9 Healthiest Mushrooms to Eat

By Your Health Magazine Contributor

Your Health Magazine Contributor

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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 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 earns the top spot because the evidence comes from people eating 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 T cells became more active, and C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, went down.

That’s a small study, but it’s the kind that matters: real food, real people, measurable change. Shiitake also carries lentinan, a beta-glucan that Japan has used as an injectable adjunct in stomach cancer treatment, plus eritadenine, a compound that lowered cholesterol in animal work.

How to use it: Cook it. Raw shiitake can cause shiitake dermatitis, an itchy, whip-like rash that shows up a day or two after eating undercooked caps. Sautéing or simmering prevents it. Dried shiitake is just as useful and gives broth a deep, savory backbone.

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)

Lion’s mane gets the most hype, and some of it is earned. Two families of compounds in the mushroom, hericenones and erinacines, stimulate nerve growth factor in lab studies. That’s the protein neurons rely on to grow and repair.

The human evidence is thinner than the marketing suggests. The study everyone cites is a 2009 Japanese trial: 30 adults aged 50 to 80 with mild cognitive impairment took 3 grams of lion’s mane powder daily for 16 weeks. Their cognitive scores improved compared with placebo, then slid back after they stopped. A few later trials have shown small gains in memory or mood, though not consistently.

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. If you take a supplement, look for one made from the fruiting body. Many cheap products are mostly mycelium grown on grain, which means you’re paying for a lot of starch.

3. Turkey tail: strongest clinical record

You won’t find turkey tail in a stir-fry. It’s leathery and inedible, the kind of fan-shaped fungus you see stacked on fallen logs. But it has more serious clinical research behind it than any other medicinal mushroom.

Japan approved an extract called PSK (Krestin) in the 1970s, and it has been prescribed alongside chemotherapy for gastric and colorectal cancers for decades. Several trials found it modestly improved survival in those settings. A related extract, PSP, has been studied in China. In the US, a small NIH-funded study at the University of Minnesota gave women up to 9 grams a day after radiation for breast cancer and saw signs of immune recovery without serious side effects.

There’s also growing interest in turkey tail as a prebiotic, since its polysaccharides appear to feed beneficial gut bacteria.

How to use it: As a tea (simmer dried pieces for an hour or more) or as a standardized extract. Anyone in cancer treatment should use it with their oncologist, not instead of anything.

4. Maitake: best for blood sugar

Maitake, also called hen of the woods, grows in ruffled clusters at the base of oak trees. Its beta-glucans, especially a fraction researchers call the D-fraction and another called the SX-fraction, have drawn attention for immune support and for blood sugar control.

The blood sugar work is mostly in animals, along with a few small human reports suggesting improved insulin sensitivity. That’s promising, not proven. If you already take diabetes medication, that same effect is a reason for caution, since stacking the two could push glucose too low.

How to use it: Maitake is one of the best-tasting mushrooms you can buy. Tear it into pieces, roast at high heat until the edges crisp, and finish with salt. It also holds up well in soups.

5. Oyster: best for cholesterol and antioxidants

Oyster mushrooms naturally contain lovastatin, the same compound found in the prescription statin of that name. The amount in a serving is far below a drug dose, so don’t treat them as medication. Still, small human studies have linked regular oyster mushroom intake to modest drops in total cholesterol and triglycerides.

The more interesting story is ergothioneine, an amino acid antioxidant that humans can’t make and that our bodies actively transport into tissues. King oyster mushrooms are among the richest food sources. 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. Regular oyster mushrooms cook fast and work in almost any dish.

6. White button, cremini and portobello: the underrated everyday option

These three are the same species, Agaricus bisporus, picked at different stages. They’re the mushrooms people overlook when they go looking for health benefits, and they shouldn’t.

A 2021 Penn State analysis of 17 studies covering more than 19,000 cancer patients found that people who ate about 18 grams of mushrooms a day, roughly an eighth to a quarter cup, had a 45% lower risk of cancer than those who ate none. That’s observational data, so it shows a link rather than cause. But most of the mushrooms people actually eat in those populations are button mushrooms.

They’re also a rare plant source of vitamin D when grown under UV light. Some brands label UV-exposed mushrooms, and a single serving can cover a large share of daily needs.

How to use it: Buy them, cook them often. Leaving sliced mushrooms gill-side up in midday sun for 30 to 60 minutes also boosts their vitamin D.

7. Reishi: long tradition, mixed evidence

Reishi has been used in Chinese medicine for roughly 2,000 years, where it was called the mushroom of immortality. Today it’s sold mainly for immune support, stress and sleep. It contains triterpenes, which give it a sharply bitter taste, and plenty of polysaccharides.

Modern research is uneven. A Cochrane review of reishi in cancer patients found some signs of better immune response and quality of life, but the trials were small and low quality, and it found no evidence that reishi extended survival. Sleep and fatigue studies are similarly early.

Reishi is also the one on this list most often linked to liver problems. Case reports describe liver injury after weeks of reishi powder use, and it may thin the blood.

How to use it: Tea or extract only, since the mushroom is woody. Skip it before surgery, and talk to a doctor if you take anticoagulants or blood pressure medication.

8. Cordyceps: for energy, maybe

Wild cordyceps grows out of caterpillar larvae in the Himalayas and can cost more than its weight in silver. Almost nothing sold in the US is wild. Supplements use either Cordyceps militaris grown on grain or a fermented strain called CS-4.

Its reputation as a performance enhancer took off after Chinese distance runners credited it in 1993. Controlled studies since then are mixed. A few small trials in older adults showed better oxygen use during exercise; trials in trained athletes mostly found nothing. The main active compound, cordycepin, is well studied in the lab but less so in people.

How to use it: If you want to try it, choose Cordyceps militaris with a stated cordycepin content, and judge it over a few weeks rather than a single workout.

9. Chaga: high in antioxidants, highest in risk

Chaga isn’t really a mushroom cap. It’s a black, charcoal-like growth on birch trees in cold climates, and it’s usually brewed as a coffee substitute. Lab tests show very high antioxidant capacity and some anti-inflammatory activity, but there are essentially no solid human trials.

What chaga does have is a documented downside. It is extremely high in oxalates. In 2014, Japanese doctors reported a 72-year-old woman who developed kidney failure after drinking 4 to 5 teaspoons of chaga powder daily for six months. Similar cases have followed. Chaga may also interfere with blood thinners and diabetes drugs.

How to use it: Occasionally, if at all. Avoid it entirely with kidney disease or a history of kidney stones. Overharvesting is also a growing problem in wild birch forests.

So which one should you choose?

Start in the kitchen, not the supplement aisle. Shiitake, oyster, maitake and plain button mushrooms give you beta-glucans, ergothioneine, fiber and sometimes vitamin D, with almost no risk and a clear upside for your meals. Rotate two or three of them through the week.

Reach for an extract only when you have a specific goal. Lion’s mane is the reasonable bet for focus and memory. Turkey tail makes sense for people in cancer care who have cleared it with their medical team.

A few rules apply across the board. Supplements aren’t regulated like drugs in the US, so look for third-party testing and products that list beta-glucan content, not just “polysaccharides.” Check with a doctor if you’re pregnant, on blood thinners, taking diabetes or immune-suppressing medication, or heading into surgery. And never eat wild mushrooms you haven’t had identified by an expert. Several deadly species look a lot like edible ones. 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.