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cremini, oyster and shiitake

Eat mushrooms
Lots, and everyday if you can!

Mushrooms fight cancer
Mushrooms have chemicals that are anti tumor, anti cancer, and they activate your immune system. They also contain antioxidants, as well as chemicals that lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. They have significant levels of  of selenium, b vitamins, and are low calorie,  (until you add a ton of butter!)

• Current studies have proved what wise people have know for centuries…  mushrooms have medicinal properties.
• – Beta Glucan, a key chemical in mushrooms,  activates your body’s immune response. Known as biological response modifiers Beta Glucans get your white blood cells working to consume tumor cells, pathogens and dead cell material. Basically they tell your immune system to get working and clean up your body. It’s also found in oats.
• - Macrobiotics (practitioners of a radical Japanese health diet that claims to fight cancer) advise eating shiitake  mushrooms.  They prefer to eat mushrooms cooked and preferably sun dried.
• - Andrew Wiel, a doctor turned health food expert strongly believes in mushrooms and eats them everyday.
• A mushroom (kawaratake) extract  is  used in Japan, intravenously, combined with chemo for  cancer treatment.
• - You can  take AHCC capsules (active hexose correlated componds) that contain a Shiitake a mushroom extract. These are very expensive. About 100$ a bottle.  AHCC is a very popular anti cancer nutrient.  It is also supposed to help counteract the effects of chemo.  I consumed one bottle of these, about a year after my cancer treatments.  Now I just eat mushrooms as much as possible.  If I was rich, I would take one of these a day. Forever.

Just eat them
Each edible mushroom type contains a unique combination of chemicals. I personally eat all (edible) mushrooms, because I like mushrooms, and I believe that the many health benefits are yet undiscovered.  They all taste good, and are easy to incorporate into everyday cooking.

Here are some common mushrooms.  They even have these at my local small town grocery store:

• Portabello – lowers hormones, may help prevent breast cancer.  These are pretty easy to find in stores, and they come in small (babyportabello or cremini) and large (4″).
• White mushroom (button mushroom) – inhibit growth of certain cancers.
• Enokitake – anti tumor, and longer surival rate.  These are beautiful delicate mushrooms that you can put raw in salads, or add to soups at the last minute.
• King oyster mushrooms - stimulate the immune system.
• Shiitake – Rich in beta glucan.  Stimulates the immune system. A traditional Japanese mushroom, that can be used in most recipes where you would use regular button mushrooms (except you don’t eat the stems because they are too tough). The flavor is a bit different. You can also buy these mushrooms dried. Contains Lentinan, a drug used in some countries to fight cancer because it has anti-tumor properties.  AHCC is made from shiitake mushrooms.
• Oyster mushroom – prevent breast and colon cancer, lowers cholesterol.
• Maitake – (Hen of the woods) inhibits the growth of breast, liver and lung cancer. Shown to stimulate the immune system of breast cancer patients.

I use all these, and I use them interchangeably.  I put them in most foods, and I make a mean mushroom soup.  OK, just start buying them.  How can you go wrong?

Peace