Eating Mushrooms Raw

[blue_soda025]

After reading this article, I'm very hesitant to eat mushrooms raw:
http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/EatingRawMushrooms.html

What are your thoughts on this?

[MysticTree]

eat them in moderation if they don't upset your stomach and bear in mind there are lots of wild mushrooms (as opposed cultivated ones) that should never be eaten raw.

[Mindylane]

Mushrooms are probably one of my favorite foods. I have been eating raw mushrooms for years; in particular, white mushrooms and portabello mushrooms. Never have I had any issues with eating them!

[ReneeH]

If you search hard enough, you'll probably find someone who says that eating any veggie raw is bad. I agree with MysticTree...moderation is the key for me. They've never bothered me and I use a variety: Portobella, Button, Shittake, Oyster... I don't know if I'd survive without my Raw Fajitas that uses Portobellas!!!! Just SHOOT me NOW!!!!

[Raw Angel Mom]

They are great source of vitamin B12 THAT your body can absorb. You can research a study that was done in Australia

I eat them by phase. At time, i consume them a lot at other time, i don't crave them.

All the best!

p.s This is one article that i found but you can find the real published research about it

Enjoy

http://freefromharm.org/health-nutrition/vitamin-b12-in-mushrooms-not-exclusive-to-meat-dairy/

[Charybdisjim]

I do think the article presents the information in a way that seems a bit sensationalistic. Yes, some mushrooms should never be eaten raw - and for many of those cooking only reduced the prevelance of toxic compounds rather than remove them entirely and may have simply been masking health risks. This does mean its a good idea to be familiar with what species of mushrooms are often eaten raw and which ones probably should be avoided; this is not hard information to find and while most mushroom species shouldn't be eaten raw (or at all) the most commonly available often ones can be in moderation unless you are particularly sensitive to them.

Yes raw mushrooms are more likely to upset your stomach and lower digestive tract than cook mushrooms - but sensitivity varies between individuals. If something bothers your stomach then certainly it would be advisable to avoid it if you can't adjust to it. Of course this does serve to remind people that if your diet is causing you GI tract issues and includes mushrooms, you might want to try avoiding them to find out whether or not they are the problem. If they don't bother you then enjoy them in moderation - which is something that holds true for any single component of your diet.

I think the article lacks sufficient context to put some of the more frightening sounding things in perspective. Yes mushrooms contain carcinogens - but its helpful to realize the lifetime risk for someone who consumes a diet rich in mushrooms is estimated to be 1 in 10,000 (or a differential of .01%.) To put this in perspective the lifetime chance of developing cancer among US non meat-eaters is roughly 43% for men and 35% for women (compared to 48% and 38% respectively for the general population.) Another way of comparing the estimated cancer risk of mushroom consumption this is to say hat it is roughly 1/100th the estimated differential cancer risk for being an airline pilot. Bear in mind those numbers are high across the board as they are total rates of carcinogenesis; it includes developing benign tumors that do not present impacts on health as well as malignant cancers.

You can significantly mitigate any risk by cutting off lower parts of the stem and avoiding eating gills when you can. Those components account for the majority of the carcinogenic compounds present. The risk is further reduced by avoiding mushrooms that should probably not be eaten at all - ones which are considered "safe" when cooked simply because it reduces dangerous levels of compounds to just unhealthy levels.

If you like mushrooms and they don't bother your stomach - then you should enjoy them with peace of mind as long as they're not an overwhelming portion of your food intake. Oh and dehydrating mushrooms can destroy most variations of these carcinogenic compounds far more thoroughly than cooking. So if you're still worried, they might be an alternative.