I used to be a picky eater. Partly, because my mom wasn’t a very good cook. (Sorry Mom! I know you tried … you have all those Time Life Cookbooks to prove it.) We had a lot of overcooked meat and canned vegetables. She still prefers canned asparagus to fresh. Working in a few good restaurants in college helped me break through most of my picker eater habits. But, I held on to one … I hated mushrooms and avoided them with a passion.
Mom sewed better than she cooked! My sister and me in homemade 70s pant suits.
That was until I heard a lecture by Dr. Joel Fuhrman at a conference at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in September. He talked about his frustration with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. His argument is that our focus needs to shift to prevention. So much money and effort is spent to encourage women to get mammograms … mammograms detect cancer, they don’t prevent it. Wouldn’t we all prefer never to have breast cancer than to have it and detect it early? (I have my own breast cancer scare story for another time… but I can tell you that none of the doctors involved ever talked to me about prevention or diet.) Shouldn’t we be spending as much or more money and effort to educate women about prevention and protection.
He told us that studies show mushrooms block tumor growth and have anti-estrogenic activity – regular consumption of mushrooms – as little as one mushroom per day – has been shown to decrease breast cancer risk by up to 60-70%. That is a significant benefit for one little mushroom! That was enough for me to let go of my last picky eater habit.
November 4th - 13th, 2011 Voted One of the Top Six Food Festivals by Oprah.com
I’ve started adding at least a mushroom a day to my diet. The easiest way is in my eggs at breakfast. And, pretty quickly I started enjoying the taste and texture.
Mr. T and I stopped in Mendocino on our trip down the Pacific Coast Highway last year. One of the most beautiful places in California!
Mendocino County California is home to 3000 types of mushrooms. 500 are edible (good to know). My new found love of mushrooms would give us an excuse to head back to Mendocino for the Festival. If you ever decide to go, The Sea Rock Inn is a fantastic place to stay. Dr. Fuhrman also recommends avoiding alcohol as a breast cancer prevention strategy… so that kind of ruins the wine part of the Festival.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
So glad that mom never let us try those canned asparagus – I would have never tried the fresh ones! I also think a little wine with that mushroom would be OK.
You’ve just inspired me to cook the mushrooms that have been sitting in my fridge!
Awesome. Do they taste better in your new fabulous kitchen?
Well, I have heard of that before, but I wonder if it makes a difference if they are cooked or raw.
Having just finished going through breast cancer treatment since January 2011 – I am interested in all things diet related to do with cancer. Thanks for this post!
I try and include some cooked and some raw. Then my bases are covered! I have to look into if one way is better than the other. So happy you found us. And, that we now know onemilliontires.