Hello, this is Monica Reinagel, the nutrition diva, here with your quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

Thanks for tuning in today.

I've got some surprising and

interesting new information about mushrooms to share with you. Thanks to a

heads up I got from Sandy. Today's topic was suggested by Sandy who wrote, have you studied whether raw

mushrooms are safe to eat? I've heard a few well-known doctors say that there are toxic compounds in them that are destroyed when you cook them

so I've been avoiding raw mushrooms at the salad bar for some time now, but what say you?

Now I have to admit, prior to getting Sandy's email, I was eating raw mushrooms in blissful ignorance, completely unaware of their toxic potential.

Having now educated myself, I am ready to answer

Sandy's question and to let you know whether you have anything to fear from

eating raw mushrooms. A few clicks on Google quickly led me to articles from the well-known doctors that Sandy mentioned,

all of whom warned that raw mushrooms contain a compound which is toxic to humans.

And we're not talking about some exotic wild mushrooms either.

We are talking about the common white button mushroom.

This little fungus never ceases to surprise me. Years ago, I was taken aback to learn that the plain white button mushroom beats out more brightly colored vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, zucchini, carrots, and green beans

as a source of antioxidants. Who would have thought?

But now it turns out that these most typical of toadstools are also among the most

concentrated sources of a naturally occurring toxin called agerotine.

Specifically the concern is that agaritine could promote cancer by messing with your DNA, something

it's been caught doing in test tubes.

However, when researchers fed mice water spiked with agaritine for their entire lifetimes, they were unable to detect any effect on cancer occurrence.

Interestingly, the very same mechanism by which a guerotine might cause cancer also applies to popular antidepressants,

...