Mushrooms – The Next Wonder Food?

August 18, 2008

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Mushrooms are being suggested to be a food that you should be eating frequently. They contain a number of important minerals, vitamins, including vitamin D, and an antioxidant, and high in fiber, and they are low in calories.

An interesting study looked at substituting mushrooms for meat in a several dishes. The mushroom substituted dishes had less calories (less energy dense). The research showed that the study participants only ate slightly more food to compensate for there being less calories. After 4 days the participants when on the mushroom diet had consumed on average almost 1500 less calories, than when they were on the meat diet. This suggests that mushrooms as part of prepared dishes could help reduce the number of calories that are consumed.

The dishes prepared were lasagna (meat 1026 kcal, mushroom 451 kcal), savory napoleon, a dish with layers of puff pastry (meat 679 kcal, mushroom 359 kcal), sloppy joe (meat 822 kcal, mushroom 248 kcal) and chili (meat 604 kcal, mushroom 300 kcal).

Recently, a lot of research has shown that many people do not get enough vitamin D. There is a trend that number of people vitamin D deficient increases with age. See the recent post Low vitamin D increases the risk of death.

Commercial mushrooms are for the most part grown in the dark. The standard white button mushroom grown this way has about 15 IU of vitamin D. However, if mushrooms are given a brief exposure to UV light after harvesting, the level of vitamin D increases significantly and can even be close to 400 IU, which is the recommended intake for those 50 to 71 years. The exposure does darken the mushrooms, but this change in appearance is a small price for the improvement in the level of vitamin D. Some commercial growers are now working on ways to expose mushrooms to light before packing and shipping.

Mushrooms contain the antioxidant ergothioneine, the minerals copper, potassium and selenium and the B vitamins riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3) and pantothenic acid (B5), and are high in fiber. All in a great food to include frequently in your diet. If only there were a little cheaper.

photo credit: e1ther