I have a friend who’s way into mushrooms. He seems convinced Mushrooms have a lot of medical and mood benefits. What are the benefits of some species of mushrooms, if there are any?
Psilocybin spp mushrooms have mild to moderate hallucinatory effects. I’ve been told.
Oysters are tasty.
Mushrooms are mostly water, with a little protein, carbohydrates and some minerals. I’d say that their chief benefit is the ability to add flavour and substance - to make healthy (i.e. low-calorie and/or vegetarian, etc) dishes more palatable.
There has been some interesting (to me) research on chemoprevention and immune system boosts from mushrooms.Here’s one
I have a lot of Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) mushrooms that grow on my property and make a few bucks selling them.
Maitake, or hen-of-the woods (Grifula frondulosa), also has been use in cancer research, and they taste great! I just found a 5lb specimen last week.
If you are collecting, it helps to keep a diary of what you find and when/where you find them.
This year we were able to go back to sites that produced previously and we did mostly harvesting, instead of mostly hunting.
Shrooms are generally a good filler. Adding flavor, texture, & bulk with relatively few calories.
Most varieties are around 20 calories per cup. Some do have clinically proven medicinal value when eaten.
So… nothing that helps with energy, cancer, stamina, ect…
Uhhh, my post specifically mentions cancer.
Ooops. I definitely skipped your post by mistake.
:smack:
Here’s another one that sort of freaked me out a little when I first read about it.
You can place mushrooms, even after they’re harvested, in sunlight and they will transform the light into vitamin D.
Do-it-yourself Vitamin D supplement!
Speaking of cancer, mushrooms in the genus Agaricus contain agaratine, which has been shown to be a carcinogen in some animal studies. Cooking seems to alter this effect.
Agaratine is thought to have anti viral properties as well. So that might balance out the weak carcinogenic properties.
Sidebar: Before anyone goes out to find some mushrooms in nature, say, your backyard, or the woods just outside of town, please take extreme care - many kinds of mushrooms are poisonous and can kill you - you only get to make a mistake once. If you choose to gather, bring along a well-experienced shroom-hunter who can tell the difference between “good to eat” and “will kill you.”
For us urban-dwellers, there is a great variety of farmed mushrooms that are sold in stores and are perfectly safe.
Not recalling which one right now, but one of those PBS filler shows where they’re hawking some health diet mentions mushrooms, along with onions and garlic, as a super food. IOW, nutrients that promote wellness. I’l see if I can find out which one that is. Which leads to the question… are any of the those PBS healthy diet shows any good?
I eat a ton of locally collected 'shrooms, always with positive ID, spore print, whatever is necessary. Found a huuuuge patch of chanterelles a few years ago, and collected them last year and this year as well. Consistently skunked on morels, but plenty of chicken shrooms, turkey tail, Dryad’s saddle, etc. I’ve grown various Oysters on straw in laundry baskets as well. Have had a few successful flushes of Psilocybes.
Anyway, if they were a health food I’d be in way better shape than I am today.
Hey kayaker, what you call Dryad’s saddle is what I call a pheasant back. I have two trees that produce them consistently but haven’t eaten them. How are they from a gustatory standpoint? Any favorite preparations?
Delicious if harvested early. We have used it in a sauce over pasta or just in general stir-fry.
Cool, thanks!
Venison stew was the other thing we’ve used Dryad’s in. It was fantastic.
mis-TA-ke. Lethal variant of the shi-TA-ke.
Yay! Mushrooms! And fizz powder!