Health Benefits of Mushrooms

You certainly can't tell just by looking at them, but do you know that mushrooms have many attractive health benefits? Though not the most attractive foods to look at, mushrooms pack quite a punch in nutritious appeal. Mushrooms contain many vitamins and minerals needed for good health and to ward off many harmful diseases.

That's right. Mushrooms are pretty nutritious foods. Mushrooms strengthen the immune system by helping to fight cancer, lower high cholesterol and may even be able to fight AIDS!

Laboratory studies show that polysaccharides, complex sugars, found in mushrooms known as beta-glucans are able to prevent HIV from killing T cells in the body. T cells are the white blood cells in the body that fights viruses and diseases such as HIV and AIDS among others. Shitake and maitake mushrooms have proven themselves to be effective in boosting the immune system. So researchers tested the effects of these two mushrooms and others against HIV and with some success they found that mushrooms may help to prevent HIV from killing T cells.

Another health benefit of mushrooms is that they help to lower high cholesterol. Mushrooms are some of the foods that lower high cholesterol. Researchers point to the compound, eritademine, found in mushrooms that lowers high cholesterol.

Feeling fatigued and weary? Don't stress, just add mushrooms to your diet. Mushrooms have the health benefit of fighting fatigue and stress. Mushrooms are excellent sources of vitamin B, namely niacin and riboflavin that help the body to stay healthy and functional.

Mushrooms are also good for more than mere eating. Mushrooms help the body to fight cancer as research suggest that mushrooms may help prevent breast cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women. Mushrooms contain the compound, conjugated linoleic acid, which inhibits aromatase, the protein in the body that makes estrogen. When the body is able to control its estrogen levels, it is less likely to develop breast cancer than when estrogen levels are high. So eating about 3 ½ ounces of mushrooms a day could help prevent breast cancer.

But not only do mushrooms control estrogen levels and prevent breast cancer, they also protect the body against cancers in general. Polysaccharides such as lentinan and beta-glucan have been shown in laboratory studies to shrink tumors and fight against a range of cancers.

Mushrooms are really nutritious foods. But experts warn that eating too much uncooked mushrooms can cause tumors. Raw mushrooms contain a toxic chemical called hydrazine that has been shown in studies to cause tumors. Though no one really knows how many raw mushrooms people have to eat for mushrooms to become toxic, experts recommend that eating cooked mushrooms. When mushrooms are cooked, the toxic hydrazine compound is destroyed. So bear this in mind when you are eating mushrooms to reap their many health benefits.