dancing in conga lines. 🐮🐮🐮🐮

like Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, etc came down with this?

Oh, please, please, please.

No more meat except poultry. No dairy, no gluten but that's old news.

Anybody got some good chicken recipes?

A one pot with chicken shallots and garlic.
Not sure if it is on the web. It is on his book. I'm just here for the food.

Good luck.

chicken leg quarters with the skin sprinkled with celery salt and onion powder. Bake in a foil-lined pan deep enough to hold some grease. at 350 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes. The fat will bake out of the skin and baste the meat, which will be very juicy and tender and flavorful.

NIgella Lawson…
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chicken-in-a-pot-with-lemon-and-orzo

You can buy gluten-free orzo or use quinoa or rice. Delicious, relatively easy, plentiful, filling.

A woman doctor noted several of her patients were coming in, complaining of allergic reactions to red meat. She began investigating, and it led to the discovery of the lone star tick bite being the main culprit.
I have it. It can be a pain.
For me, red meat includes beef and veal, pork, mutton and lamb. Oddly, poultry and seafood are fine, and venison.
I really, really miss being able to eat steak and beef burgers. I usually sub turkey or chicken for red meat.

Beef and pork on the other hand...oy.

Since red meat is taboo for me, it would be a long while before I would be diagnosed, if I had it. I assume that, like with most of these tick-borne diseases, they fester and silently grow inside the host before suddenly bursting out with devastating effect, such as with Lyme Disease.

products made with milk.

Editing to add goat's milk, too.

People with alpha gal syndrome are often less allergic to dairy than to meat.

More info here:

https://www.cdc.gov/alpha-gal-syndrome/data-research/products-containing-alpha-gal/index.html

One of my nieces and my nephew's wife both have it. Both are in their 30s, have had it a couple of years, no signs of recovery yet.

All of which are much riskier now.

The good news for people who have alpha-gal is that they can sometimes recover if they can go years without another tick bite.

because MAHA thinks beef tallow is healthier than seed oil

Beef tallow may be healthier for some, but for those with alpha gal, it's could be potentially deadly.

"potentially deadly" is not something I associate with healthy eating

Somehow the RFK Jr. people have been lead to believe seed oils are unhealthy and beef tallow is good

ON EDIT: And these are the places that make a big deal out of "gluten free"

It isn't transmitted from person to person, it requires a tick as a vector. Once it develops, it turns into an often deadly allergy to mammal meat. Birds, eggs, fish, and veggies can be eaten safely, but those steaks and roasts are out, along with breakfast and lunch meats.

The good news is hat the allergy can disappear in some people. The bad news are that it often takes years to go away and in a significant number of people, it never goes away.

I suppose I'm a little surprised by how fast it has spread from the southern plains to the east, even though such a spread was predicted. I guess ticks have been hitching a lot of rides on vehicles.

It's still fairly rare. Just know the danger signs of severe allergic reaction, anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock. Yes, I want you to look it up.

Bottom line: if you get it, you won't starve. Some substitutes, like chicken and apple and chicken sausage, can be great. You will get enough B-12. Greens will give you plenty of iron. It might even go away, allowing you a ham sandwich, beef steak, or bison burger a few years down the road. Just be aware that this is out there, what the severe symptoms are, and what to do if the worst happens.

and things made with turkey, e.g. sausage and pepperoni?

I already have a list of foods that I can't eat due to allergies. Then there are others that I limit or avoid due to watching cholesterol and solid fat intake. Then there are some that I avoid or eat in very small amounts on rare occasions due to interactions with one of my meds.

Among my food allergies are some calcium rich veggies, so I count on milk and low fat cheese for calcium.

I am at least familiar with the signs of anaphylaxis, having experienced it twice, both times caused by allergists who were skeptical of my warning to them about some of my allergen reactions. Yes, I immediately wrote off both doctors as incompetent -- after I received epinephrine shots and recovered.

mild allergy symptoms from that, but they're respiratory symptoms and pretty mild - sneezing and watery eyes (I'll notice tree pollen a lot more if I've been eating wheat). I'll sometimes have pizza anyway, and I couldn't resist the carrot cake at my nearest grocery store's very good bakery this week, but I'll often go months without eating wheat...and then go back to eating it again until the allergy symptoms are just too annoying.

