Mushrooms are a tasty and nutritious product, saturated with vegetable protein and many useful elements. The most popular among fans of "forest meat" are honey mushrooms. In any cookbook you can find many recipes for cooking these mushrooms: they are used as an independent dish, added to soups, casseroles, salads and pie filling.
In addition to cooking, mushrooms have found application in folk medicine. Honey mushrooms benefit the human body by cleansing them of toxins and toxins, as well as destroying viruses and pathogenic bacteria.
Mushroom Description: honey agaric
Honey mushrooms are a type of edible mushroom that includes several subgroups. Despite the abundance of varieties, they have the following common features:
• cream or yellowish color;
• a hat with a diameter of up to 15 cm, covered with barely noticeable scales (in young mushrooms, it is in the shape of a ball, and as it grows, it looks like an umbrella);
• a thin leg with a length of 5 to 10 cm and a diameter of 1.5-2.5 cm;
• cream "skirt" under the hat.
Honey mushrooms have gained popularity among mushroom pickers not only due to their taste, but also because they prefer to grow "families". If autumn is warm and rainy, stumps literally strewn with these mushrooms are found in the forest. In addition to dead wood, honey mushrooms can often be found under blackberry bushes. Collect them from the end of August until the start of frost. To grow actively, honey agarics need a temperature of 7 degrees.
The chemical composition and calorie content of honey agarics
Honey mushrooms contain several tens of useful substances, and are especially rich in the following components:
• ascorbic acid;
• vitamin P;
• niacin;
• potassium;
• phosphorus;
• magnesium;
• riboflavin;
• iron;
• thiamine;
• sodium;
• calcium.
100 g of this product contains up to 10% of the daily requirement of the body for the listed nutrients.
In this case, the calorie content of honey agarics is only 22 kcal, and the nutritional values are as follows:
• water - 90%;
• proteins - 2-2.5%;
• fats - 1.2-1.4%;
• wood ash - 1%;
• organic acids - 0.8-0.9%;
• carbohydrates - 0.5%.
The benefit of honey agarics is that they allow you to saturate the body with useful substances and vegetable protein, but at the same time they do not contribute to gaining extra pounds due to low calorie content.
Honey mushrooms: what are their benefits to the body?
In addition to replenishing the body with useful substances and microelements, one can note the following positive processes that occur as a result of consumption of honey mushrooms:
• increasing the body's resistance to diseases of an infectious, fungal and bacterial nature;
• vision improvement;
• strengthening of teeth and gums;
• prevention of tumor diseases;
• normalization of blood sugar;
• beneficial effect on liver cells;
• increased bone strength;
• restoration of hemoglobin balance in the body;
• normalization of hormonal processes;
• improving the condition of the skin.
Honey mushrooms have found application not only in traditional medicine, but also in traditional. In the second half of the XX century, the manufacture of medicines began to actively use flammulin, which is contained in these mushrooms. On its basis, drugs are produced that are aimed at neutralizing viruses and bacteria, as well as at destroying cancer cells.
Limitations and list of contraindications
Honey mushrooms can harm the human body if you use them in uncontrolled quantities or in the following cases:
• children's age up to 10 years;
• diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, especially in the acute stage;
• impaired renal and hepatic function;
• gouty manifestations;
• individual intolerance to "forest meat".
Opinions of experts regarding the use of honey mushrooms during pregnancy differ. Some impose a categorical ban on this product, while others argue that mushrooms can be consumed no more than 1 time in 5 days, in small quantities.
Many are interested in the question of how to determine the presence of an allergy to fungi and to distinguish these manifestations from the symptoms of poisoning. This is not particularly difficult, signs of intolerance are:
• unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth;
• headaches;
• cramping and bloating;
• flatulence and diarrhea.
Intoxication is accompanied by symptoms of classical poisoning, namely vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and in some cases hallucinations. If an allergy to fungi requires stopping their eating and symptomatic therapy, then poisoning requires urgent medical attention.
Honey mushrooms: potential harm
Honey mushrooms can harm even a healthy person if they were improperly prepared or assembled near roads, landfills or in areas with adverse environmental conditions. And when buying fresh mushrooms, you should be aware that they are able to absorb harmful substances like a sponge, and if the outlet is near the highway, it is possible that honey agarics were saturated with exhaust gases and lost all their useful properties.
What is the danger to the body of such "wrong" mushrooms or the abuse of "forest meat"? The negative consequences are as follows:
- Indigestion. Mushrooms are heavy foods, and when consumed in large quantities can cause nausea and digestive upsets.
- Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. When mushrooms are consumed in a pickled form, this can lead to gastritis and even ulcerative lesions of the stomach and intestines, since vinegar is used for canning.
- Poisoning. Mushrooms have the ability to mutate under the influence of adverse factors, turning from edible to dangerous. However, it is impossible to determine this by appearance.
- Botulism. As a result of improper canning, the consumption of such mushrooms carries the risk of infection with this rare and extremely dangerous disease.
In addition, it is easy to confuse edible mushrooms with "false" mushrooms, which have a number of similar external signs, but are poisonous.
How to choose and process honey mushrooms
When collecting honey mushrooms, it is better to go deep into the forest, and choose clearings near streams and ravines. You can distinguish edible mushroom from "false" by the following signs:
- The color of the mushroom. The edible mushroom has a cream or yellowish-beige hue, while the poisonous mushroom has a brighter, orange-brown color.
- The size of the legs. In safe mushrooms, it is small and thick, and false mushrooms "stand" on a thin and long base.
- The hat. The reverse side of the top of the edible mushroom is yellowish-white or cream, and the poisonous has a greenish tint.
- The presence of a skirt. The leg of a safe mushroom is necessarily entwined with a thin ring, but in an inedible one it is absent.
For those who purchase mushrooms in the store, it is important to pay attention to the absence of mold and mucus, otherwise this indicates that honey mushrooms have been collected for a long time and have already begun to deteriorate.
In addition, it is important to know how to properly process the mushrooms. Honey mushrooms need a long, at least 30 minutes, cooking and subsequent thorough rinsing under cool running water. After preliminary preparation, they can be fried, canned or used to prepare various dishes.
Honey mushrooms are tasty, healthy, but unsafe food that requires reasonable use. Compliance with these rules will allow you to receive from this dish only pleasure, without fear for your health.
