Eden Stewart, a nutrition and health specialist with MU Extension, said she remembers the first time someone asked her about alpha-gal syndrome.
“I was at a farmer's market … and this mom stops me, and she said, ‘Do you know where I can find alpha-gal syndrome recipes?’ And I said, ‘I don't have any idea what you're talking about,’” Stewart recalled. “And then she started explaining to me what it was, and that her child had this food allergy, and I really, in the heart of my heart, I was like, ‘This sounds like a made-up story. This can’t be real.”
It’s been a few years since that encounter, but Stewart said it invigorated her to discover more about the allergy and about how Missourians can adjust their lives and diets to the condition.
Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to red meat and other mammalian byproducts, such as dairy and gelatin, that comes from the bite of the lone star tick.
But not everyone’s allergy is the same. Many folks only have reactions when physically eating red meat, such as beef, pork, venison, etc. While others can be incredibly sensitive to the sugar that causes the allergy – even reporting having reactions to the infinitesimal amounts of the sugar found in natural flavoring or having airborne reactions to fumes.
“So, I got back into my office and started just searching, doing scholarly searches, and then it came up,” Stewart said. “Sure enough, there's lots of information about what alpha gal is, about preventing it, but nothing about how to live with it, and so, I thought this is really some missing information that we need, because people are looking for it.”
Stewart said she and a small team got to work developing new informational guides focusing on shopping, cooking, food substitutions and nutrients of concern for those with alpha-gal.
She said she hopes these guides give people a place to start after receiving a diagnosis that can seem daunting.
“I really hope this eliminates some of the anxiety. A lot of times you get a diagnosis, and you come home … and you're like, ‘Okay, now what? How do I do this now,” Stewart said. “It's really hard for people in the Midwest to get this diagnosis because we are so heavy on, you know, the Midwestern diet, which is heavy on the cheese, heavy on the creams, heavy on the bacon.”
Stewart added that they are sharing the guides with neighboring states also being impacted by alpha-gal, and the MU extension team is working on creating additional materials, such as educational classes on the condition and healthy, affordable recipes that are alpha-gal friendly.
