Do you eat raw mushrooms? Maybe you shouldn’t!
I’ve eaten raw mushrooms most of my life. I love them in salad. Recently though I heard that mushrooms should never be eaten raw.
First they are difficult to digest but second, there could be bacteria in the mushroom that is harmful to the body.
Who knew?
While I can say I never noticed if a raw mushroom made me ill, it is quite possible that some symptoms I contributed to over eating, acid reflux, and food borne illnesses MAY have been due to mushrooms and I just never made the connection.
I recently learned that diverticulosis may be caused by toxins from food poisoning. Maybe it’s from mushrooms in a WFPB diet.
Mushrooms are beneficial!
Don’t shun mushrooms because you cannot eat them raw.
Mushrooms have many benefits and some mushrooms are used for medications. Because If exposed to ultra violet light, mushrooms can be a great source of vitamin D. They are provide vitamin B which is often lacking in a vegan diet.
Some mushrooms such as maitake, crimini, portabella, oyster and white button are found to “significantly suppress” breast cancer cell growth and reproduction.
This is an interesting article about health benefits I found during my research.
Chaga, Reishi and Lions Mane are among the mushrooms used for health supplements. Cordyceps are expensive because of the dependency on silk worms but tout many benefits on their own, especially liver health.
Some mushrooms may balance the thyroid hormone. Worth looking into here.
More fun cooked!
Two of my favorite mushroom entreés are my Portobello mushroom Rockefeller or simply grill a portobello mushroom for a burger. It’s WFPB and is easy to take to a family gathering where everyone else is grilling meat!
Top it with an heirloom tomato and dive in!
Like soup? My creamy portobello mushroom soup is amazing. Do a search on mushroom to see several choices. (I really like mushroom soup)!
Dried mushrooms are especially healthful. Many of my soups use dried mushrooms or a combination of fresh and dry ones.
A quick and tasty broth can be made with dried mushrooms. I use them frequently in an Asian broth called dashi.
Asian markets are a terrific and economical place to get your mushrooms. However one of my favorite online sources for dried mushrooms is Olive Nation.
