If you or your child has an allergy, food labels need to be read, and restaurant servers need to be asked about specific ingredients included in the dishes offered. As someone with alpha-gal syndrome, I have found that it is not enough to ask a server if there is any meat in a dish. I have to ask — is there any bacon, lard, beef broth, etc.? And the server may need to ask the cooks. Which is fine!
As someone who has alpha-gal syndrome, I can tell you that it can come as quite a shock to realize you will likely never eat red meat again. What to eat instead? There are a fair number of “plant-based meat substitutes” out there, but I have concerns about what kind of ultra-processing and additives can turn vegetables or poultry into something that looks and tastes like meat. I found when it did taste like meat, I didn’t want it because it made me afraid it might really be meat. I am quite afraid of eating meat now. So—I have substituted mushrooms for meat in all my recipes. Portobellos, in particular, are nutritionally comparable to beef, and they are “meaty,” with a nice umami protein vibe. Anything I would do with beef, I can do with portobellos. And the upside is that my gut seems to prefer mushrooms to meat. Since I got alpha-gal, my gut is happier than it has been in many decades—probably since the 1980s. One of the great things, too, is that mushrooms are getting trendy, and so it is fairly easy to find many different kinds to suit your tastes.