If you haven’t gotten a good dose of fungi lately, particularly shiitake mushrooms, then you are missing out. Used by the Chinese for over 6000 years, shiitake mushrooms are said to be an aphrodisiac, and can sell for upwards of $40 a pound in US markets. The mushroom gets its name from the Shii tree on which the mushrooms most often grow in Japan. The best part? They offer a host of medicinal and healthful benefits from promoting heart health to boosting longevity. Further, they can be added to salads, brown rice dishes, and a plethora of other recipes to ingest their life-giving nutrients and special compounds.

Shiitake mushrooms are an excellent source of some important vitamins and minerals. For starters, they have three B vitamins, B2, B5 and B6, and six important trace minerals: phosphorous, selenium, copper, zinc, potassium, magnesium, and manganese. Selenium is a known cancer-fighting mineral. The mushrooms also contain vitamin D and protein as well as dietary fiber. Finally, they are a great non-meat source of iron, the blood-fortifying element.

In researching the shiitake mushroom, it was found that it helps boost cardiovascular health by preventing too much immune cell binding to the lining of our blood vessels. Because of specific types of protein molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and E-selectin) in shiitake mushrooms, which have special adhesion characteristics in their molecules, our blood vessels are protected.

Beta-glucan, the soluble fiber in shiitake mushrooms also binds to cholesterol in the gut by forming a gel-like paste, which absorbs it and then expels it from the body. It is through this process that ‘bad’ cholesterol levels can be lowered by eating shiitake.

What’s more, shiitake mushrooms also boost the immune system and add years to our lives by reducing oxidative stress throughout the body due to their high levels of antioxidants.

Finally, the mushrooms farmed organically on forest hardwoods are sustainable and great for the environment, so you can obtain your fill of fungi with absolutely no guilt.

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Image from gmolabeling.org.

In light of dangers surrounding GMOs, companies are steering clear of the controversial ingredients, or are at least labeling them. Some countries are even banning some GMOs. But they don’t all feel this way. In fact, some of the most popular cereals like Corn Flakes or Froot Loops contain a heaping dose of GMO sugar beets (among other things). Cereal giant Kellogg’s is using Monsanto’s genetically engineered sugar beets to sweeten your morning meal, and at this rate about 90% of the food industry will follow suite, unless we as a collective stop buying products which are full of GMOs.

Sugar beets have been grown in the US since 2008, but Kellogg’s makes the same cereals and ships them to Europe without genetically modified sugar beets, since several countries in the EU will not tolerate their cultivation. Kellogg’s own website states, “For more than 100 years, we’ve worked passionately to help families be their best.” Somehow ‘being your best’ while full of GMO sugar seems to be an oxymoron, and some people clearly don’t agree since there was a recent sabotage of two fields of GMO sugar beets growing in Oregon’s Jackson County just this past month. A total of 6000 plants were destroyed. Why would someone feel this strongly about some simple food-sweetening beets?

To start, sugar beets are genetically altered to be RoundUp Ready – which means they are supposed to be resistant to Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide. The chemicals in RoundUp are questionable at best and pure malevolence at worst. Their main ingredient is glyphosate, which Monsanto calls the ‘perfect herbicide’, but it has been shown to cause greater incidence of breast cancer, as published in a study by the US National Library of Medicine. And of course the chemical has been linked to much, much more.

Furthermore, glyphosate has been found in the urine of several European residents, who were random volunteers asked to participate in a study to see if people were being exposed to this chemical without their active participating in eating GMO foods. It may just be more invasive than we originally suspected. This study suggests that we are being exposed to this chemical in our food, water and soil, even if we don’t eat GMO foods.

Related Read: Top 10 Worst Children’s Cereals

Consuming Kellogg’s products, however, is like adding an extra dose of poison to your endocrine system and purposefully damaging your immune system. You can join Corporate Action Network and sign this petition urging Kellogg’s to stop using GMO – as they already do in their European exports, or you can just change to good old organic oats and almond milk, a cup of free-trade, non GMO coffee, and a piece of organic fruit for breakfast instead. You’ll enjoy better health and drain the profits from companies who continue to persist in using GMOs against the public’s urging not to do so.