Editorial Policy

People make food and medical decisions based on what they read here, so we hold ourselves to a few clear rules. This page explains them.

Who is responsible

Shawn Monk, who lives with alpha-gal syndrome, is responsible for everything published on AlphaGalData and approves every page before it goes live. Karrah Monk, Shawn's wife and patient advocate, contributes the family and caregiver perspective. Neither of us is a clinician, and we do not present ourselves as one.

Where our information comes from

For medical facts, such as symptoms, diagnosis, which products may contain alpha-gal, and treatment, we rely on:

• public health agencies: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration;
• peer-reviewed research, found through the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database;
• professional allergy organizations, such as the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI);
• lab test documentation, such as Labcorp and Quest test directories.

Every medical guide links to its sources in the text and lists them at the bottom. Each guide also shows the date we last checked it against those sources. When sources disagree or the evidence is thin, we say so rather than picking the most dramatic version.

Lived experience

Practical tips, such as how to ask a restaurant about its fryer or which questions to put to a pharmacist, often come from our own experience with AGS. We label that experience as ours. We never invent patient stories, quotes, or testimonials, and we don't present one person's experience as medical evidence.

How we use AI tools

We use AI tools to help with research and first drafts. In particular:

• Weekly research roundups start as automated summaries of newly published study abstracts from PubMed and trial listings from ClinicalTrials.gov.
• Some articles start as AI-assisted drafts built from sources the tool was given or found.

AI never publishes anything on its own. Every AI-assisted draft goes into a review queue, where Shawn checks each claim against the linked source, rewrites what needs rewriting, removes anything that can't be verified, and approves it before it goes live. Drafts with unverified claims are blocked from publishing until they are resolved. The person accountable for every page is named on that page.

Research roundups

Our weekly roundups summarize study abstracts, not full papers. We say what kind of study it was (for example, a case report, a lab study, or a review), what the authors reported, and what it does or doesn't change for people living with AGS. We call out small studies, animal or lab-only work, and early findings, and every summary links to the original study.

Recipes

Recipes on AlphaGalData are cooked in our own kitchen or adapted from recipes we've made. We check ingredients for common alpha-gal triggers and note which packaged ingredients need a label check, but formulas change and tolerance varies, so a recipe here is never a guarantee that a dish is safe for you. Recipes submitted by readers are tested and label-checked before we publish them.

Independence

• Advertisers do not see content before it is published, sponsor articles, or influence what we write.
• We don't accept payment for reviews or coverage.
• Some product links are affiliate links, explained in our disclosure. Affiliate status doesn't decide what we recommend.

What we won't do

• Diagnose, interpret your test results, or tell you a specific product is safe for you.
• Recommend changing, stopping, or skipping a medication or vaccine. Those decisions belong with your clinician.
• Publish health claims we can't trace to a reliable source.

Corrections and updates

If you spot an error, email info@alphagaldata.com with the page link and what looks wrong; a source helps. Corrections get priority. We fix factual errors as quickly as we can, update the page's "checked against sources" date, and note significant corrections at the bottom of the page. We also re-check medical guides when CDC guidance or the research changes.

This site is educational only and not medical advice. Always consult a board-certified allergist for diagnosis and treatment.