9 Healthiest Mushrooms to Eat
If you want one name, it’s shiitake. It has the best human data of any mushroom you can buy at a grocery store, it’s cheap, and you can eat it three times a week without…
If you want one name, it’s shiitake. It has the best human data of any mushroom you can buy at a grocery store, it’s cheap, and you can eat it three times a week without thinking about supplements at all. But “best” depends on what you’re after. Lion’s mane has the most interesting brain research. Turkey tail has the strongest clinical record in cancer care. Plain white button mushrooms quietly outperform their reputation.
This list ranks nine mushrooms by a simple test: how much of the benefit has actually been shown in people, not just in a petri dish or a mouse. That’s a higher bar than most mushroom marketing clears, so expect a few honest “we don’t know yet” notes along the way.
1. Shiitake: best all-around pick
Shiitake emerges the best as the evidence is taken by people who consumed it as food. In a 2015 University of Florida trial, 52 healthy adults ate 5 or 10 grams of dried shiitake a day for four weeks. Their gamma-delta T cells and natural killer cells became activated, and the C-reactive protein, a sign of inflammation, decreased.
It is a little study, but it is the type that counts: actual food, actual individuals, quantifiable alteration. Shiitake also contains lentinan a beta-glucan utilised as an adjunct in Japan as an injection in stomach cancer treatment, as well as eritadenine a compound that reduced cholesterol in animal studies.
How to use it: Cook it. The uncooked shiitake may lead to shiitake dermatitis, an itchy, whip-shaped skin rash that develops within a day or two of ingesting undercooked caps. It is prevented by sauteing or simmering. Dried shiitake is also handy and provides broth with a rich, savory base.
Most shiitake in stores is farm-grown, but if you buy from foragers or pick your own, know what you’re holding before it goes in the pan. This guide, Shiitake Identification: Edible Types & Poisonous Look-Alikes, walks through the features that set true shiitake apart and the species most often mistaken for it.
2. Lion’s mane: best for the brain (with caveats)
The lion and his mane have the greatest amount of hype and some of it is well deserved. The mushroom contains two families of compounds, called hericenones and erinacines that stimulate nerve growth factor in laboratory work. That is the nutrient that the neurons depend on to develop and reproduce.
The marketing is more than the human evidence. The trial that is mentioned by everyone is a 2009 Japanese trial: 30 adults between 50 and 80 years old with mild cognitive impairment consumed 3 grams of lion’s mane powder a day over 16 weeks. Their cognitive scores increased relative to placebo, and dropped off when they withdrew. Small memory or mood improvements, albeit not always, have been demonstrated in a few later trials.
How to use it: Fresh lion’s mane tastes a lot like crab or lobster when pan-seared in butter, which makes it the easiest mushroom on this list to enjoy. When you take a supplement, seek one that is derived out of the fruiting body. Most of the cheap products are actually mycelium cultivated on grain, meaning that you are purchasing a great deal of starch.
3. Turkey tail: strongest clinical record
You won’t find turkey tail in a stir-fry. It is leathery and inedible, like the fungus which forms fan-like shapes, and which appears on logs which have fallen. However, it possesses more clinical research work than any other medicinal mushroom.
The 1970s saw the approval of an extract known as PSK (Krestin) by Japan, which has since been used in combination with chemotherapy to treat gastric and colorectal cancers. Some of the trials have shown it to have a small beneficial survival effect in such environments. A close extract PSP has been recognised in China. In the US, NIH-funded small study at the University of Minnesota administered up to 9 grams a day to women after radiation treatment of breast cancer and found evidence of immune recovery without severe side effects.
It is also getting a certain level of interest in turkey tail as a prebiotic, as its polysaccharides seem to nourish favorable gut flora.
How to use it: As a tea (simmer dried pieces for an hour or more) or as a standardized extract. It should be used by anyone in cancer treatment not in place of anything.
4. Maitake: best for blood sugar
Maitake or hen of the woods is a ruffled-clustered fungi, which grows at the foot of oak trees. Its beta-glucans (and in particular a fraction that researchers refer to as the D-fraction and another as the SX-fraction) have been of interest in relation to immune support and also to blood sugar control.
In animals, most of the work on blood sugar is being done, and there are some small human studies indicating increased insulin sensitivity. It is a good prospect, not a fact. In case you are already on some diabetes medication, it is one of the effects that make you be wary, as combining the two may cause glucose levels to go too low.
How to use it: Maitake is one of the best-tasting mushrooms you can buy. Cut it into slices, bake it at a high temperature until the edges become crisp and add salt. It is also good in soups.
5. Oyster: best for cholesterol and antioxidants
Lovastatin that is present in the prescription statin of the same name is naturally found in oyster mushrooms. The quantity of each serving is minuscule to the point of being a dose of drugs and therefore should not be viewed as such. Nevertheless, preliminary human trials have attributed small portions of oyster mushroom with slight decreases in total cholesterol and triglycerides.
