image by: Rob Wunder

HWN Suggests

How the lowly mushroom is becoming a nutritional star

Mushrooms are often considered only for their culinary use because they are packed with flavor-enhancers and have gourmet appeal. That is probably why they are the second most popular pizza topping, next to pepperoni.

In the past, food scientists like me often praised mushrooms as healthy because of what they don’t contribute to the diet; they contain no cholesterol and gluten and are low in fat, sugars, sodium and calories. But that was selling mushrooms short. They are very healthy foods and could have medicinal properties, because they are good sources of protein, B-vitamins, fiber, immune-enhancing sugars found in the cell walls called beta-glucans, and other bioactive compounds.

Mushrooms…

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Previously Featured

Are Mushrooms Healthy? Here's What Experts Say

The versatile mushroom comes in all different shapes, sizes and colors; it stands up as a side and can replace meat as a main. The fungus is a favorite of nutrition professionals — packed with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Here’s what mushrooms can do for your health, and how to work them into your diet.

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Resources

4 benefits of eating mushrooms

A mushrooming list of reasons to embrace fungi. Even setting aside magic mushrooms, our favorite fungal fruiting bodies supposedly have some spectacular health benefits. Mushrooms are verging on a superfood at this stage. Search for the benefits of eating mushrooms and you’ll turn up pages of info about how they can treat or prevent everything from cancer to heart disease.

The Hawaii Fungi Project

We are Hawaii’s citizen-science driven effort to studying, mapping, & preserving the mushrooms of Hawaii