A Minnesota woman who became famous by sharing her lifestyle via Instagram is taking lots of heat over her new cookbook. Johnna Holmgren is an Instagram influencer and blogger who goes by the name Fox Meets Bear online. She and her family live in the woods and forage for food.

A few months ago she released her first cookbook - Tales From a Forager's Kitchen. It encourages people to forage for their food. According to the book description on Amazon, it's a reminder of how the "ingredients we use came to be, how they grew, and where they were cultivated. It will inspire you to form a bond with the earth and the world around you." That all sounds awesome right? So where's the problem? It's the mushrooms.

No surprise, she's using mushrooms in her book. Readers (according to Amazon reviews) are not mad at the use of mushrooms, rather the lack of cooking. She has recipes in the book that call for raw mushrooms. She suggests foraging morel mushrooms... The problem? Morel mushrooms can make you sick if eaten raw. Untamedfeast.com says morels contain a mildly toxic substance, which is typically destroyed in cooking. False morels however, can make you very ill.

Freshly picked autumn forest mushrooms
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As a rule of thumb, you should never eat raw mushrooms. According to Prevention.com, "Mushrooms have very tough cell walls and are essentially indigestible if you don't cook them. They also contain small amounts of toxins, including some compounds that are considered carcinogens."

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