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What's
Up with the Fungi?
by Jill
Nussinow
Press Democrat: Healthtime
Page 1 2 3 4
Don Lareau, of Occidental Mushrooms, agrees with Law about
getting mushroom products often but thinks that eating them
is preferable to pills except for the unpalatable mushrooms.
For example, he suggests taking Reishi (ray-shi) or Turkey
Tail as tea or tincture. Lareau therefore is in the first
stages of making mushroom tinctures. Until those are ready,
you'll find Lareau at the Sebastopol Farmers' Market on Sundays
selling Maitake (my-tah-k), Lion's Mane and Elm Oyster mushrooms,
fresh and ready to cook. He also sells mushroom logs so that
you can try your hand at growing your own.
Lareau got his start in the mushroom business when his mother
was diagnosed with cancer and he wanted to find a way to
help her. Once he investigated, he found that mushrooms could
indeed be used therapeutically, although he suggests that
their role is much better as prevention. Lareau learned what
he could and decided that he wanted to be a local, organic
mushroom farmer.
In his four years in business, trial and error has shown
him the way to produce mushrooms. He also learns what he
can from others. The interest in mushrooms has spawned so
much enthusiasm that in 2001 the First International
Conference on Medicinal Mushrooms was hosted in the
Ukraine. Lareau and approximately 350 others, including mushroom
growers, scientists, marketers and business people, from
38 countries listened to lectures and discussed the subject
for three days. Lareau came away realizing that all over
the world mushrooms are being studied for their role in health
maintenance, disease prevention and as possible cures. Various
mushrooms are known to be antiviral, antibacterial, and antioxidant
and free radical scavengers.
It turns out that mushrooms, which are the fruiting bodies
of fungi, are unique in that they are not animal, vegetable
or mineral. They contain some compounds such as chitin (pronounced
kitin), beta glucans, which is a complex sugar molecule (also
found abundantly in oats and is responsible for their cholesterol
lowering effect), and glycoproteins that are not readily
available in other food products. These substances may account
for some of the health-producing properties of mushrooms.
They also account for the mushroom's positive nutrition profile:
low in calories, sufficient fiber, plenty of B vitamins and
filling.
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