Fact Check: About That Claim a Mushroom Will Satiate You for the Rest of Your Life if Eaten Once

Madison Dapcevich
·4 min read
Reddit/RealCryWolf
Reddit/RealCryWolf

Claim:

A mushroom exists that if eaten once can satiate a person for life.

Rating:

Rating: False
Rating: False

Context:

There is no such mushroom species that, if eaten, would satiate a human for life. This claim is meant as a play on words. If a person eats a deadly mushroom, it would be the last meal until death. Also, the viral image is of a generally nonpoisonous (though bitter) mushroom.

 

Rumors of a species of mushroom that, if eaten only once, could feed a person until death sounds like the stuff of fairy tales. A number of social media posts (here, here, and here, for example) have made such claims, including a meme shared to Reddit on May 23, 2024, shown below. At the time of this publication, the post had received more than 10,000 upvotes. 

Well....no need for food after
byu/RealCryWolf intechnicallythetruth

Snopes spoke with two mycologists who confirmed this claim is technically true, but it's meant as a play on words. Certain species of mushrooms may very well feed a person for the rest of life – if toxic. That is to say, the fungus would be a person's last meal before dying. 

"This claim might be technically true if you eat a meal with deadly mushrooms. It would be your last meal so, yes, technically you would be fed for the rest of your very short life," Natalie Wren, president of the Mycological Society of San Francisco, told Snopes. 

"There is an old saying: There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters. There are no old, bold mushroom hunters." 

For this rationale, we have rated this claim "False." There is no nontoxic mushroom species that, if eaten, would satiate a human for the rest of life. 

Dave Layton, first vice president of the North American Mycological Association, identified the mushroom in the picture on Reddit for Snopes, noting that it is known as a wrinkled peach, scientific name Rhodotus palmatus. 

Though 2022 research notes that the mushroom is not necessarily poisonous, it is largely considered inedible due to its bitter and rubbery nature. The pink-hued R. palmatus grows on dead and rotting elm, according to the educational foraging company Wild Food UK, and is found in many regions of the northern hemisphere, including North America, parts of Europe, and Japan, notes the Global Biodiversity Information Facility database. 

There are thousands of known mushroom species, but the medical reference website MedScape reports that about 100 species are responsible for most nonfatal poisonings when humans eat them. Only about 15 to 20 mushroom species can be fatal when ingested. Symptoms of mushroom poisoning depend on the type of toxin consumed and can include hallucinations, liver toxicity, acute gastroenteritis, and seizures, among other conditions. 

If you have become ill after eating a mushroom, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises you to contact a healthcare provider or call the poison control helpline, which is reachable in the U.S. at 1-800-222-1222.

Sources:

"Contacts." North American Mycological Association, https://namyco.org/about/contacts/. Accessed 23 May 2024.

"Home." North American Mycological Association, https://namyco.org/. Accessed 23 May 2024.

Joshuazz. "@SHIT Did You Know? There Is a Kind of Mushroom That If Eaten Only Once, Is Enough to Feed Person until the End of His Life. The Guy Who Wrote This after Trying It: Made With." iFunny Brazil, https://br.ifunny.co/picture/shit-did-you-know-there-is-a-kind-of-mushroom-nEi9I8c98. Accessed 23 May 2024.

MSSF—Contact. https://www.mssf.org/contact.html. Accessed 23 May 2024.

Mushroom Toxicity: Practice Essentials, Pathophysiology, Etiology. Apr. 2023. eMedicine, https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/167398-overview?form=fpf.

Mycological Society of San Francisco. https://www.mssf.org/. Accessed 23 May 2024.

Nutrition, Center for Food Safety and Applied. "Investigation of Illnesses: Morel Mushrooms (May 2023)." FDA, Feb. 2024. www.fda.gov, https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigation-illnesses-morel-mushrooms-may-2023.

Rhodotus Palmatus. https://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/gilled%20fungi/species%20pages/Rhodotus%20palmatus.htm. Accessed 23 May 2024.

Rhodotus Palmatus (Bull.) Maire. https://www.gbif.org/species/2537058. Accessed 23 May 2024.

Tran, Huu H., and Andrew L. Juergens. "Mushroom Toxicity." StatPearls, StatPearls Publishing, 2024. PubMed, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537111/.