Health Benefits of Crimini Mushrooms

Crimini mushrooms are also known as cremini, baby bellas or Portabellini, They are button mushrooms with excellent health enhancing characteristics. They also have a great flavor so you will reap health benefits and good taste.

What does it make crimini a food with health enhancing properties?

Crimini mushroom have excellent nutritional properties. They contain vitamins of the B complex (B2, B3, B5) and a lot of minerals such as potassium (they are low in sodium), selenium, phosphorus. Selenium is a mineral with powerful antioxidant capacity. In addition you will find significant amount of manganese, zinc, an other minerals. Many of these minerals are cofactors of enzymes so by getting them you make your body enzymes work as its peak performance.

In addition to vitamins and minerals crimini mushrooms have a lot of phytonutrients with biological activity. For example crimini mushrooms are high in a phytonutrient called L-ergothioneine which is a potent antioxidant.

The conjugated-linoleic acid (CLA) present in crimini mushrooms may help the fight against breast cancer since some studies have shown that the high content of CLA in mushrooms inhibits an enzyme (called aromatase) involved in the metabolism of estrogen (it lowers the estrogen concentration within the body). Lowering estrogen levels may help and prevent breast cancer.

Another study, involving mushrooms, has shown that an extract of this food reduced significantly the growth of breast cancer cells. In addition to the effect of linoleic on estrogen levels, mushrooms may improve the body's immune system and possibly block tumor development.

Cooking crimini mushrooms

Good healthy food does not have to be boring. In fact if it is good tasting it will be easier to adopt a healthy food. Mushrooms can be cooked in many different ways. You can saute mushrooms. This way they will be a wonderful side dish for your meats and chicken dishes. You can add crimini mushrooms to your salads and vegetable stir-fry concoctions. Also, add them to your pastas, omelets, salads, soups, etc.

As you can see crimini mushrooms are a great good tasting food. In addition they have a lot of vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients that can add may beneficial effects to your diet.

Sources:

Sources:Dr. Shiuan Chen, Ph.D. Developing Breast Cancer Prevention from Natural Products (http://www.cbcrp.org/research/feature/schen.php)