I am a creature of habit when it comes to breakfasts. First the coffee, then the breakfast! My go to weekday breakfasts have always been cereal or eggs and toast. Sometimes just toast. Weekends are all out eggs, bacon, sausage, pancake feasts.
But then, along came Alpha-gal syndrome. Now what can I eat? In this article I will give you 7 breakfasts ideas to get you started! When you’re first diagnosed with Alpha-gal and start learning about all the things you can’t have, and the lurking additives in your favorite foods, it seems for a while, that you can’t eat anything. And, of course, it’s good advice to drastically narrow the scope of your diet for a while as you figure things out and learn your own sensitivity levels.
What CAN I eat?
An important step of that process is shifting your focus away from everything you can’t eat, and start discovering the things that you CAN eat. And, I know it doesn’t seem like it at first, but there’s actually a LOT, I promise.
A good place to start is with breakfast! Breakfast is usually something you eat at home, and you have control over what that will be. At least for me, a breakfast out with friends event is extremely rare and there better be plenty of coffee! Especially if you commute to work and eat a meal or two away from home each day, a good homemade breakfast is important, in case your alpha-gal safe options turn out to be limited for those afternoon or evening meals.
I’ve put together a week’s worth of breakfast ideas for you. Whether you’re a creature of habit who eats the same thing every morning, or if you like to switch it up, you should be able to find some great alpha-gal safe breakfast ideas here. Please note, that all of my recipes are generally alpha-gal safe, but everyone has their own unique sensitivity levels and co-existing allergies and conditions. Be sure to read all labels (ingredients and formulas can change). And don’t eat anything I show here just because I said so. Rather, use these suggestions to build on your own research into what is safe for you personally. Okay, it’s breakfast time!
We’re going to start our week on Saturday for weekend planning and prep. If you’re strictly a cereal person, you can skip ahead to Tuesday, but maybe you’ll get some new ideas from the rest of the week, so maybe stick around for all 7 days!
Saturday: “Special Eggs”
Special eggs are a recipe we got from my brother-in-law, Steve. It’s one of my grandson’s favorites, he’s the one who gave it the name Special Eggs. To make Special eggs, you’ll need eggs, some kind of breakfast meat, and some cheese. Of course, we’re all about alpha-gal safe, so we’re using my ground turkey sausage recipe and plant-based cheese. (Not everyone with Alpha-gal syndrome is sensitive to dairy, so if you’re not, go ahead and throw on that real cheddar!).
You can find the full recipe here. While you’re making them, cook up some extra sausage for a weekday breakfast if you want special eggs again later!
Sunday: Breakfast Tacos
Breakfast Tacos are another quick, easy family favorite here. Cook up some Turkey Bacon or Turkey Sausage, scramble some eggs, and warm a tortilla.
I usually use Oscar Mayer turkey bacon with my pancakes. I fry up a whole package on the weekend so I have it on hand for weekday breakfasts. The trick is to add some extra fat to the pan, I like duck fat, but you can use plant butter, or even a little Pam spray. It cooks up pretty well in the microwave if you only need a slice or two. Just follow the package directions.
Load the eggs and bacon onto the warm tortilla, add some shredded cheese, and roll it up. While you’re at it, throw together a few extra tacos and freeze them for a microwavable weekday grab and go breakfast!
Monday: Avocado toast
This simple, nutritious, and tasty breakfast deserves a spot in our weekly breakfast rotation. You can be as trendy and creative as you like with garnishes, but really, all you need is an avocado, a couple slices of toast, and some salt and pepper. Make your toast, cut the avocado open, mash it up and spread it on your toast. So easy!! If additives in the bread, like butter, added vitamins, or dough conditioners like Mono and di-glycerides bother you, read labels and try to find a bread that doesn’t have those additives. Personally, I avoid all of that and just make my own bread, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post for another day.
