Mushroom Health Benefits

Dr. Maishong Ni, author of Secrets of Longevity: Hundreds of Ways to Live to be 100, calls mushrooms “the ultimate longevity food.” Why? Mushrooms are super foods.

Just like humans, mushrooms can make their own vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D helps keep bones, hair, skin and nails strong and healthy, and it also helps ward off disease.

Mushrooms are also a good source of B vitamins: niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, folate, vitamin B6, biotin, and pantothenic acid.

Collectively, these vitamins may help to relieve stress, depression, and fatigue. Mushrooms are rich in antioxidants, which help cells in the body fight dangerous oxygen molecules called free radicals. Free radicals may play a role in serious illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

Mushrooms are less than 45 calories per serving and a good meat substitute.

It’s no wonder that ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese and Japanese cultures believed mushrooms contained the secret to super-human strength and godlike euphoria.

Today, what is known of mushrooms is no less fantastic, but rooted in years of scientific evidence and research, rather than superstition.