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FOOD OF THE WEEK
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A food delicacy with huge medical ramifications!
 
With spring Detoxing information I've given you over the last two weeks I feel this food is ever so important to helping in that area of getting healthy with food! Because of the great qualities a book could be written about these delicacies, but I will try to hone it down a bit yet hope you get the full message!
 
Studies have been released over the last years giving us the cancer preventing information on mushrooms, along with Detoxing the body, eating preventative foods should be up there with Detoxing...

Shortly mushrooms will be growing wild in many parts of our county. Because a few wild mushrooms are deadly and many more are mildly poisonous, mushroom hunting is not a hobby for the careless or uninformed. On the other hand, neither is it necessarily the death-defying feat that many people imagine. There are a number of good edible mushrooms that are easy to recognize and hard to confuse with anything dangerously poisonous. (Poisonous mushrooms are often referred to as "toadstools," but this is a folk name that has no precise meaning. In this article, they will be called simply poisonous mushrooms.)
 
Because there are a myriad of mushrooms I am going to focus on my favorite of the mushroom world even though I eat many kinds;

Reishi, rich, smoky flavor have also endeared them to American taste buds and these exotic hearty mushrooms can now be found in supermarket shelves across the U.S. throughout the year. If your local store does not carry fresh reishi mushrooms, investigate the Asian food stores in your area as they oftentimes carry these specialty mushrooms.
 
Like other mushrooms, these specialty mushrooms are as mysteriously unique as they are delicious. While often thought of as a vegetable and prepared like one, mushrooms are actually a fungus, a special type of living organism that has no roots, leaves, flowers or seeds.
 
Reishi is the Japanese name for the Ganoderma family of mushrooms. In Chinese, they are called "ling-zhi." Reishi is a large, dark, mushroom with a glossy exterior. In traditional Chinese medicine, Reishi is in the most highly rated herb category in terms of multiple benefits, used as a medicinal herb, absent of side effects.
 
There are 6 different types of Reishi differentiated only by color: red, purple, blue, yellow, black, white, recorded in Chinese pharmacopoeia are actually one species grown under different conditions.
 
History;
Reishi aka reischi is believed to have been known since at least the reign of "Fuxi", a legendary ruler of that time known also as the first of the Three August Ones.
 
Seng Nong, the Holy farmer, who was the second of the Three August Ones, is said to have discovered the curative virtues of plants by tasting hundreds of species. "Seng Nong's Herbal Classic" is considered to be the earliest manuscript on Chinese materia medica and is still today the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine and in general all Oriental Medicine.
 
Reishi also contains ergosterols, complete proteins, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Reishi, known in China as an "elixir of immortality," have been used for more than 3,000 years to rev up the immune system and heal chronic inflammatory conditions. Dozens of preliminary studies support its anti-inflammatory properties. One Chinese study found that of the more than 2,000 people with chronic bronchitis who took reishi syrup for two weeks, 60% to 90% said they felt better.  (Reishi syrup is a long drawn out process.)
 
6 species of Ling-zhi, differentiated by colors, are mentioned in the Seng Nong classic. Li Shi Zhen, a famous medical scholar in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) introduced the indications of the 6 species concretely. The work of the latter was republished in 1956, and translated into several foreign languages including Japanese, English, French, German, Russian and Latin and is regarded as the cornerstone of Traditional Chinese medicine.
 
Today, an estimated 4,300 tons of reishi/ling-zhi is produced yearly in the world, with China producing 3,000 tons followed by Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, USA, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
 
Reishi is the Prednisone of foods!
 
Prednisone, the corticosteroid used to treat a variety of inflammatory ailments -- arthritis, asthma, colitis and some cancers -- and to prevent rejection of transplanted organs. Its nasty side effects - from a swollen "moon face" to increased infections - are legendary. But what many people don't know is that this medicinal reishi mushroom could, in some cases, do as good a job without wreaking the prednisone havoc on the body. There are supplements containing several types of mushroom that is rebuilding immune systems and building illness prevention in thousands!

The best part - its side effects are as minimal as those you might have from taking a placebo. The side effects, if any, will be less than one-quarter of those you might have with prednisone -- and the cost is less than one-quarter that of a drug prescription.
 
Medicinal Preparation in early times consisted of a long process of boiling the mushrooms for hours or let them soak in alcohol for weeks so as to be able to drink them after the ingredients were dissolved.

While prednisone has its place for a few short-term life-threatening conditions. But if you have an ongoing inflammatory condition, reishi may be the best first line of treatment. Researchers at Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai Tumor Hospital, and Shanghai Chung San Hospital have independently isolated from the Reishi mushroom a few species of polysaccharides which have subsequently been shown in clinical studies to have anti-tumor activities.
 
Reishi has also been shown to exert:
*A positive effects in treatment of insomnia
*Preventive effects against high altitude sickness
*Cholesterol -lowering and detoxing effects
*Therapeutic effects in chronic hepatitis
 
Available in some grocery stores and health-food stores, in it's natural form or in powder form, as well as capsules and tablets. All observations show that Reishi has no side effects and can be consumed in high dosages and in parallel with other medications, without adverse effects. Its main properties are the cleansing of blood, enhancement of the immune system and the lessening of nervous tension. These properties are conducive to normalizing and balancing the body and as a result preempt cure a multitude of diseases from within.
 
Tips for Preparing Mushrooms:
 
Mushrooms are very porous, so if they are exposed to too much water they will quickly absorb it and become soggy. Therefore, the best way to clean mushrooms without sacrificing their texture and taste is to clean them using minimal, if any, water. To do this, simply wipe them with a slightly damp paper towel or kitchen cloth. You could also use a mushroom brush, available at most kitchenware stores.
 
If the fresh mushrooms become dried out because of being stored for too long, soak them in water for thirty minutes to reconstitute them or add them dry to dishes with lots of liquid.
 
Our most favorite way of eating mushrooms is sautéed alone or with stir fry vegetables and rice.
 
I simply clean, slice into bite size and sauté in butter flavored virgin olive oil.
 
For each two cups of sliced mushrooms use 1 Tablespoon of virgin olive oil and to 1 teaspoon of butter (I do not use margarine for anything because of its poisonous fat and chemicals). Heat olive oil then add butter, melt and mix well. Add mushrooms and sauté stirring until cooked (about 3 - 5 minutes). Add a dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos for added flavor just before removing from heat. Serve with other stir fried vegetables over rice or sautéed mushrooms by themselves over rice.

Or my husband's second favorite way of eating mushrooms.

Mushroom/veggie stroganoff

ingredients:

1 4oz can mushroom pieces or 1 Cup fresh sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon granulated garlic or 1 crushed garlic bulb.
3 cups White sauce (or 1 can cream of Mushroom soup)
1 cup faux sour cream
1/2 cup chopped sweet onions
4 MorningStar™ Garden Veggie Patties (thawed and set for an hour to semi dry then sliced into 1/2 inch strips)
1/2 pkg. whole wheat Fettuccini noodles cooked

Put first five ingredients into a 2 quart sauce pan, mix until creamy. Bring to a slow simmer and simmer until onions and mushrooms are cooked to your desired taste. When your desired texture of onions and mushrooms reached add sour cream mix until creamy then add garden patties carefully and mix carefully until all is coated in the sauce and simmer for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Serve over cooked noodles.
 
Enjoy our healthy detoxing and illness preventing shroom!
Lena

PS: Sadly food alone will not do the trick as it would in centuries past so we can't rely totally on our food intake, because of the lack of nutrients in our soils and the pollutants added in the form of air pollution, pesticides and fertilizers. Read the 1936 Report Click Here!

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 HEALTH TODAY
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