Tuesday: Cereal
Cereal is such a traditional American breakfast! We all grew up on it. If you grew up pre-cell phone days, you also probably grew up reading and rereading a cereal box every morning. But, cereals can be problematic for those of us with Alpha-gal syndrome. It’s those added vitamins, usually, vitamin D, which can be sourced from animals. So if you are sensitive to them, read labels, and find cereals that don’t have those added vitamins. They do exist, although they may be in the health food section of your grocery store. In my cupboard today I have Cascadian Farms Vanilla Crisp. If you’re sensitive to dairy, use your favorite plant-based milk. Almond milk is good, but my favorite for cereal is oat milk. It is just the right amount of creaminess to go with that satisfying cereal crunch!
Wednesday: Oatmeal
Ok, I know not everyone is a fan of oatmeal. And that’s okay. We have 6 other options for breakfast this week and repeats are great. But I like oatmeal, and because of our dietary limitations, whatever variety we can incorporate is a very good thing. With the onset of the “Overnight Oats” trend, oatmeal has gained both versatility and popularity. I haven’t gotten on the overnight oats band wagon, because it really isn’t that hard to make in the morning. 10 minutes in a pan, or a minute and a half in the microwave. No big deal. I eat oatmeal 2 different ways, either savory, or sweet. My version of sweet oatmeal is with a little plant butter, real maple syrup, and if I have them on hand I add dried fruit, and/or nuts. I stick to real maple syrup to avoid the additives and cane sugars of artificially flavored pancake syrups. Also, check the label on the dried fruits. Some have added sugars, and I’ve even found added gelatin. Gelatin is a mammal sourced ingredient. I use Ocean Spray cranberries. Ingredients: cranberries.
Savory oatmeal is the easiest. Just top your oatmeal with a swirl of olive oil, and some salt and pepper and it’s good to go. You’re adding some healthy fats, but no extra calories from sugars.
Thursday: Fried Egg Sandwich
This is so delicious and satisfying! If you’ve been extremely limited in a variety of meals due to alpha-gal fears, this flavorful egg sandwich is going to taste like happiness!
Fry an egg, break the yolk before flipping it season with salt and pepper. Make toast (using the bread notes from Monday) and spread on some plant based butter. Build your sandwich by stacking the egg, some bacon leftover from Sunday, and a slice of cheese—I used Violife Plant based cheddar.
Friday: Grain Bowl
A grain bowl can be as simple as a bowl of white rice with plant butter or olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Or, it can be a blend of ancient grains garnished with eggs and vegetables. When I was a kid, my mom would sometimes make white rice with butter and sugar for breakfast. Yum!
These days, I still enjoy that comfort food breakfast bowl of white rice, sometimes with (plant)butter and maple syrup, or, if I’m feeling a little more grown up that day, olive oil, salt and pepper.
If I’m going for the mixed ancient grains, I cook those on the weekend and freeze them in breakfast size portions. They take some time, but they’re worth it for a high protein, very nutritious breakfast. Here’s how I make them. For a quick and easy meal, just swirl on some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If I’m feeling energetic, I like to put a fried or boiled egg on top, and whatever fresh veggies I have on hand. Here’s how I make them__
Bonus Breakfast:
I made it to 7 days and still haven’t mentioned pancakes!
Are pancakes Alpha-gal safe? They can be! I have done fine using Krusteaz pancake mix. If you’re very sensitive to the added vitamins in enriched flours, it’s easy to make your own pancakes using flour that is not enriched like King Arthur organic all-purpose flour. Here’s my recipe for cinnamon vanilla pancakes.
What is your go-to breakfast? Share your thoughts and ideas here in the comments, or on my Susan by a Thread Facebook page!
You can watch my 7 days of Alpha-gal safe breakfasts video here.
I know that most people plan their camping meals, first and foremost, for convenience and ease of preparation. Prepackaged, heat and serve foods require less time to prepare, and less mess to clean up, thereby freeing you up to enjoy the camping fun. There’s nothing wrong with that approach to camp meals, unless you’re cooking for someone who has food allergies that make those prepackaged foods dangerous.
