Mushrooms

[4getmenot]

Could eating a whole pack make me ill?

[Psychick]

mmmmmm....garlic mushrooms....ok now Im hungry lol

[LoftyLottie]

Eaten four eggs and a whole pack of mushrooms! You piggy!!

[4getmenot]

And some ham :-)

[LoftyLottie]

Anything else to add? Go on confess........ I'm not surprised you were ill!! ;o)

[chappie]

After eating that lot, there wouldn't be 'mushroom' for anything else!

[Octavius]

Its not a silly question funnygirl, and it is one of much debate. The simple answer is that mushrooms (assumed edible) cooked or raw can affect many people in many different ways.

Many hydrazine�s are known to be strong carcinogens and can be found in a lot of edible mushrooms. Cooking destroys some or all of the hydrazines, but the steam (ammonia like) given off during cooking has been known to make some cooks ill. Besides this fact, the structural material or cell walls in a mushroom is made of chitin, and humans don�t have the ability to digest this derivative of cellulose.

The body can do several things to this undigested chitin. It can expel it by vomiting or send it the other way with diarrhoea. Small amounts may pass through the gut with other food and go unnoticed, or it may stay in the gut where bacteria will work on it causing bloating, gas, and other discomfort. Cooking does not destroy chitin but may ease its effect - this is where some people may experience some very unpleasant symptoms.

Some chitin is good for you, and mushrooms have many nutritional benefits. Crabs, beetles, worms and mushrooms contain large amount of chitin. Often, insect coats contain thick, stiff layers of chitin.

It really just depends on your preference for eating fungus, raw or cooked and your body�s reaction to that consumption.

Oodles of garlic is the only known remedy. Or at a push, 3 raw onions.

[LoftyLottie]

Yippee, Octavius, I only like mushrooms if they are done with loads of garlic. I think I would eat anything with loads of garlic though. (Perhaps not beetles or worms!)

[Octavius]

Snails! When they are cooked and smothered in garlic, they are actually a lot like mushrooms, only chewier and a bit squidgier.

[LoftyLottie]

Yes, I have eaten snails in garlic and enjoyed them. I could only taste the garlic! I am now off to make a salad with loads of garlic dressing (perhaps I should go out and collect a few worms).

Why does just the word 'garlic' make my mouth water so much?

[sleepyj]

oh forget you been down the woods again picking magic mushrooms lol ...hope your feeling better ..

[4getmenot]

Yer am 100% today, thanks sleepy x

[cazzz1975]

blimey oct, you have really put me off mushrooms

[Octavius]

Oh don�t be like that Cazz, I like mushrooms, in fact some of my best friends are stinkhorns. Don�t let a few fungi-cultural differences get in the way of an otherwise wonderfully gastronomic relationship.

[leelapops]

Octavius, you are a mine of information :)

chappie, I crack that one every time I buy mushrooms, and when you typed it it really made me laugh!
4get, glad to hear you are feeling better xx

[chappie]

The old ones are the best, leela!

[Octavius]

Some say �mine of information�, others say �bottomless pit of sh1t�.

I don�t mind really, whichever way you take the information, I am just glad to flush it out of my system.

[ilsonchick]

maybe youve got sunstroke from the heat of the weekend thats what made you sick and eating has made you even more off ...ive had a migraine for 3 days and was sick and i kept blaming a kebab i ate but it was a bug which is badly going round at the moe - dizzyness and puking xx MUSHROOMS RULE!!!

[4getmenot]

but would sunstroke give me a sharp pain in tummy?