Microwaving might be essentially the most environment friendly solution to cut back agaritine ranges in contemporary mushrooms.
There is a toxin in plain white button mushrooms known as agaritine, which can be carcinogenic. Plain white button mushrooms develop to be cremini (brown) mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms develop to be portobello mushrooms. They’re all the exact same mushroom, just like how inexperienced bell peppers are simply unripe pink bell peppers. The quantity of agaritine in these mushrooms could be diminished by way of cooking: Frying, microwaving, boiling, and even simply freezing and thawing decrease the degrees. “It’s due to this fact beneficial to course of/cook dinner Button Mushroom earlier than consumption,” one thing I famous in a video that’s now greater than a decade outdated.
Nonetheless, as proven under and at 0:51 in my video Is It Secure to Eat Uncooked Mushrooms?, if you happen to look on the numerous cooking strategies, the agaritine in these mushrooms isn’t fully destroyed. Take dry baking, for instance: Baking for ten minutes at about 400° Fahrenheit (“a course of just like pizza baking”) solely cuts the agaritine ranges by a few quarter, so 77 % nonetheless stays.
Boiling seems higher, showing to wipe out greater than half the toxin after simply 5 minutes, however the agaritine isn’t really eradicated. As an alternative, it’s simply transferred to the cooking water. So, ranges inside the mushrooms drop by about half at 5 minutes and by 90 % after an hour, however that’s principally as a result of the agartine is leaching into the broth. So, if you happen to’re making soup, for example, 5 minutes of boiling isn’t any more practical than dry baking for ten minutes, and, even after an hour, about half nonetheless stays.
Frying for 5 to 10 minutes eliminates a variety of agartine, however microwaving will not be solely a extra healthful solution to cook dinner, nevertheless it works even higher, as you’ll be able to see right here and at 1:39 in my video. Researchers discovered that only one minute within the microwave “diminished the agaritine content material of the mushrooms by 65%,” and solely 30 seconds of microwaving eradicated greater than 50 %. So, microwaving might be the simplest solution to cut back agaritine ranges in contemporary mushrooms. 
My approach is so as to add dried mushrooms into the pasta water once I’m making spaghetti. Between the reductions of 20 % or so from the drying and 60 % or so from boiling for ten minutes and straining, greater than 90 % of agaritine is eradicated.
Ought to we be involved in regards to the residual agaritine? In keeping with a evaluate funded by the mushroom trade, in no way. “The out there proof so far means that agaritine from consumption of…mushrooms poses no identified toxicological threat to wholesome people.” The researchers acknowledge agartine is taken into account a possible carcinogen in mice, however then that information must be extrapolated to human well being outcomes.
The Swiss Institute of Know-how, for instance, estimated that the typical mushroom consumption within the nation can be anticipated to trigger about two circumstances of most cancers per 100 thousand folks. That is just like consumption in the USA, as seen under and at 3:00 in my video, so “one might theoretically anticipate about 20 most cancers deaths per 1 x 106 [one million] lives from mushroom consumption.” As compared, sometimes, with a brand new chemical, pesticide, or meals additive, we’d prefer to see the most cancers threat decrease than one in 1,000,000. “By this strategy, the typical mushroom consumption of Switzerland is 20-fold too excessive to be acceptable. To stay beneath the restrict”—and hold threat down to at least one in 1,000,000—“‘mushroom lovers’ must prohibit their consumption of mushrooms to at least one 50-g serving each 250 days!” That’s a few half-cup serving as soon as in simply over eight months. To place that into perspective, even if you happen to have been consuming a single serving each single day, the ensuing extra most cancers threat would solely be about one in ten thousand. “Put one other approach, if 10,000 folks consumed a mushroom meal day by day for 70 years, then along with the 3000 most cancers circumstances arising from different elements, another case might be attributed to consuming mushrooms.” 
However, once more, that is all primarily based “on the presumption that leads to such mouse fashions are equally legitimate in people.” Certainly, that is all simply extrapolating from mice information. What we want is a big potential examine to look at the affiliation between mushroom consumption and most cancers threat in people, however there weren’t any such research—till now.
Researchers titled their paper: “Mushroom Consumption and Danger of Whole and Website-Particular Most cancers in Two Massive U.S. [Harvard] Potential Cohorts” and located “no affiliation between mushroom consumption and complete and site-specific cancers in U.S. ladies and men.”
Consuming uncooked or undercooked shiitake mushrooms can trigger one thing else, although: shiitake mushroom flagellate dermatitis. Flagellate as in flagellation, whipping, flogging. Under and at 4:48 in my video, you’ll be able to see a rash that makes it look as if you happen to’ve been whipped.
Right here and at 4:58 in my video is one other picture of the rash. It’s considered brought about by a compound in shiitake mushrooms known as lentinan, however as a result of warmth denatures it, it solely appears to be an issue with uncooked or undercooked mushrooms.
Now, it is uncommon. Solely about 1 in 50 persons are even prone, and it goes away by itself in per week or two. Curiously, it might probably strike as many as ten days after consuming shiitake mushrooms, which is why folks could not make the connection. One unlucky man suffered on and off for 16 years earlier than a prognosis. Hopefully, a variety of medical doctors will watch this video, and in the event that they ever see a rash like this, they’ll inform their sufferers to cook dinner their shiitakes.
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