I've never had anaphylaxis. It sounds terrifying.

and too unfamiliar with it to know what was happening. The doctor had left me alone in a cubicle after injecting me with 60 test allergens at once. I felt pain in my ear lobes and was dizzy, like I might faint.

Fortunately, an acquaintance of mine worked in that office and poked her head in the doorway of the cubicle to say hello. When she saw me, she immediately yelled out for the doc. I had no idea why everyone was rushing around, prepping shots, checking my pulse, etc.

Later my friend told me l that my ear lobes were swollen about 3 times their normal size and had turned deep purple. My arms, from shoulders to wrists were puffed up like balloons and had purple streaks running the full length.

I had to wait several hours in the office before leaving to be sure that the episode was completely over. I got jittery and felt hyped up from the epi shots because the doc ordered 3 instead of the usual 2. So they gave me some crackers to munch on.

malpractice. Thank God your acquaintance there stopped by soon after that and realized it was an emergency.

cubicles where patients waited after being injected. The routine was to start with the doc for an initial interview. Then he ordered the types of tests. A nurse injected the allergens being tested and said she would be back in 15 minutes to check the results. Then she moved on to the next cubicle.

I was 35 when the tests were done and had never been fully tested before. Since childhood, I'd had numerous "colds" every year and bouts of abdominal cramps, which were assumed to be flu, plus frequent bouts of tonsillitis. So I had a tonsillectomy at age 6. But I still got sick often. As an adult, none of the GPs I'd seen had considered allergies or asthma when I got bronchitis so often.

My husband insisted that I get fully tested after a scarey reaction to a pet rabbit.

The allergist was visibly skeptical of the variety of symptoms and substances that I told him about in the initial interview. I think he thought that I was a hypochondriac.

After the epi shots took effect, the doc said that I had reacted positively to all but 4 of the allergens. But how could he know with my entire arms swollen instead of little bumps as positive reactions?

So I found another allergist who tested each substance individually, with a nurse at my side throughout the tests.

My childhood illnesses turned out to be allergies to our real pine Christmas tree each year, my wool blanket and feather pillow, my mother's pet parakeet, and the pollens in our backyard flower and vegetable gardens. Plus tree and grass pollens, fungi (mushrooms), several foods, and some meds.

Avoiding the worst allergens is automatic routine now. Some food reactions are so mild that I can eat them in small amounts. I became desensitized to some allergens after treatments, and keep antihistamines on hand for pollen seasons. So I rarely get any reactions any more.

you at risk that way, and I wonder how many other patients he endangered.

Thank God the next allergist you saw was much more competent.

I'm glad you've been able to manage your allergies much better now.

I made a mistake myself thinking my wheat allergy was mild enough I probably wouldn't regret eating about half of that small carrot cake over a few days. Told myself it had to have a lot less wheat than most cakes, simply because of the other ingredients (this is really good, really rich carrot cake, with wonderful cream cheese frosting). Now I don't know whether a lot of coughing and sneezing I've been dealing with today are the allergy or a cold or some other respiratory virus I might've caught. Sigh...

But I just searched for and found a gluten-free version.
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/gluten-free-carrot-cake

I love carrot cake and fortunately, can eat it with no problems.

Have you been tested for wheat allergy? Wheat is hard to avoid, although there are a lot of no gluten, wheat free products now.

I've learned that, although I can't eat any egg dishes like scrambled, boiled, or fried eggs because of the allergy to egg whites, I can eat a few things, like cake or cookies made with eggs, so long as there are only one or two eggs in them. The other ingredients do dilute the effect of the egg whites for me. But I can't eat angel food cakes-- too many egg whites.

