Whole mushrooms, whether eaten raw or cooked for use in dishes, are clearly good for your health, and we'll be focusing on them in this narrative rather than processed mushrooms. Supplements, nutraceuticals, and mouth sprays, for example, may have additional advantages, but further study is needed.

Fungi are hot right now, even if you're eating them raw in a salad. According to the industry publication Nutritional Outlook, sales of mushrooms and mushroom-based products increased by 33% in 2019 compared to the previous year.

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Fungi are gaining popularity among nutritionists. Mushrooms have a low-calorie count. They also give a variety of macro and micronutrients, including B vitamins, selenium, zinc, and copper, adds Katherine Brooking, RD, a registered dietitian in New York City and co-creator of the syndicated weekly news series Appetite for Health. She says that B vitamins are necessary for the production of energy in cells. According to the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements, selenium is a potent antioxidant, while zinc and copper are needed for a healthy immune system.

According to Kim Bedwell of the Mushroom Council, the white button mushroom is the most common mushroom cultivated in the United States. Other types, such as cremini, commonly known as baby Bella, and portobellos, are growing more popular, according to her. She also claims that specialty mushrooms are more commonly seen in regular grocery shops. You have a lot of options based on your taste preferences, which means you may enjoy the following seven health advantages of mushrooms in a variety of ways.

Mushrooms Can Help Lower Blood Pressure

According to the USDA, one entire portobello mushroom has 306mg of potassium, which is an essential mineral. According to the American Heart Association, potassium helps manage blood pressure by counteracting the effects of sodium and enhancing blood vessel function.  More potassium in your diet promotes salt excretion in the urine. The advantages to your heart don't end there. According to a review published in the American Journal of Medicine in May 2021, mushrooms may help lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels while also reducing inflammation.

 

Mushrooms are good for your immunity and bone health.

According to a review published in the October 2018 issue of Nutrients, mushrooms produce vitamin D when exposed to UV light. And that's a fantastic nutritional benefit for a vegetable. According to Brooking, there aren't many dietary sources of vitamin D, particularly plant ones. The vitamin is extremely important for immunological and bone health. The required level of vitamin D promotes muscular function, decreases the incidence of falls, and may have anticancer, antidiabetic, and heart-protective characteristics, according to the Nutrients evaluation of studies.

Although your body produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, numerous circumstances might increase your risk of shortage. If you don't receive enough sunshine, don't consume enough, or have certain medical problems that impede absorption, you may be deficient. Look for this information on the front or bottom of the packaging when shopping for mushrooms high in vitamin D, advises Bedwell. If your mushrooms cover at least 20% of the recommended value, or DV, per serving, you know they're high in vitamin D. This information may be found on the Nutrition Facts label.

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Mushrooms Could Help Your Gut Health

According to a review published in the September 2017 issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, your gut contains trillions of bacteria, and eating mushrooms may help populate your GI tract with the right balance of bacteria to keep your GI tract healthy and strengthen your immune system. The research on mushrooms and gut health is still in its early stages, but it is quite promising. According to Brooking, mushrooms include prebiotics, which are the nutrients that bacteria rely on. As a result, prebiotics from mushrooms may help this beneficial bacteria proliferate. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, probiotics are living microorganisms, or bacteria, that may have health advantages for the body by aiding digestion and producing nutrients.

 

Cancer Prevention Has Been Linked To Mushrooms

Fungi should be included in your cancer-prevention diet. In a meta-analysis of 17 research published in Advances in Nutrition in September 2021, people who ate more mushrooms on a regular basis had a 34% reduced risk of any cancer than those who ate the least, notably in the case of breast cancer. Antioxidants found in mushrooms, notably ergothioneine and glutathione, may help protect cells from harm.

However, not all studies have shown good results. According to Cancer Prevention Research in August 2019, researchers determined that participants who ate five servings of mushrooms per week had no reduced risk of 16 different cancers than those who seldom ate mushrooms in a prospective cohort trial comprising more than 100,000 men and women.

 

When mushrooms are substituted for red meat, they may help people live longer.

Mushrooms give meals a delicious, meaty taste called umami. According to Brooking, they're the ideal extender to use in place of or in addition to meat in a variety of dishes. Researchers discovered that those who ate one serving of mushrooms per day vs one serving of processed or red meat per day had a 35 percent lower risk of mortality from any cause, according to a large prospective cohort study published in April 2021 in Nutrition Journal.

The study authors speculate that this is because mushrooms, in addition to possessing the antioxidants ergothioneine and glutathione, are also low in calories, salt, and fat, and high in fiber. However, because people who eat mushrooms have healthier diets, it's uncertain if mushroom consumption was the only cause of the participants' longer lives.

 

Mushrooms Could Improve Brain Health

According to the Alzheimer's Association, 12 to 18 percent of adults aged 60 and older have a mild cognitive impairment, a condition that can be a precursor to Alzheimer's disease that affects memory, thinking abilities, and judgment. Mushrooms can play a role in maintaining a healthy diet for an aging brain. According to a March 2019 study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, people who reported eating more than two servings of mushrooms per week had a 57 percent reduced risk of getting MCI than those who ate them less than once a week.

 

Treatment Options for Mental Health Issues

There has been a lot of discussion regarding utilizing psilocybin, a hallucinogenic molecule found in magic mushrooms, as a psychedelic therapy for depression and PTSD. And, when carried out under strict supervision, these treatments show promise: Six weeks of psilocybin therapy was shown to be just as effective as escitalopram, a typical antidepressant, in alleviating depression in small research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April 2021. 

Psychedelics may be effective in creating new brain connections, thus huge research centers like the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics at Massachusetts General Hospital are investigating psilocybin as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression. This form of treatment, however, is in the future. While psilocybin may be used in select research contexts, it is currently classified as a Schedule drug in the United States, meaning it is prohibited for personal use and not approved for medical use, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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