Do you know that black fungus (Chinese name: 黑木耳) is classified as a tonic food in 神农本草经 (an ancient classic collection of medicinal plants and foods dated more than 2,000 years ago)? Let’s learn how can black fungus aid our body in healing and who is suitable (and not suitable) to eat black fungus.
The thermal nature of black fungus is neutral. This means that almost everyone can eat it despite of body’s constitution.
Black fungus has great benefits for the lungs, stomach, and liver organs.
For the lungs – Black fungus can moisturize them and promote yin energy. This means it helps to relieve cough due to dryness in the lungs. This makes it a great food to eat during the autumn and winter season of every year.
For the stomach – It helps to promote yin energy in the stomach. When a person has a yin deficiency in the stomach, this person will experience a dry mouth and tongue. Some people will even have bad breath and hard stools. The black fungus can help to increase the yin energy in the stomach to relieve the dry mouth and other yin deficient (stomach) symptoms.
For the liver – From the TCM perspective, the liver helps to regulate blood in our body. Black fungus can help to stop abnormal bleeding inside our body. It can also help to strengthen our blood and relieve giddiness due to blood deficiency.
The daily recommendation dosage of black fungus per person is about 3 to 10g (dry ones).
People Who Are Not Suitable to Eat Black Fungus
As black fungus can help to regulate bowel movements, people who are having loose stools, or diarrhea, should avoid eating black fungus at the moment.
Two Types of Black Fungus
Two types of black fungus can be found in the market. One is the dry type, which is the most common type where you see people selling in the market.
For the dry type, you will need to soak them in water for about 45 minutes (if you are using normal room temperature water) or 20 to 30 minutes (if you are using warm water).
IMPORTANT: Take extra precautions not to soak black fungus for too long as they are prone to bacteria (harmful bacteria) when soaked for hours. There were actual unfortunate incidents that happened where people died after eating black fungus that had soaked for 4 or more hours.
Another type of black fungus is the fresh type which you can buy from the supermarket and cook directly (without soaking) after washing.
The advantage of fresh black fungus is that you do not need to soak them and they can be cooked directly after washing.
As fresh black fungus can easily turn bad, it is best to cook the fresh ones on the same day you bought them.
Most Common Way of Eating Black Fungus
One common way of eating black fungus is to stir fry them together with green vegetables and carrots. Adding carrots here will increase the effect of promoting yin energy for the stomach to relieve dry mouth and constipation.
Another important thing to note is that the quality of black fungus depends a lot on the wood that they were grown. Thus, purchasing higher-quality black fungus from reputable sellers is better.
I hope you find this post useful and feel free to ask any questions if you have in mind.