Having a food allergy like alpha-gal syndrome means that the safest way for me to eat is to cook from scratch whenever possible. This way I have control over everything that goes into my food. When I cook from scratch I don’t have to worry about animal derived food additives or those mysterious “natural flavorings” that can trigger an allergic reaction.
Luckily, I enjoy cooking! So, spending time at the campground preparing meals and desserts is fun for me. Even so, there are things that I do to bring in at least a little convenience. First, I plan ahead. A lot! Using a meal planner that I created, I map out the meals that I plan to make for each day of the camping trip and the ingredients needed for each meal. I take inventory of the ingredients that I have on hand, and generate a grocery list of items that I need to buy. Here’s a link to the meal planner.
For this camping trip I decided to make chocolate fudge brownies. I adapted the fudge brownies recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook to make it alpha-gal safe. If you’re not sensitive to animal products, just use the original recipe!
To make baking brownies at the campsite as convenient as possible, I pre-measured the ingredients at home and put them in labeled Zip-loc bags along with a copy of the recipe. So, when it was time to bake, I could just mix and go!
Our RV doesn’t have an oven. I use a Coleman Camp Oven over a propane camp stove for baking. It is compact, lightweight, and it works well, although if there’s much wind it can be tricky to maintain an even temperature. I’ve added a small baking stone to the bottom of mine to help keep steady heat going as I bake. This recipe is great for baking at home in your kitchen oven as well!
The original recipe is from the old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Here is my alpha-gal safe adaptation.
Fudge Brownies Recipe
Ingredients:
½ cup (one stick) Country Crock olive oil plant butter
2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup sugar (I use beet sugar)
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup all-purpose flour (not enriched)
Instructions:
Spray or grease an 8×8 baking pan. In a double boiler, or in the microwave, melt the plant butter and the chocolate together just until melted and combined. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla and stir until combined (don’t overmix). Stir in the flour until combined. Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake at 350◦ f for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.
If you make this recipe, please let me know in the comments! Use your creativity to make this recipe your own with your favorite additions and share your ideas here or on my Susan By A Thread Facebook page!
You can watch me make this recipe at camp in this YouTube video short
A few months before a tick bite made me allergic to meat we had made a bulk purchase of beef. Along with a couple of friends, we split a cow 3 ways and filled our freezer. Fast forward a few months, and I could no longer eat the beef. I couldn’t even cook it for my family without provoking an allergic reaction. So the beef sat in our freezer taking up space that I needed for stocking up on non-mammal foods.
If you’re not familiar with the Alpha-gal Syndrome meat allergy, you can find more information here.
Snow Goose Hunt
In late February of this year, my husband had planned a Snow Goose hunt with his brothers and nephews. Nebraska is in the migration path of literally millions of birds in the winter including Snow Geese, Canadian geese, Sand Hill Cranes, and more. In some parts of the state there is no limit as to how many Snow Geese you can take.
How About a Trade?
As the date approached for the Wisconsin and Michigan Tyler Clan to come to Nebraska for the hunt I started talking to my Sister-in-law about the trip. She wasn’t coming, they have younger children still in school and farm animals to care for. Among those animals is a growing flock of ducks. She mentioned having quite a few of them and needing to cull the flock. I had not been able to find duck in the grocery store since Christmas and I was getting pretty tired of the turkey-chicken-turkey-chicken meal rotation. So, I offered her a trade! How about I send home all of this beef in exchange for some of those ducks? She agreed!
The day of the hunt arrived along with the hunters! They brought me 10 ducks and headed out to hunt for snow geese.
Plucking Ducks is Hard Work
They left for the hunt early Tuesday morning and I went to work on the ducks right away. I had asked for them to remove the heads and feet, but please don’t skin them. I wanted the fat to render for cooking! Trust me, I knew how much work it was going to be! But I felt like it would be worth it. I laid the ducks out on a table in the garage and got to work. I worked all day and into the next day plucking ducks. And then dipping them in wax to help remove the down.
By the end of the day on Wednesday I had 10 beautiful, skinned ducks! Once again I laid them out on the table to admire my work!