The more intriguing one is ergothioneine, an amino acid antioxidant that could not be synthesized by humans and which is actively transported to the tissues by our bodies. The king oyster mushrooms are one of the richest sources of food. Low blood levels of ergothioneine have been associated with frailty and cognitive decline in older adults, which has some researchers calling it a possible “longevity vitamin.”
How to use it: Slice king oysters into thick coins and sear them like scallops. Oyster mushrooms are quick cookers and can be used in virtually every recipe.
6. White button, cremini and portobello: the underrated everyday option
These three are of the same kind, Agaricus bisporus, which were picked at different stages. They are the mushrooms that people do not think about when seeking health benefits and they should.
In 2021, a Penn State study of 17 studies (17 of over 19,000 cancer patients) found that individuals who consumed mushrooms at a rate of 18 grams per day, about an eighth to a quarter cup, were 45% less likely to get cancer than those who did not consume them. That is the observational data hence a relationship but not causal. But the mushrooms people in those population actually consume are mostly button mushrooms.
They are also the only few plants which produce vitamin D when exposed to UV light. There are brands of UV-exposed mushrooms, and one dose can be used to fulfill a significant portion of daily requirements.
How to use it: Buy them, cook them often. By placing sliced mushrooms, gill-side up in midday sun 30 to 60 minutes, vitamin D in the mushrooms is increased.
7. Reishi: long tradition, mixed evidence
Reishi is a Chinese medicine that has a history of approximately 2, 000 years as it was referred to as the mushroom of immortality. It is used today as a primary immune boosting, stress and sleep aid. It has triterpenes and is sharply bitter in taste, and abundant in polysaccharides.
Contemporary studies are not balanced. A Cochrane review of reishi in cancer patients had some evidence of improved immune response and quality of life, but the trials were small and of low quality, and it did not find proof that reishi increased survival. The studies on sleep and fatigue are also premature.
Reishi is the other on this list that is most likely to be associated with liver issues. Case reports give accounts of liver injury following weeks of reishi powder intake, and can also thin the blood.
How to use it: Tea or extract only, since the mushroom is woody. Preoperative skipping is not recommended, and anticoagulants or blood pressure medication may require the patient to discuss them with a doctor.
8. Cordyceps: for energy, maybe
In the Himalayas wild cordyceps are growing out of caterpillar larvae and may be sold at a higher price than silver itself. There is hardly anything that is sold in the US that is wild. Supplements contain either Cordyceps militaris that is grown on grain or a fermented form known as CS-4.
It had its reputation as a performance enhancer propelled into the air in 1993 when Chinese distance runners gave it credits. Controlled studies since then are mixed. Some small experimental studies in older adults demonstrated improved oxygen utilization during exercise; studies in trained athletes largely demonstrated nothing. The active main compound is cordycepin which is not well studied in humans but is largely studied in the laboratory.
How to use it: To have a go with it, pick up Cordyceps militaris with a particular amount of cordycepin in it, and evaluate it after a few weeks and not just one workout.
9. Chaga: high in antioxidants, highest in risk
Chaga is not necessarily a mushroom cap. It is black and charcoal like and a growth on birch trees in low temperature areas and it is commonly made as a substitute to coffee. Laboratory analyses indicate extremely high antioxidant activity and minimal anti-inflammatory activity, however, there are practically no clinical trials in humans.
The only thing lacking in chaga is a recorded demerit. It contains a lot of oxalates. In 2014, Japanese physicians published a case study of a 72-year-old woman who contracted kidney failure after consuming 4-5 teaspoons of chaga powder every day in six months. There have been other cases. Chaga can also cause issues with blood thinners and diabetes medications.
How to use it: Occasionally, if at all. Should not be used with kidney disease or kidney stones. Wild birch forests are also facing over harvesting of the forests.
So which one should you choose?
Start in the kitchen, not the supplement aisle. Shiitake, oyster, maitake and plain button mushrooms provide you with beta-glucans, ergothioneine, fiber as well as a vitamin D in some cases, and practically none of them pose a risk to your foods; moreover, they have a definite benefit to your meals. Turn one or two around the week.
Extract will only help you to achieve a purpose. The reasonable bet to focus and memory is Lion. Turkey tail is logical to individuals who are receiving cancer treatment and have cleared it with their medical staff.
There are some rules that are universal. In the US, the supplements are not regulated as much as the drugs, so seek out third party testing and supplements specific to beta-glucan content, rather than polysaccharides in general. Ask the doctor whether you are pregnant, are taking blood thinners or diabetes or immune-suppressing medicine, or are going into surgery. And never sample wild mushrooms which have not been recognized by an expert. There are a number of lethal species that appear similar to food items. If you’ve found something on a walk and want a starting point, try mushroom identification online to narrow down the possibilities, then confirm with a local mycological society before anything goes near your plate.
This article is for general information and isn’t a substitute for medical advice.
