I recently learned that mushrooms have a substance which might be considered a new vitamin. Its in a few other things, but mushrooms seem to be the best source. I love mushrooms, but most seem to require some cooking. Are there kinds that don't require cooking? What about boiling? The substance is supposed to be heat stable, but the heat is supposed to destroy a toxin in some mushrooms.

[nutritionfacts.org]

Another source says that spirulina has ergothioneine in high concentrations. Iceland moss is an edible lichen, and I am supposing that it also has ergothioneine. I dont know if it can be eaten raw.

What do you think?

Hi Mislu, I stopped eating mushrooms in my early days of raw because I read where they cause cancer. Then, I met a woman whose breast cancer was cured due to mushrooms. I still stayed away from it since it didn't have a seed and was a fungus.

I have re-incorporated cooked mushrooms in my diet due to Dr. Joel Fuhrman's studies. He advocates eating cooked mushrooms to regulate estrogen and prevent cancer. It is supposed to be high in Vitamin D, too, if I recall correctly. Raw mushrooms will cause cancer. Dr. Fuhrman does not advocate eating raw mushrooms.

Since eating cooked (parboiled/simmered) mushrooms, I have noticed that the bump under my tongue has gotten smaller. I suspected that the growth would've gotten deadly prior to my going raw as it was getting scaly. Now, it's a small bump and it seems to be getting smaller. I cannot say whether the bump would've gotten smaller on it's own (on raw vegan) without the mushrooms but the boiled mushrooms seem to have helped.

I don't do well with spirulina for some reason so I stay away from it. Sorry that I cannot speak on that topic. Therese

All the mushrooms for sale in the shops i eat raw.

I love raw mushies, and I remember as a child the whole family with baskets in hand walking out into the cattle paddocks after a few days of a good storm including a couple of days of sunny weather. The paddocks would be full of huge mushies, and we'd fill our baskets to the brim. At home we'd have to soak them, as there was always some form of bug that liked mushies as much as we did. Those days everything was cooked, but cooked mushies smothered with home made butter was delish.

Living on a farm had it's benefits, as we always had our own vegie garden and make most of our own food. Everything was organic, cause for some reason there weren't many bugs that would attack the vegies much, so we never used sprays. In those days, pesticides weren't used much or even advertised. I think there was more of a natural form of balance. Even with the mushies, sure, the bugs eat some, but there were plenty left over for us and any other animals who took a liking to mushrooms too.

Now though, I eat them raw, and if you go for a walk in the forest, there are many forms of fungi that are edible, and very few that are poisonous. Some aren't very tasty, actually quite yuky, but it pays to check first to see if they are poisonous or not. You might even come across some that could have mind altering properties haha!

Cheers, jalan