science

Ahaha, Gaia hypothesis confirmed.
Want to reduce human impact on biosphere?
Make is so they can't eat meat anymore. lol.

Living in the middle of Y'all Quaeda, I'd think the local cousin fuckers would be more riled up about this. Eating steak is a point of passion down here, second only to worshipping Trump.

For the most part it's just ignored... I kinda anticipate a trend of folks acquiring the allergy, then literally killing themselves in denial.

I'm no vegan but isn't this technically a good thing? Red meat has negative environmental impacts right?

So red meat prices are about to plummet right?

Fun story: I once watched a lone star tick crawl into the headphone jack of my phone. After trying for hours to get it out, I did two google searches:

• What eats ticks?

• Guinea hen mating sounds.

Thirty seconds later, it crawled out.

Transition to eating the rich.

My experience has been starkly different from Sterile_Techniques and I'm also living in what might be termed as "the middle of Ya'll Quaeda" USA. So, it's interesting to hear that there's such a big difference in opinion / understanding on this topic.

For sure, 20 - 25 years ago it seemed like almost nobody had heard of it, and whenever someone said they were allergic to meat because of a tick bite, there was a lot of skepticism and denial.

However, these days, pretty much everybody knows someone who has this allergy, and that's no exaggeration. Even the most backwoods, anti-science, do my own thing, fuck your feelings kind of people are telling others to check themselves for ticks and/or taking steps to keep ticks off them because they're aware of all the risks from tick bites. Now, they might be claiming that it's government bio-warfare, related to 5G and/or covid, or some other unnecessarily contrarian bullshit, but they do take it seriously from what I've experienced.

Also, the good news is (or bad news I guess depending on your perspective) is that a lot of people seem to experience improvement of symptoms in time, so it's not necessarily a permanent thing for everybody. I don't know if it's just that some people continue to test the limits and end up inadvertently putting themselves through exposure therapy or if the immune response itself just naturally wanes over time, but several people I know who've had this for 5 - 10+ years say they can usually get away with a small amount of mammal meat, like maybe a hotdog now and then at a minimum, even though a small bite would have caused them a lot of trouble when they first developed the allergy.

Because people don't read the source anymore:

that nickname is misleading, because alpha-gal syndrome can cause strong reactions to many products, beyond just red meat.

The alpha-gal sugar molecule exists in the tissues of most mammals, including cows, pigs, deer, and rabbits. But it’s absent in humans.

the allergy also can be set off by exposure to a range of other animal-based products, including dairy products, gelatin (think Jell-O or gummy bears), medications, and even some personal care items.

it’s possible to get over the allergy if you can modify your diet enough to avoid triggering another reaction for a few years and also avoid more tick bites.