Often when Missourians receive an alpha-gal syndrome diagnosis, they don't know where to start — beyond simply not eating red meat. Some people in southern Missouri are trying to help people adapt to their new diets.

Jessica Overcast lives with her family in the small Douglas County town of Ava in rural southern Missouri.

She vividly remembers her first trip to the grocery store after learning that her daughter, Lyla, has alpha-gal syndrome — a tickborne condition that can cause allergic reactions to alpha-galactose, a sugar molecule most commonly found in red meats and other products derived from mammals.

"I just, I sat there with this app that they said to use to figure out what she could eat, and I cried in the aisleway," Overcast said. "I don't know what to feed my kid anymore."

An

See Full Page