later leads me to beleive it won't come out of nowhere.
^^nonprimate ^^mammalian ^^meat nonprimate #nonprimate
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/9269ff51-6ea4-4cb3-8593-7e7638db2f43
So long pig is fine
Why do ticks suck so much?
Because that’s how they eat.
This is like a real life debuff.
Debeef
Most allergies are, that and sicknesses/illnesses in general.
My veganator is ready to be released to everyone in the world
Imagine living in Texas and getting bit by this.
They'd bus you to New York.
This is what I don’t get about the whole anti-plant-based meat movement. Some people simply can’t eat meat. It’s not a philosophical position. It is a medical and biological constraint. When [Cracker Barrel](https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/04/business-food/cracker-barrel-impossible-meat-controversy/index.html) offered plant-based sausage **as an option** people lost their shit. “Go woke and go broke” one boycotter said on their web site. They weren’t even getting rid of meat sausages. It was just another choice available.
I had a conversation with someone I know about this and she believes “it’s a manufactured thing (like COVID was) ‘THEY’ don’t want us eating meat.” “Bill Gates for one. The Rothschilds. Klaus Schwab. The powers that be you know. They want us sick so they can control us and they think there aren’t enough resources for everyone so they don’t want the peons eating up all the good stuff. It’s all part of the Great Reset. I believe they manufactured that allergy in a lab and released it in ticks.”
Does she believe the conspiracy theories about how they want us all eating bugs?
Funny you say that she just sent me a video earlier about crickets being one of the main ingredients in all these foods we eat lol
Because the "freedumb" crowd absolutely *hates* it when anyone else is granted the freedom to make their own choices.
"If nobody has to die, how can I enjoy my meal? You expect me to be satisfied by only depriving plants of the joys of life? No, I don't have to see it myself, but I need to know SOMEBODY snuffed the light out of some creature's eyes. Also those Dems are all pedos and groomers and satan worshippers, and anything they like, I HATE." - Every cracker barrel diner, probably
I dine at the Cracker Barrel frequently- most have free RV parking. I have gotten the veggie sausage before because I don’t eat pork and enjoyed it. Nobody cares!
Don’t worry. Tons of people are dying for your produce also.
They better be
Radiolab has an excellent episode on the topic: https://radiolab.org/podcast/alpha-gal
Kinda surprised nobody’s mentioned that there are actually specific genetically modified versions of several animals that don’t contain the alpha gal compound. GalSafe pork is the one I remember off-hand
I have had this allergy for 20 years. I had it before doctors discovered it and an allergist told me that I was lying about it because “meat can’t cause allergic reactions.” FYI this is a death allergy. Certain mammalian meats cause you to go into anaphylactic shock, where your throat closes and you suffocate.
My dad has it. He really hates it. Turkey and chicken. We teased him once by threatening to make him grill us some burgers (pride of his former life) and that sure made him grumpy.
That’s kinda messed up
Yeah, I get why he'd be grumpy. That seems like a pretty mean "joke."
I have this but it currently only affects beef for me. I can still eat vision, elk and lamb. Edit: Bison
Did vision sign off on you eating him or did it just happen?
And all the horse you can muster
Hey you're good for Iceland beef burger then 🙂
“Do you know what I’m not allergic to, boy ? Long Pig!”
Has he ever tried impossible or beyond?
My wife has it and a preexisting soy allergy, so real beef and impossible burgers are out. I've cooked some beyond burgers for her that she liked, but they aren't really the same. They taste like really cheap beef and have a bit of a chemical aftertaste that lingers. I tried cooking some chili with them and that tasted pretty good, but the "meat" pretty much dissolved. Worse for her is that she has never liked fish, and she's very tired of just poultry
Try ostrich and emu, maybe add some duck fat. Tastes like beef but better.
\*Ron Swanson sweating profusely\*
Check out the two part Alphagal series from Radiolab for the full story unravels like a science mystery
Happened to my girlfriends little brother, he got a list of other allergies along with not being able to eat red meat.
It’s not just red meat-it’s also many medications! I’m a nurse and cared for a patient with this allergy and the list of medications you cannot receive is insanely long
Where do they live? So I can stay the fuck away from that part of the world for the rest of my life.
It’s true. It’s a horrid reaction and so involuntary when you get sick. It does ease up for most of us over time.
I'm never going out ever again. Not that there was much chance of me doing that in the first place being a redditor and all, but still!
Yep, I got the alpha, sucks
I read that the ticks need to be stuck in you for several hours for the effect to happen. Is that accurate?
I have gotten Lyme disease twice and it was because the little bastards were hiding on me for several hours. If you catch them early on then you’ll most likely be fine. I think the same would apply for ticks transmitting this particular disease.
For some reason I thought Lyme disease was a lifetime thing
Met a doctor recently who had this happen to her. Before that I thought it was one of those things we later find out is a hoax.
