Microwaving might be essentially the most environment friendly approach to cut back agaritine ranges in recent mushrooms.
There is a toxin in plain white button mushrooms referred to 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, much like how inexperienced bell peppers are simply unripe crimson bell peppers. The quantity of agaritine in these mushrooms could be lowered by way of cooking: Frying, microwaving, boiling, and even simply freezing and thawing decrease the degrees. “It’s due to this fact advisable 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dinner Button Mushroom earlier than consumption,” one thing I famous in a video that’s now greater than a decade outdated.
Nevertheless, as proven under and at 0:51 in my video Is It Secure to Eat Uncooked Mushrooms?, should you 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 much like pizza baking”) solely cuts the agaritine ranges by a couple of quarter, so 77 p.c nonetheless stays.
Boiling appears higher, showing to wipe out greater than half the toxin after simply 5 minutes, however the agaritine isn’t truly eradicated. As a substitute, it’s simply transferred to the cooking water. So, ranges inside the mushrooms drop by about half at 5 minutes and by 90 p.c after an hour, however that’s largely as a result of the agartine is leaching into the broth. So, should you’re making soup, for example, 5 minutes of boiling isn’t any simpler than dry baking for ten minutes, and, even after an hour, about half nonetheless stays.
Frying for 5 to 10 minutes eliminates lots of agartine, however microwaving shouldn’t be solely a extra healthful approach to cook dinner, however it works even higher, as you possibly can see right here and at 1:39 in my video. Researchers discovered that only one minute within the microwave “lowered the agaritine content material of the mushrooms by 65%,” and solely 30 seconds of microwaving eradicated greater than 50 p.c. So, microwaving might be the best approach to cut back agaritine ranges in recent mushrooms. 
My approach is so as to add dried mushrooms into the pasta water after I’m making spaghetti. Between the reductions of 20 p.c or so from the drying and 60 p.c or so from boiling for ten minutes and straining, greater than 90 p.c of agaritine is eradicated.
Ought to we be involved in regards to the residual agaritine? In accordance with a overview funded by the mushroom business, in no way. “The accessible proof thus far means that agaritine from consumption of…mushrooms poses no identified toxicological danger 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 could be anticipated to trigger about two instances of most cancers per 100 thousand folks. That is much like consumption in the US, as seen under and at 3:00 in my video, so “one may theoretically count on 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 wish to see the most cancers danger decrease than one in 1,000,000. “By this method, the typical mushroom consumption of Switzerland is 20-fold too excessive to be acceptable. To stay underneath the restrict”—and maintain danger 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 couple of half-cup serving as soon as in simply over eight months. To place that into perspective, even should you have been consuming a single serving each single day, the ensuing further most cancers danger would solely be about one in ten thousand. “Put one other method, if 10,000 folks consumed a mushroom meal every day for 70 years, then along with the 3000 most cancers instances arising from different components, another case could possibly be attributed to consuming mushrooms.” 
However, once more, that is all based mostly “on the presumption that ends in such mouse fashions are equally legitimate in people.” Certainly, that is all simply extrapolating from mice information. What we’d like is a large potential research to look at the affiliation between mushroom consumption and most cancers danger in people, however there weren’t any such research—till now.
Researchers titled their paper: “Mushroom Consumption and Danger of Complete and Web site-Particular Most cancers in Two Massive U.S. [Harvard] Potential Cohorts” and located “no affiliation between mushroom consumption and whole and site-specific cancers in U.S. men and women.”
Consuming uncooked or undercooked shiitake mushrooms can trigger one thing else, although: shiitake mushroom flagellate dermatitis. Flagellate as in flagellation, whipping, flogging. Beneath and at 4:48 in my video, you possibly can see a rash that makes it look as should you’ve been whipped.
Right here and at 4:58 in my video is one other photograph of the rash. It’s regarded as prompted by a compound in shiitake mushrooms referred to 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 could possibly 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 analysis. Hopefully, lots 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.