When the guys came back from the first day of the hunt Tuesday evening, they had 63 snow geese to clean! They removed the breasts and went back out to the field the next morning.
Duck, Duck, Goose!
On Wednesday I finished plucking and waxing the ducks. Then I cleaned and removed the shot from the goose breasts from the hunt the day before. As I was cleaning the goose breasts I noticed a little tenderloin on some of them. So, I separated those out and cooked them for the guys when they came home that night–with another 87 geese. Here’s my recipe for Goose Breast tenderloins.
On day three, I cut the ducks up into breasts and leg & thigh pieces for the freezer. Then, I trimmed the fat and removed the remaining skin from the carcasses.
On day four, I rendered the fat and boiled the carcasses for stock.
I ended up with a lot of goose breasts, 20 duck breasts; 20 leg and thigh pieces; a quart plus about ¾ cup of duck fat; and 16 pints of stock.
It was a monumental amount of work and it took about a week for the arthritis in my hands to settle down from all that work. But it was totally worth it! And, I didn’t spend any money except for the original cost of the beef, which I couldn’t use anyway. My freezer is now filled with alpha-gal safe, red meat poultry! It’s a well-earned victory in the never-ending Alpha-gal Syndrome quest for safe, satisfying, and affordable meals.
Do you have a great food find or wild game story? Please let me know in the comments here, or on my Susan by a Thread facebook page!
Be sure to check back in on my blog recipes regularly or follow my Susan By A Thread Facebook page for the recipes I use to cook both the ducks and the wild geese. I’ll post them as I go. Here’s the recipe for our first Snow Goose steaks meal!
Snow Geese are a common sight in Nebraska late winter/early spring. Millions of them migrate through the state on their way to someplace else. In some areas of the state, hunting without a bag limit is allowed to control their increasing numbers. Maybe that’s why Snow Geese are not a popular wild game food here in Nebraska, but they are delicious! Snow Goose meat is a dark red meat similar to duck. I cook it almost like a steak, with steak seasonings and medium-rare. Here’s my recipe:
Snow Goose Breast
Ingredients:
4-6 Snow Goose Breasts (skinned, cleaned and checked for shot)
2 t. Steak or All-purpose seasoning. (or blend your own onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper)
2 T Olive Oil
2 T Duck Fat or cooking oil
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400◦ Fahrenheit.
Trim any remaining fat and silver skin or connective tissue from the breasts. Tenderize the breasts by pounding them with a meat mallet or a rolling pin to break down the tissue. Then place in a large bowl or Ziploc bag. Add olive oil and seasoning and toss to coat each piece evenly. Allow to marinate in the seasoning for 15-20 minutes.
Heat the duck fat in a cast iron or oven-safe skillet until hot. Place the breasts in the hot pan and sear both sides until browned. Place the pan in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Carefully remove pan from the oven. Place the goose breasts on a cutting board and allow to rest covered with foil for 5-10 minutes. Breasts will be about medium rare. Increase or reduce oven time according to your preference for more or less rare meat. (Always use caution with undercooking wild game.)
Slice and serve!
If you try this recipe, please let me know in the comments, or on my Susan by a Thread Facebook page. you may also like my Snow Goose Tenderloins Recipe.
Be sure to follow me on Facebook and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more recipes!
Jambalaya is a traditional dish in Louisiana. It’s easy to make and very adaptable to both an Alpha-gal diet, as well as the ingredients you have on hand. In this recipe I use chicken, turkey sausage, and shrimp, but you can swap out any combination of proteins that you have in your fridge right now. Use up leftover chicken, or the other half of the onion you used making dinner last night. I usually have some Cajun seasoning on hand, but in a pinch you can make your own using spices you already have in your cupboard. Cooking is about being creative and resourceful. Use what you have and make it delicious!
