Shiitakes are my new superfood! I think our bodies instinctively crave some things it needs to heal. By listening to our body we can make great strides towards our own good health! About a year and a half ago I was introduced to these little beauties by going on a yeast cleanse. I wasn’t allowed to have regular mushrooms but I could have Shiitakes as they don’t cause Candida overgrowth and are considered medicinal mushrooms. After one taste I was hooked! They are a bit more chewy then regular white mushrooms but I like that. It makes the meal taste more “meaty” to me.
One of the things I’ve struggled with health wise is autoimmune issues. Vitamin D is considered essential in preventing autoimmune disease and cancer. It has been a real struggle to get that level of mine to inch up even the slightest bit. Vitamin D is mainly obtained by the sunlight but come to find out Shiitake mushrooms are loaded with it! Maybe this was the reason I developed a strange craving for them! I believe the ultimate way to heal and raise deficiencies in the body are by providing it with healthy food fuel over supplements. Just simply because that’s the way our bodies were originally designed to work. We were designed to be close to the earth and reap the benefits of all it has to offer in the form of plants and mushrooms.
Did you know that you can place mushrooms in the sun with the gills turned up in the air for about two days during the sunniest part of the day and the Vitamin D content will skyrocket? While doing an experiment to test this theory it was discovered that when beginning the study of some shiitake mushrooms they had 100IU/100 grams and after exposure to two days of sunlight they retested them and they had nearly 46,000 IU/100grams. You can even continue to dry them and that Vitamin D will remain active for over a year? Wow! Talk about a superfood!
Medicinal mushrooms are also great antivirals. Because low levels of Vitamin D are attributed to colds and flu , keeping that level up will give your body a fighting chance during the coming winter months and flu season.
Add them to anything you would normally put mushrooms and even some things you may not ordinarily consider putting them in like adding a few to your soups! To prepare them you will want to remove the stems as they don’t soften up when cooking. But don’t throw those stems away! Add them to a freezer bag along with your other odd and end veggie clippings to make a lovely vegetable broth in the crock pot. It’s easy as can be and oh so good!
So this Thanksgiving drop these gems in your foods and do your family’s health a favor, and maybe everyone won’t have the flu in January if we can take care of ourselves better during the holiday’s while still eating some delicious food!
Here are some links to some healthy green bean casserole recipes with lots of mushrooms!
Dr. Axe’s Green Bean Casserole
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