Mushrooms are a healthy addition to your daily diet. One type of mushroom, the shiitake, is among the most popular medicinal mushrooms that is added to cuisine, extracted or taken as supplementary medicine. Shiitake, whether fresh, cooked or extracted can simply be integrated into your diet, which also guarantees significant health benefits for your body. This umbrella-shaped fungus is a mushroom native to Asian countries like China and Japan. For over 6,000 years, this symbol for longevity has been a significant part of ancient herbal medicine because of its many curative properties, including immune system support and cholesterol lowering features. Shiitake has lentinan, a type of compound that inhibits tumor growth, preventing cancer activity. A component similar to lentinan is the 1,3-beta glucan which reduces tumor activity and lessens the side effects of chemotherapy. Laboratory research indicates that lentinan boosts the immune system through stimulating activity in immune cells like natural killer cells and T-cells. Other than cancer, AIDS is another type of illness that shiitake can help cure. Another compound present in shiitake is eritadenine which lowers the body’s cholesterol level through preventing it from being absorbed into the bloodstream. Eritadenine also hastens the process of flushing away toxins from the body. This process is greatly beneficial to improving liver function. As the liver regularly performs over 500 functions, it needs the necessary support that it will keep it from deteriorating. Shiitake mushroom lessens the amount of fat that clogs the arteries through lowering the body’s cholesterol levels. This prevents the occurrence of hypertension, and consequently, different types of heart disease are prevented which includes stroke and heart attack. Other than reducing body cholesterol, shiitake mushroom as an addition to your diet is high in fiber so it promotes proper dietary functions. Second to the common button mushroom, shiitake is one of the most popular mushrooms in the world. A dried shiitake mushroom is more flavorful than a fresh one, and complex proteins are broken down into simple amino acids, yielding a tasteful Umami essence. Umami is a savory taste derived from the Japanese, and scientists refer to this as the “fifth taste”—the first four being salty, sweet, bitter and sour. Shiitake can easily be included in your diet. A fresh or dried shiitake mushroom is widely available in grocery stores, and extracts are sold in capsules or tablets. You can get more relevant information about the health benefits of mushrooms in these websites: whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=122 and cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/DietandNutrition/shiitake-mushroom0 .
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