Mushrooms are fantastic, delicious, and full of nutritional value that helps our bodies in day-to-day lives.
Adding just four or five medium-sized mushrooms to your diet will provide essential vitamins and other nutrients needed for an active lifestyle and a healthy body. You will find many nutrients in mushrooms that can easily tackle many chronic diseases and other health conditions.
Mushrooms are pretty low in fats, carbohydrates, cholesterol, sodium, and sugar, and these keep at bay many heart diseases and diabetes. Some healthy nutrients found in mushrooms are vitamin B complex (riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid), selenium, copper, potassium, soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, vitamin D, phosphorus, and calcium.
Mushrooms are raw and grow out of anywhere, but when cooked, they can be used in various foods in many cuisines all over the world. You can add half a cup of white button mushrooms to your scrambled eggs or omelet or mix one cup of diced portabella mushrooms to your pasta.
You can do a lot with mushrooms, and whatever you add these to, it will provide nutritional benefits like no other.
Fun Facts About Mushrooms
Learn some important facts about mushrooms and their application to improve our health.
Mushrooms are not vegetables. However, they provide antioxidants, protein, vitamins, and minerals like vegetables do.
These edible fungi called mushrooms can provide several essential nutrients and dietary supplements.
Different kinds of mushrooms have different nutritional profiles and compositions.
People buy fresh, canned, or even dried mushrooms and add them to any food, cheap or expensive.
Mushrooms are also used to make traditional medicine.
A cup of raw mushrooms has around 15 calories.
Mushrooms grow in cold and dark places and do not need sunlight to produce energy.
Nutritional Facts About Mushrooms
The nutritional elements present in mushrooms help build a wall and improve our immune system.
Mushrooms have vitamins, protein, minerals, and antioxidants. All these together provide many health benefits to humans.
Antioxidants present in mushrooms help the body eliminate free radicals. Selenium, choline, and vitamin C are present in mushrooms.
Mushrooms contain a small amount of vitamin D. Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of phosphate and calcium present in the body. These important nutrients are required to maintain bone health.
Choline is the name of an antioxidant present in mushrooms that reduces the risk of some forms of cancer.
Dietary fiber present in mushrooms might help in preventing type 2 diabetes. People who consume a lot of fiber are said to be at a lower risk of having diabetes. One cup of raw, sliced mushrooms provides around an ounce of fiber.
You can create a diet of beans, some vegetables, brown rice, and mushrooms to provide the maximum fiber needed for your body daily.
Potassium, vitamin C, and the fiber present in mushrooms help heart health a lot. Potassium helps in regulating blood pressure and reduces the risk of hypertension. This, in turn, helps in removing the risk of heart disease.
Consuming foods with vitamin C helps to decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Having beta-glucans (a type of fiber) will help lower blood cholesterol levels. You will find this fiber in the cell walls of mushrooms.
Mushrooms provide folic acid or folate, which is important to consume during pregnancy. This helps in boosting fetal health.
Mushrooms are also full of B vitamins. You will find riboflavin (B2), thiamine (B1), folate (B9), niacin (B3), and pantothenic acid (B5) in mushrooms. These vitamins help the body get energized and also form red blood cells.
B vitamins are also known to facilitate healthy brain function.
Choline present in mushrooms helps in learning, muscle movement, and memory. Choline helps in the transmission of nerve impulses.
There are many nutrients that are only available in meat diets and not vegan diets. But mushrooms have selenium, iron, potassium, copper, and phosphorus, otherwise difficult to find in vegetables.
Mushrooms do not have many calories, and the fewer raw mushrooms you eat, the fewer calories you get.
As mushrooms promote a healthy immune system and boost your bone health, they are deemed a superfood.
Mushrooms are essentially a low-carb food with some protein.
Facts About Medicinal Mushrooms
Mushrooms have been widely used for medicinal purposes throughout history, and even today, the use of mushrooms for health benefits is seen in some parts of the world.
Mushrooms are actually not vegetables but are a type of fungi. However, they provide as much and maybe more nutrition than a simple vegetable.
For centuries in Chinese herbal medicine, the medicinal mushroom has been used. There are also instances of this kind of mushroom used in 16th century Russia, Japan, and some native American cultures.
China, Korea, and Japan still use medicinal mushrooms to cure some ailments today and also to improve the immune system.
Mushrooms boost the immune system in the human body. Polysaccharides in mushrooms signal your body to increase immunity. It will help defend your body when you are fighting a cold.
Some medical mushrooms have antivirals that help the human body defend and repair automatically.
Vitamin D and vitamin B-complex provide essential nutrition to our bodies and prevent many harmful illnesses.
Fungi of all kinds have their natural antibiotics to defend themselves from other microorganisms. This also helps our health, whether the mushrooms are raw or cooked.
Antioxidants are also present that are said to reduce the risk of some types of cancers.
All the three parts of mushrooms - mycelium, fruitbody, and spores can be used as medicinal.
Mycelium is the vegetative part of mushrooms that grows out. The fruitbody is the final growth stage, while the spores are similar to seeds that get spread to start a new life.
Facts About The Side Effects Of Mushrooms
Although mushrooms are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin D, and protein while being low in fats, carbohydrates, sodium, and calories, they do have some side effects to them.
Mushrooms grow anywhere they want, so naturally, they will absorb pesticides, dirty water, heavy metals, or other harmful substances, which will then go into your body when consumed. Not full of nutrition now, is it? A little of it can be removed by keeping the mushrooms cooked in your diet and not raw.
Every time you buy mushrooms from the store, find out where and how they have grown.
Wild mushrooms can make a really tasty dish, and the food will definitely be elevated; however, some wild mushrooms have toxins in them. Some can even trigger fatal health issues in humans.
Some wild mushrooms might have heavy metals or other harmful chemicals in them. It is important to consume mushrooms only from a reliable source.
Food allergies have been found in mushrooms but are rare. In some people, they can trigger skin irritation, hives, and rashes.
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Ritwik BhuyanBachelor of Arts specializing in English
A skilled content writer, Ritwik holds a Bachelor's degree in English from Delhi University. He has refined his writing abilities through his past experience at PenVelope and his current role at Kidadl. In addition to his proficiency in writing, Ritwik has pursued his passion for flying by achieving CPL training and becoming a licensed commercial pilot. This diverse skill set highlights his commitment to exploring multiple fields. Ritwik's experience in the aviation industry has provided him with a unique perspective and attention to detail, which he brings to his writing.
With a background in digital marketing, Niyati brings her expertise to ensure accuracy and authenticity in every piece of content. She has previously written articles for MuseumFacts, a history web magazine, while also handling its digital marketing. In addition to her marketing skills, Niyati is fluent in six languages and has a Commerce degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University. She has also been recognized for her public speaking abilities, holding the position of Vice President of Education at the Toastmasters Club of Pune, where she won several awards and represented the club in writing and speech contests at the area level.
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