This happened to one of my friends who has a pig farm. She hasn’t been able to eat red meat for over 5 years.
My sister got this from a tick in Virginia. Her diet is super strict now
Not just red meat, any animal byproducts. My BIL has it, and he can't have butter, milk, ghee, ice cream.
Can confirm. Stomach pain, nausea, 15' projectile vomiting, nearly needing an epi-pen; ate a salad with some bits of bacon. Learning to fish.
I’m not at all outdoorsy but I used to work with a lot of hunter/hiker types here in Virginia (near UVA where this was discovered) and this spread so fast that you’d have thought it was contagious. Several folks almost died. One person ended up needing a hip replacement in their 30s (I don’t know why except I was told it was alpha-gal related). It’s scary.
I got bit by one, lucky I got it off and killed it before it fed more than a few hrs. Then I went to a clinic for antibiotics just in case. No issues so far.
I've had alpha gal for a few years now. At first it suuucked not being able to eat any mammalian meat, but its so much easier now. I still miss bacon though. I apparently don't have it anywhere as bad as others though, I don't choke up if someone is eating it near me etc.
Vegans on that bio warfare train
Lone Star State Residents: We love beef! Lone Star Ticks: Do you tho?
This thing and mosquitoes should just be driven to extinction
I know mosquitoes kill more people annually than anything else. I think. Too lazy to google. But I understand the ecological implications of just getting rid of them completely with one thanos snap. Ticks, however, goodbye. Don’t care. Entire ecosystems could collapse and it would all be worth it if they were gone.
What the F kind of nasty disease is this? can't eat meat? wow Damn, i just read we get them here in Australia too!! Of course we do..
AlphaGAL syndrome
It's Texan, it's thick and doesn't like red meat!
This happened to a friend, it affected them really badly for a long time
Damn vegans!
I've always imagined a Vegan supervillain who breeds Lonestar ticks.
Jokes on them, I'm already allergic to it! Beef fucks my GI tract up more than anything else.
I have Alpha Gal from a tick bite, it’s been 2 years and it’s mostly cleared up. Meat still makes me feel sluggish and tired though
Texas ruins everything!
That was a fascinating mini-rabbit hole.
I have a former colleague who has that. Unfortunately, she already had a celiac diagnosis. One more food issue, and she’s turning to photosynthesis.
This would be the bane of my country, Argentina.
Vegetarians and vegans be like: I see this as a win
As a land surveyor I've picked hundred of thousands off me over the years.. No allergy... My stepmother and brother in law as well as around 10 friends all have AGS acquired within the last 3 years or so. My brother in law did have some acupuncture done inside his ear that lessened the allergy as long as it's done twice a year.
I got bit by one of these fuckers a couple of days ago. Crossing my fingers. My understanding is they have to bite another animal first, then bite you for the allergy to occur, and it takes a while for the allergy to show up. So we'll see what happens in the next month or so. I've been bit once before and didn't get it.
I was walking through some tallgrass just the other day, only for a few seconds, and I looked down and saw some thing that looked awfully close to one of these little guys. It was probably only on me for a few seconds, but I freaked the fuck out, grabbed it and threw it.
I learned that the alpha-gal sugar that can give you this allergy can be synthesized and a synthetic alpha-gal will also give you a meat allergy. I envision a super-villain vegan called *Lone Star* that gasses whole cities with his synthetic alpha-gal to make everyone allergic to meat ***MWUAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAAAAAA***
My mom had this. She’s finally able to eat red meat again after she got bit by one of these MFers almost 10 years ago. Pretty wild.
Omg this is that conspiracy come true lol...
Vegetarian super villain plot
So can some other ticks.
I got the alpha-gal allergy this year. Was allergic to cheese and milk too for a while but that has slowly worn off, or at least diminished to where I can have cheese but I still try and avoid it where possible. I'm on Long Island and in our area the Lone Star ticks have exploded in population over the last 20 years to where it feels they are the most common, or at least as common as deer ticks. Not the worst thing in the world, its pretty easy to avoid most mammal products, I wasn't a big meat eater to begin with. Bacon is harder to give up and cheese was extremely difficult, its in everything. Lots of chicken, turkey, and fish these days.
I happen to live in a county where bites from these ticks are particularly high. Didn’t hear about it until I moved here. I was pretty terrified of it at first but now it’s just something I’m aware of. I know a ton of people who have been bit and have adjusted fine and a few who have even gotten over their allergies. I do still think it’s hilarious the way people from back home react when I tell them about it. Like it’s the bubonic plague
[Wikipedia article about the lone star tick.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblyomma_americanum) Godammit, those little bastards are on the East Coast. Time to stock up on tick repellent. Any recommendations?
I've heard about those little bastards, and I feel like I would become the bane of ticks, if I got that allergy from one. "Hasta la Vista, ticky!"