See the YouTube Video of the Jambalaya recipe here
Ingredients:
2 T Olive oil
1 Medium onion, chopped
4 Stalks of celery, chopped
2 Bell peppers, chopped
3 Cloves of garlic, crushed & minced
1 lb Turkey smoked sausage, sliced
1 lb Leftover chicken, deboned, cut into bite size pieces
1 lb Peeled and deveined uncooked shrimp
1-2 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning (to taste) or make your own with this Cajun Seasoning Recipe
2 cups White rice
4 cups Chicken or vegetable stock
Salt & pepper
Instructions:
In a large pot, sauté the onions in the olive oil. Add the celery and peppers, sauté for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the garlic and stir for 30-40 seconds. Add the sausage and allow to cook until it begins to brown, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cajun seasoning. Season with salt & pepper.
Stir in the rice and then pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cover the pot. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes, then remove the lid and add the chicken and shrimp. Replace the cover and continue to cook the rice for 10-15 more minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed.
Remove from heat, stir the mixture and serve!
Serves 4-6 people depending on portion size
Banana bread is a favorite at our house. So are bananas, but there are always a couple that we can’t finish before they are overripe. Banana bread is a great way to use those bananas.
When you first find out that you have a food allergy like Alpha-gal Syndrome, it seems like you can’t eat anything. But you can. With a little creativity, most recipes can be adapted. This banana bread recipe uses vegetable oil and oat milk to make it alpha-gal safe, and delicious! Feel free to use regular milk if you don’t need to avoid dairy.
Here’s a link to the YouTube video short.
If you try this banana bread recipe, please let me know in the comments here, or on my Susan by a Thread Facebook page!
Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
1 ¾ c flour
1 ½ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 t salt
½ t cinnamon
½ c sugar
½ c brown sugar
½ c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup of mashed ripe bananas
2 T Oat Milk
2 t. vanilla extract
½ c chopped pecans or walnuts
Instructions:
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
Add the sugars and oil to a mixing bowl and mix on medium until combined. Add the eggs, bananas, oat milk and vanilla extract until well combined. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chopped nuts.
Lightly coat a loaf pan with pan spray or oil. If desired, place a sheet of parchment paper in the bottom of the loaf pan and spray the paper as well. This will ensure that the bread will release from the pan easily after baking.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan, spreading evenly. Bake at 350◦ fahrenheit for 55-60 minutes. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. The bread will slice best when fully cooled, but if you can’t wait, put some butter* on a warm slice and enjoy!!
*Alpha-gal safe note: I use Country Crock plant based butter, use your favorite plant based butter if you are sensitive to dairy butter.
This is the 3rd recipe in the Tomato Challenge.
Read the Tomato Challenge Blog Post here.
Click here to see the Challenge video
Ingredients
2 ripe tomatoes sliced in ¼ inch slices
1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese sliced in ¼ inch slices
2-3 large leaves of fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Instructions
Arrange tomato and cheese slices on a plate or tray, alternating tomatoes and cheese until they are all placed in a line.
Stack the basil leaves and roll them into a “cigar” shape. Slice thinly to make ribbons of basil. Sprinkle basil ribbons over the tomatoes and cheese.
Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Season with salt and pepper
Serve as a light refreshing side dish, or add to a charcouterie board.
This is the 1st recipe of the Tomato Challenge. Read the Tomato Challenge Blog post here. Click here to see the whole challenge on YouTube.
Mixed Greens Garden Salad with Dried Cherries, Feta, and Microgreens
6-8 cups of chopped lettuce greens
4-5 slices red onion. Cut each slice in to 1-inch segments
½ cucumber, thinly sliced
2 or 3 thin slices of red cabbage
2 or 3 small ripe tomatoes, diced
½ c dried cherries or cranberries
½ c crumbled feta cheese
A handful of microgreens
Place Lettuce, onion, cucumber, red cabbage, and tomatoes in a salad bowl. Toss to combine. To the top of the salad add dried cherries, feta cheese and microgreens. Do not stir in. Dress with olive oil and vinegar or your favorite salad dressing.
I focus on living my best life with Alpha-gal Syndrome using a strategy based on advice I received many years ago.
