Are Mushrooms Safe To Eat?

Saturday, August 29, 2015, 13:23 [IST]

Mushrooms are delicious when cooked with the best recipe. But, are some mushrooms toxic for you? The answer is yes. Some mushrooms are edible while some others come with toxic effects.

Usually, mushrooms are widely used for cooking and are considered as the ‘meat’ of vegetable world.

Intake of edible mushrooms has many benefits for your health. But before adding mushroom in your diet, try to understand the difference between edible mushrooms and toxic mushrooms. Misidentification of mushrooms can cause serious health effects or even death.

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There are some tips to select safe mushrooms. The foremost thing to do is to avoid mushrooms with white gills, avoid mushrooms with red cap and never consume mushrooms unless you are sure that it is 100% safe.

Is mushroom toxic? No, not all mushrooms are toxic. Some mushrooms are poisonous and may even cause death like fly agaric with bright red cap, angel wing, deadly dapperling that is small in size but very dangerous and the deadly web cap that looksedible but is a killer.

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Mushrooms such as chanterelles, morels, lion’s mane mushroom, maitake mushroom and oyster mushroom are edible and very tasty to eat. Now, you might have got the answer for the questions are some mushrooms toxic for you? Let’s talk about the causes of the poisonous effects:

Gastrointestinal Irritants:

One of the most common causes of mushroom poisoning is the presence of gastrointestinal irritants. The symptoms are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It can be seen within 20 minutes to 4 hours after consumption of mushrooms. This can be severe and in such cases, hospitalization is essential.

Muscarine:

Mushrooms are mysterious items and peoplehave doubts such as are some mushrooms toxic for you. Muscarine is a toxin and it may cause damage to the involuntary nervous system. Usually symptoms are excess production of saliva and sweat, decrease in blood pressure and even difficulty in breathing.

Amatoxins:

Amatoxins are dangerous toxins found in mushrooms. It may cause severe problems. Within 24 hours, the toxins may be absorbed into the blood.

Gyromitrin:

As gyromitrin is a toxin seen in almost all fungal genes, some mushrooms may have this content. If you consume mushrooms with this toxin, you may suffer from symptoms like headache and abdominal problems.

Orellanine:

This orellanine is a toxin found in some of the mushrooms. It is one of the serious toxins with symptoms seen only after 36 hours to 3 weeks. This may lead to severe health issues, especially failure in kidney function.

Psilocybin:

Psilocybin is a natural element that is produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms. Identifying edible and poisonous mushrooms are very important because of this. The symptoms can be seen within an hour of consumption and may last till 4 hours.

Coprine:

This is one of the mycotoxins seen in some mushrooms. The symptoms start only when combined with alcohol. Usually symptoms are vomiting, nausea and facial reddening. It can be seen within five or ten minutes of intake.

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