The Wacky Shiitake

My lovely husband Lindy has always prided himself on being part-Hobbit. It's not his character or his hairy feet; it's the mushrooms. Imagine my joy when I found out how beneficial Asian mushrooms are! All mushrooms build immunity to some degree, but Asian mushrooms seem to be a genuine superfood. Here's the kind of sentence that grabs my attention, from the Beliveau book Foods To Fight Cancer:

Lentinen, a compound found in shiitake, is a polysaccharide whose anti-tumor activity is well-documented. In patients with stomach or colon cancer, adding lentinan to chemotherapy causes a significant regression in tumors and prolongs survival when compared with chemoherapy alone, suggesting that this pollysaccharide has anticancer activity."

The beautiful Maitake

It goes on from there, adding benefit upon benefit. I get organic shiitake (about $17/pound) from our local co-op. Imagine my joy when I walked into my co-op and saw this baby, $20/pound. (right).

I cooked that puppy up with some garlic, soy sauce and a little sesame oil. The next time I got maitake, I cooked it with purple cabbage. Unfortunately, Lindy was in one of those chemo stages when food unexpectedly repels him. Poor Hobbit. He ate everything on his plate but the maitake and cabbage that day.

I have also made an incredibly creamy pasta dish with shiitake.  I've made this many times, as it has the combined benefit of having lots of mushrooms and heavy cream. (Calories-R-Us around here). We all eat it with great gusto.

Servan-Schreiber in Anti-Cancer says,

In Japan, the shiitake, maitake, kawaratake and enokitake mushrooms are staple foods. They are now also found in hospitals where they are provided to patients during chemotherapy treatment.

Here is the mushroom supplement that Lindy currently takes. Our naturopath recommended another, more powerful mushroom supplement. She said this one is perfectly good, but the more powerful (and powerfully expensive) mushroom supplement that she recommends is much more effective. I think it's time to get that one, don't you?

Beliveau says, by the way, that ALL mushrooms have immune support benefits and I cook with cremini, white and porcini all the time.

I cook with shiitake at least once a week, but have held off on the maitake in case Lindy's aversion continues.

Here's what the Sloan-Kettering database that I posted about yesterday has to say about the shiitake and the maitake.

Lisa