A Piece of Advice
The best advice ever given to me was from a doctor at the University of Michigan Medical Center in the late 1990’s. After years of seeing one doctor after another and an array of potential diagnoses, this guy figured it out in a 30-minute office visit. It was fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain. He was very kind, and offered me this advice: He said, “There are two kinds of people with fibromyalgia. Those who do well, and those who don’t. Those who do well stay active, social, and maintain a positive outlook on life. Those who don’t do well, isolate, dwell on their pain, become sedentary, and allow it to consume them to the point that it becomes their identity.”
He was absolutely correct!
Those Who Don’t Do Well
I sought out a fibromyalgia support group and met the exact range of people he was talking about. The group discussion usually centered around participant’s discomforts, disability, and feelings of discouragement. Of course, supportive encouragement and helpful information was offered, but the focus was far from, “Let’s conquer this and get on with living our best lives.”
Those who do well
About that same time I learned that a nurse friend whom I knew also had fibromyalgia. She had no interest in the support group. She just didn’t have the time. Besides nursing, she had a family and was an avid outdoor enthusiast. I was intrigued by the disparity between the people who viewed their fibromyalgia as a disability, and this nurse who lived, played and worked hard in spite of it. Did she have rough days? Sure. But her focus was not on her illness. Her focus was on living her life.
Focus on Living Life
It took some time for me to get the hang of living with the condition. I learned that staying active, managing stress, and eating a healthy diet was more effective than any pill. Today, while I do have painful days, over all I manage very well. Pain is not my focus, nor is it my identity. Very few of my friends even know that I have fibromyalgia. I have places to go, things to do, and better things to talk about! I’ve gone ziplining in Costa Rica, climbed a waterfall in Jamaica, rappelled down a waterfall in Mexico, walked the streets of Aruba and Bali, fished for walleye in Canada, cooked meals on campfires, and much, much more, all since that doctor appointment back in 1998.
Alpha-gal Syndrome Is Not Who I Am Either
Today I am working every day to apply this principal to Alpha-gal syndrome. If you’re not familiar with it, Alpha-gal syndrome is a tick-bite induced allergy to non-primate mammals. With Alpha-gal, I do have to accept some limitations in regards to foods that I eat and products that I come in contact with. And, while I find it extremely uncomfortable, everyone around me has to know about it. Whether it’s relatives at a family meal, or strangers waiting tables in a restaurant, a conversation has to be had to assess and minimize exposure risks. In spite of those things, I still travel, I still go to friends and family meals, restaurants, and sporting events. I choose not to allow Alpha-gal Syndrome to become who I am. I choose not to allow it to stop me from living my life.
Let’s Conquer This and Get On With Living Our Best Lives!
Everyone has challenges in life. And some days it seems like the hits just keep on coming. But pain, adversity, problems, are not who you are. They are just challenges that you face. There is so much more that makes you a unique and beautiful human.
If you sit down and decide that an obstacle is just your life now, then it will be.
But if you stand up and stubbornly refuse to allow a circumstance, a diagnosis, or a limitation to determine the course of your life, you will be free.
Stand up!
Once upon a time I was a happy carnivore. I regularly cooked and ate steaks, brisket, ribs, sausage and burgers from cows, pigs, even deer and elk. I like my steaks rare—just knock the horns off! Today I neither cook, nor eat, nor order in restaurants, any of those delicious, carnivorous treats. The reason why? Well, let’s flash back to the beginning….
The Beginning
In the spring of 2022, my husband Larry and I bought a small camper and hit the state parks!
Our camper’s maiden voyage was in May. We camped at Windmill State Recreation Area in Gibbon, Nebraska. On the second day, we walked the trail that circled the park. Partway along the trail, after a stretch of walking through some tall grass, we noticed ticks on our jeans. Gross! We brushed them off and kept going.
Back at the camper, we did a quick tick check and went on with our day. Later in the afternoon it got warmer out and it was time for shorts. When I changed, I found a tick attached to the back of my right knee. Larry removed the tick and we pretty much forgot about it.
Bug Bites?
