Lone Star tick can cure taste for meat

More people in the United States are becoming vegetarians, although one of the reasons for the dietary switch is downright bizarre.

Doctors across the country are seeing a surge in meat allergies among people bitten by the Lone Star tick — a bug, ironically, named for a state famed for its steak and barbecue. Its habitat includes the eastern half of the United States.

Once bitten, the affected patients find they can no longer enjoy a hamburger or other red meat, instead suffering terrifying symptoms such as constricted airways and swollen tongues. Rather than risk another allergic episode, some of the patients are switching to salad.

They may end up healthier in the long run.

Eating fish is great, if you like mercury

An important new study should deepen scientists’ understanding of how the marine food chain is tainted — and therefore about how humans who consume fish are ultimately affected.

The study, published in the journal Nature, found the level of metal mercury in the world’s oceans was double to triple what it was before the industrial revolution and that more of it was due to human activities — mainly burning fossil fuels and mining for gold — than previously thought.