I thought I kept getting food poisoning. It turned out, a tick bite changed how my body reacts to red meat and pork.

The author has been living with alpha-gal syndrome for 18 months. The condition, usually caused by a tick bite, prevents him from being able to eat pork and red meat. Courtesy of Zack Barnes. I was having frequent bouts of what I thought was food poisoning. A blood test revealed that I had alpha-gal syndrome, which causes an allergic reaction to meat. The condition, often caused by a tick bite, has caused me to change my routines drastically. When I broke out in hives on a Friday afternoon,...