During the month of June, I had a lot of what I thought were bug bites. We were camping every weekend, so I assumed that it was just part of spending so much time outdoors. I didn’t think much of the itchy welts, even though they were not typically on exposed parts of my body. They were mainly on my stomach, arm pits, and groin area.
We took a break from camping in the beginning of July, but the “bug bites” continued. Then, on July 12th, after eating an elk steak at home, I broke out in welts all over. Obviously, these were not bug bites. I googled causes for hives. One of the search results rang a bell. Hives can be caused by a tick bite induced meat allergy called Alpha-gal Syndrome! Remember that tick bite back in May?
In retrospect, what I did next was risky, and let’s be clear that I am not recommending it in any way. Alpha-gal reactions can be dangerous and life-threatening, and I seriously underestimated the risk out of sheer ignorance of the condition. So, disclaimer: Kids, do NOT try this at home. Really, don’t. Anaphylaxis is bad.
A Dangerous Experiment
I decided to stop all mammal meat and dairy for one week. After that week I would try eating a steak and see if the reaction occurred again. During that week, the hives subsided. At the end of the week, we went to Texas Roadhouse. I ordered the prime rib, with a buttery sweet potato and those bacony green beans along with a Texas pour glass of pinot noir and those warm cinnamon butter rolls. It was delicious! Thinking back, if I had known that I was eating my last slice of prime rib, maybe I would have savored it more. Alas.
The thing about Alpha-gal reactions is that they are not immediate. The Alpha gal sugar that causes the reaction passes through part of the digestive process before your body reacts to it. So I didn’t start scratching at my armpits in Texas Roadhouse. Later that night, I did. Hives continued to develop and become widespread throughout the next morning.
Thankfully, that reaction was limited to hives and itching, and I didn’t end up in the emergency room. But Alpha gal syndrome can be unpredictable, so please don’t take that chance.
Now What?
Now I felt like I knew what the problem was. But what now? An allergist confirmed my self-diagnosis and showed me how to use an epi-pen. But other than that, she didn’t offer anything useful about how to proceed. I learned more from others with Alpha-gal syndrome in Facebook groups than the doctor offered.
I learned that animal derived products are everywhere. They are hidden in ingredient lists as natural flavorings, and hidden behind big words like magnesium stearate, and mono & diglycerides–or not listed at all because they are used as part of purification processes. Cane sugar, and beverages like Dasani water and some beer and wines are filtered through animal bone char. Turkey or chicken sausage sounds safe, but if the small print on the label says “pork casings” or “beef collagen casing” they are not safe. Your Chapstick probably contains lanolin—which comes from sheep. It’s basically an ingredients label minefield that takes real detective work to sort out. Animal products are used in cosmetics, and medications as well. Those pain reliever gel caps–gelatin is derived from beef.
Navigating Alpha-Gal Syndrome
Alpha-gal syndrome presents differently for everyone. Obviously, I can’t eat any meat from mammals (birds and fish are okay). With the exception of butter, I can tolerate occasional dairy without a reaction. Some can eat dairy freely, some not at all. I can’t cook meat. Like me, some people with AGS have “Fume reactions” to aerosolized alpha gal sugar particles resulting from cooking meat or being around strongly concentrated animal waste—a feedlot for example. Even wearing leather will cause a rash for me, but not everyone with AGS has trouble with leather. Thankfully I have never had trouble breathing with a reaction, but some do, and it means a trip straight to the ER. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Finding your individual sensitivity levels takes time and can cause a lot of anxiety about food.
Navigating Alpha-gal Syndrome can be scary, but it is doable. I promise! So, take a deep breath and gather your courage. You’re not alone. We are on this journey together.
If you’re reading this because you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Alpha-gal syndrome, I hope you will follow my blog for information, encouragement, support, alpha-gal safe recipes and meal ideas. You can also find me on Facebook and YouTube by searching for Susan by a Thread where I will be adding content regularly as we learn together.
For general information about Alpha-gal syndrome, use this link as a starting point to find some basic information.