Also, although I can't eat fresh tomatoes, e.g. on a sandwich or in a salad, I can eat cooked tomatoes like in pizza or spaghetti sauce. Cooking changes the protein structure enough so that cooked tomatoes sneak right past my over zealous immune system.

It took years of trial and error to learn what is safe and in what amounts or combinations.

One way to tell the difference between an allergy and a cold is to check your temperature. Allergies do not raise the temp like an infection does. Also, nasal mucous color is white or clear with allergies. It is green, sometimes gray, with an infection like a cold.

Good luck on avoiding wheat.

after having given it up for quite a while the first time, after hearing about the book Wheat Belly and being impressed by what I read about the benefits of a wheat-free diet. I did NOT expect to find myself sneezing and coughing after going back to eating wheat again, since it hadn't had that effect before. But I'd read that other people who'd tried to go back to eating wheat had more trouble with it. I had noticed, the first time I went wheat-free, that I was no longer getting watery eyes from being outdoors when the tree pollen count was especially high, so I guess I shouldn't have been completely surprised to get respiratory symptoms when I ate wheat again.

Last edited Sat Mar 28, 2026, 07:41 AM - Edit history (1)

some other ingredients in products that use wheat can cause allergies, e.g. yeast in breads, bagels, and some doughnuts. With cakes, eggs, milk, or some spices can cause allergies.

However, if you are allergic to a food, you will notice symptoms if you try eating it after an interval without it. So maybe that is what happened when you ate the cake.

I tested positive for a peanut allergy, which surprised me because I had never noticed a reaction to peanuts. But I had to avoid them after I started one of my meds because peanuts, peanut butter, and peanut oil nullify the effect of my med. After a few years of avoiding peanuts, I accidentally bit into a peanut cookie that an employee had brought to work because I mistook it for an oatmeal cookie. Immediately I started coughing, then went into a full blown asthma attack.

I wonder if it's a specific type of wheat that you are allergic to, e.g. the wheat used in breads and cakes. What about pasta, which is made with semolina and duram wheat? Or dark rye or pumpernickel bread? Most of those have some white wheat flour in them, but a few are made without it.

Interesting that there is a connection between tree pollens and reactions when you eat wheat. Some allergen effects are cumulative, meaning that, in small amounts by themselves, they are fairly harmless, but when you are exposed to another allergen, too, the immune system decides that's a bridge too far and reacts more strongly to having both exposures than to just one.

Tree pollens are a common allergy and hard to avoid in spring.

Some sausages made with chicken may also contain beef or pork. Same with lunch meat.
It does get easier to deal with over time.

I agree the planet has it in for us, probably with good reason.

You might be surprised to find that there are vegan analogues to pretty much any kind of meat, though I can’t swear to beef because that’s not something I was ever fond of and haven’t tried making. Ham, turkey, and chicken, though? Surprisingly easy! (I think these all came from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken, if you’re interested. Pinterest has lots more.) Might be an option if this is something you feel deprived of.

The little bitty ticks are popping up here now since its warming up. I've picked several off already, but I spend a lot of time outside.

Looks like KY is in the worst part too.

I am in SE Ohio not far from Athens. I live in a rural area and walk with the dogs every day so I have a lot of tick exposure. The tiny ticks are Deer ticks an carry Lyme and Ehrlichiosis which are both microbe diseases and both of my dogs have had both diseases. A slightly larger tick with a single dot on its back is called the "Lone Star" tick and is what can cause the Alpha Gal allergy. This is a chemical it picks up from other mammals and injects you with when they later bite humans.
My main symptom was a cramping after a couple of bites of a hamburger or sour cream dish. They have a blood test to see how reactive you are to this. Basically I can have an allergic reaction to any Mammal product, meat, dairy or even gelatin. I have to be careful of some medicine capsules that are made from gelatin. I have never had an extreme reaction but I do carry an eppi pen now.

We always had normal 'dog' ticks, but these new species just showed up in the last 5 or six years.

I have to turn off commercials for sizzling steak or bacon. I really miss them. Chicken, turkey, eggs, and fish are about it for meat and Almond milk helps replace dairy.