Stacie:
> >I have never heard of someone with a meat allergy.
Amadeus:
> Now you do.
> I am allergic to meat.
> Really. :-) Not a joke.
>
> I did a food allergy test with resulted that I'm allergic to hazelnut,
> soy protein and one meat. I don't recall wich one it was maybe sheep.
> I think most people with meat allergy are allergic to beef.
>

 Allergy tests don't necessarily mean a lot. They need to be put in
context. The allergy tests I know about are either skin-pricks or tests
performed in a lab using drawn blood. Either way, you are introducing
whole foreign proteins directly into body tissue, which is not what
happens when you eat something, unless you have a very leaky gut AND
inefficient digestion, in which case you would probably show allergy to
a variety of foods. Ten years ago when I had my skin-prick allergy tests
he laid out a grid of 40 different allergens on my back. I tested very
allergic to all of the grass pollens (which I knew--that's why I was
there), but he also told me I was allergic to peanuts. Always having had
a healthy skepticism of the medical profession, on the way home I bought
and ate an entire can of peanuts and had no discernable reactions of any
sort. I don't know what the mechanisms are of a truly dangerous peanut
allergy. Perhaps there is a protein that you don't break down in the
upper GI tract, and then an irritated or compromised lower GI lining
passes that through into your bloodstream (does anyone know about
that?). Given normal HCL production and a healthy gut, I would be
surprised if the meat you are supposedly allergic to caused you any
actual allergic reaction. You don't remember exactly which meat it was,
but the people with the serious allergies to peanuts, shellfish, or
strawberries, for example, know EXACTLY what they are allergic to, since
their life somewhat depends on it. Many people might show allergy to
whole meat proteins if they were injected directly into their blood or
skin, but since meat protein is very easily digested into its component
amino acids (we're evolved for it, that's why we have all this HCL,
which herbivores have little of) an "in vivo" meat allergy should be
very rare.
 My inexpert, non-medical musings.

Hilary McClure
Danville, VT