Alternative Title: The Health Benefits of Mushrooms

Interest in the health and wellness benefits of mushrooms has been growing over the past couple decades, as interest in health and longevity has too. The medicinal potential of certain medicinal mushrooms has as well, and mushrooms as an alternative protein source too. If you read extensively about health, you will have found mentions of them frequently. Mushrooms are very common in Asia, and all over Europe. North America is often compared with these two areas in terms of health, which have much better health and lower rates of disease in most fields compared with North America. Three of the world’s ‘Blue Zones’ are in Europe and Asia. Mushrooms have also been used in traditional medicine, primarily in Asia, for thousands of years, and for more than a millennium in the Americas and Europe.

Ray Peat has recommended eating well cooked mushrooms to help keep the bowels clean and decrease estrogen. Eating mushrooms at least twice a week can have profound and cumulative benefits on health and wellness. Many studies have found clear links between rates of mushroom consumption, and decreased rates of nearly every disease, particularly cancer and common colds. Indeed, mushrooms are a potent food for healing, and a fundamental food for a diet of rich health. Mushrooms have been a mainstay of nearly every regional diet for all of history, when foraging for food was a necessity. One could draw clear correlations between health now versus a century or more ago, and this.

Common Edible Mushrooms:

• White / Button Mushrooms
• Cremini
• Shiitake
• Portobello
• Oyster
• King Oyster
• Enoki

Health Benefits of Mushrooms

1. Aromatase Inhibitor

All common edible mushrooms are aromatase inhibitors, varying in potency but all profoundly inhibiting estrogen. White or Button mushrooms are amongst the most powerful aromatase inhibitors, which is quite generous given its availability and affordability. This is also why mushrooms are often a recommended food for certain breast cancers, where inhibiting aromatase and decreasing estrogen is beneficial.

2. Insoluble Fiber

Mushrooms are rich in insoluble fiber, which binds to toxins and metabolites in the gut, facilitating their clearance from the body. This includes endotoxin, serotonin, and estrogen. Carrots or the ‘Ray Peat Carrot Salad’ achieve most of their benefits through this mechanism. In this regard, mushrooms can be seen as ‘just as good’ as the carrot salad for reducing excess estrogen, improving metabolism, and hormones.

3. Antioxidants

Mushrooms are a good source of antioxidants, as well as increasing antioxidant status in the body. Increasing antioxidants and decreasing oxidative stress always has a host of benefits, such as improving metabolism by protecting mitochondria, as well as protecting against the toxic effects of PUFAs just like Vitamin E. Antioxidants also decrease lipid peroxidation, glycation (such as Advanced Glycation End Products), and the effects of excess iron or ferroptosis.

4. Antimicrobial

Since mushrooms and fungi live in the soil and grow in otherwise decomposing material, they have to compete with and fend off a great variety of microbes. Thus, mushrooms have a number of potent antimicrobial compounds which destroy various bacteria, yeasts, and other fungi, or inhibit their growth. These compounds positively modulate the gut microbiome, decreasing pathogenic bacteria and promoting beneficial bacteria or probiotics, as well as quelling overgrowths. This helps to reduce intestinal inflammation and endotoxin, which has a host of benefits on metabolism and physiology.

5. Immunity

Through the other effects and benefits listed here, as well as promoting and strengthening immunity through a variety of ways, mushrooms benefit immunity and help protect against infections. People who eat mushrooms regularly experience much less colds and similar illnesses. This also helps with longevity and an overall state of wellness and even freedom in life.

6. Nutrition

Some mushrooms can be quite high in certain nutrients, and most mushrooms are excellent sources of selenium, trace minerals, and B vitamins. Shiitake for instance is quite high in copper, with a serving typically meeting the daily requirement for copper, making it an excellent source for those who can’t eat other sources like liver or oysters, to resolve a deficiency. This also makes it a great food overall for metabolism.

7. Anti-Inflammatory

Inflammation is decreased by mushrooms, which helps with a variety of conditions, particularly arthritis and bones, joint, or muscle aches. Chronic inflammation is a driver of many diseases and symptoms, and most toxic compounds or materials increase it. This means anti-inflammatory compounds reduce the negative effects of endotoxin and PUFAs. Sarcopenia or muscle-loss with age, benefits from lowering inflammation. Osteoporosis and some skin conditions do as well.

Note: If you dislike mushrooms, try a variety. White / Button mushrooms are the most common and ‘quintessential mushroom’, which can have a much different or ‘worse’ taste than say cremini, oyster, king oyster, and chanterelle mushrooms. Dried shiitake have a distinct smoky and savoury taste that differs greatly from fresh shiitake. Aversion to mushrooms is often aversion to white / button mushrooms themselves, which have a much earthier taste compared to the mild and sweet, almost butter-like taste of oyster mushrooms. The way you cook mushrooms also affects their taste, with simmered cremini mushrooms in a broth or soup tasting vastly different than typical sautéed or fried white mushrooms.