The benefits of shiitake mushrooms are still increasing

Shiitake mushrooms are originally cultivated mostly in Japan, but China is taking over and other Asian countries, Brasilia and the USA are cultivating Shiitakes more and more. A part from the abundant health benefit of this mushrooms, it also is a delicious healthy food.

Health Benefits of shiitake mushrooms

Shiitake is a "medicinal mushrooms" due to the long history of medical use, particularly in Asian medicine, but is increasingly eaten for the good taste and nutritional values.

Health benefits are:

Shiitakes support our immune system.

There are numerous research studies that show that these mushrooms appear to be able to enhance immune function in giving it a boost when needed, and cutting back on its activity when needed. This is not a major influence but just minor, but when we eat Shiitakes regularly, this could benefit our health.

Shiitake mushrooms are able to help macrophage cells, these cells help clearing potentially cancerous cells. Researchers refer to this result as an "anti-cancer immunity" that is enhanced by shiitake mushroom intake.

The most famous immune-supportive components in shiitake mushrooms are its polysaccharides. These essential sugars in Shiitake laboratory have been shown to lessen problems in animals under a wide variety of circumstances, including exercise stress, exposure to inflammation-producing toxins, radiation exposure, and immunodeficiency. There is also some evidence that shiitake mushrooms' polysaccharides can help lower total cholesterol levels.

Cardiovascular Benefits

Shiitake mushrooms have repeatedly been shown to help lower total blood cholesterol. Recent studies have shown that shiitake mushrooms can help protect us against cardiovascular diseases (including atherosclerosis) by decreasing the adhesion molecule production. The last cardiovascular benefits is the antioxidant key, it contains the antioxidant minerals: manganese, selenium, and zinc who help neutralize chronic oxidative stress in our cardiovascular system which is a critical factor in the development of clogged arteries and other blood vessel problems. They also contain some unusual phytonutrient antioxidants. One of the best studied is ergothioneine. Researchers believe that ergothioneine may be one of the key nutrients from shiitake mushrooms that provide us with cardiovascular support.

Anti-Cancer Benefits

Most of the research on shiitake mushrooms and cancer has been conducted on laboratory animals or on individual cells in a laboratory setting and has involved mushroom extracts rather than whole mushrooms in food form, this research show anti-cancer benefits, especially with respect to prevention of prostate cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer.

Other benefits

The special combination of antioxidants found in shiitake mushrooms together with their highly flexible support for immune system function are beneficial for many diseases as our immune system is involved in practically every illness.

As most research has been done on medicinal shiitakes, and not as food, we don't know yet what the combination of shiitakes with other food can bring us. 

There is also research that shows that combining different kinds of anti-cancerous foods multiplies the effect of the separate foods, so it could be very interesting to combine this super mushroom with other healthy food such as onions, garlic and/or miso. And this is not only increasing the health benefits but also very important for food, this improves the taste of this lovely food.

Imagine sautéed Shiitakes with onions and garlic, mixed with some cream, parsley and Parmesan cheese. Together with a mix of spaghetti and zucchini this makes a delicious meal. This idea is inspired by this recipe. 

Fresh Shiitake taste milder than the dried version. These have a stronger taste.