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Toxins in Raw Mushrooms?

Agaratine, a natural toxin found in mushrooms, is destroyed by cooking.

February 3, 2011 |
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Toxins in Raw Mushrooms?, 5.0 out of 5 based on 4 ratings

Sources Cited

Schulzová V, Hajslová J, Peroutka R, Gry J, Andersson HC. Influence of storage and household processing on the agaritine content of the cultivated Agaricus mushroom. Food Addit Contam. 2002 Sep;19(9):853-62.

Acknowledgements

Image thanks to tombothetominator.

Transcript

Harmful, harmless, or helpful? Raw mushrooms. I got an email from someone last year saying that Dr. Joel Fuhrman told his patients to stop eating raw mushrooms out of fear of a natural toxin in mushrooms called agaritine, which is essentially destroyed by cooking.
Now I get crazy emails all the time about doctors spouting all sorts of nonsense, but I have tremendous respect for Dr. Fuhrman, so I took it seriously enough to research the topic and what do you think I found?
Raw mushrooms: Harmful, harmless, or helpful?
Has Furhman just drank one too many of his blended salads, or is he really onto something? He’s right. Mushrooms have all sorts of amazing health benefits, but eat them cooked.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out theother “HHH” videos (Harmful, Harmless, or Helpful?) as well as these videos on mushrooms. Also, there are over a thousand subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!

For more context, check out my associated blog posts:  The Most Anti-Inflammatory Mushroom, Ergothioneine: A New Vitamin?, and Mushrooms for Breast Cancer Prevention

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other “HHH” videos (Harmful, Harmless, or Helpful?) as well as these videos on mushrooms. Also, there are over a thousand subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

    What happens when eating raw mushrooms?

  • stacy

    If agaritine is so toxic and cooking mushrooms does not remove all of it, wouldn’t it be healthiest to not eat mushrooms at all?  
    It seems the exposure to agaritine is more dangerous than any health promoting effects of mushrooms, right?

    • Toxins

      Although yes agaratine is toxic and yes agaratine is not completely eliminated, mushrooms are still higihly nutritious and the minute amounts we are exposed to when eating cooked mushrooms is not of a concern.

      • DvoraChesed

        On the other hand many foods are also highly nutritious, and they have no agaritine at all.

        • Toxins

          Mushrooms are special, in that they are more beneficial in certain ways then other plant foods.
          http://nutritionfacts.org/index.php?s=mushrooms

          • DvoraChesed

            Vitamin C counteracts the carcinogen acrylamide produced by roasting coffee beans. I wonder if Vit C or another antioxidant would counteract agaritine?

          • Toxins

            I have not seen this evidence, please share.

          • DvoraChesed

            Please Google acrylamide+Vitamin C.

          • Toxins

            Articles, blog posts, and news stories are not evidence, as this is what you will find when google searching. I need you to link an actual study so we can examine whether this claim you made is true or false.

          • DvoraChesed

            Google past page one.
            Several of the hits do reference actual studies.

            P.S. the “approval” came from me by accident :)

  • thissal

    http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/EatingRawMushrooms.html

    The kicker with Agaricus species, including the buttons, is
    that one of their primary hydrazine components, along with
    gyromitrin, is “agaritine,” a substance somewhat resistant
    to cooking heat, with a significant percentage (25–75%) of
    agaratine material typically remaining after being subjected to
    various methods of cooking. So, the question as far as avoiding
    hydrazines in Agaricus is concerned, actually becomes whether
    to eat members of this genus at all.

    We need to keep in mind that lab tests and subsequent
    conclusions drawn concerning carcinogenic or mutagenic
    health hazards of hydrazine involve massive doses of isolated
    extracts administered to mice in a concentrated time frame.
    Similarly disturbing test results are likely to be found with many
    substances present in many, many foods humans commonly
    eat without suffering or even worrying about any particular
    health concern. The relatively unblemished human history of
    consuming edible Agaricus species suggests we may continue to
    do so.

  • pamela

    are the white muahrooma harmful raw? ive been eating them for 35 years!

  • http://www.facebook.com/darryl.roy.752 Darryl Roy

    Worth noting that the initial toxicological studies fingering agaritine in mice (but not rats) used rather extreme protocols.

    “Feeding studies using mushrooms and mushroom extracts have in general provided no evidence of toxicological effects of agaritine or mushroom consumption, in contrast to results of studies which have administered non-physiologically relevant concentrations of chemically synthesized hydrazine derivatives to mice. The available evidence to date suggests that agaritine from consumption of cultivated A. bisporus mushrooms poses no known toxicological risk to healthy humans.”

    Roupas, Peter, et al. “Mushrooms and agaritine: A mini-review.” Journal of Functional Foods 2.2 (2010): 91-98. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464610000241

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