Adding mushroom to your diet makes it more nutritious: Study  

Adding a mushroom serving to the diet can increase the intake of several micronutrients, including shortfall nutrients such as vitamin D, without any increase in calories, sodium or fat, a new study suggests.

The findings indicated that adding an 84 grams serving of mushrooms increased several shortfall nutrients including potassium and fiber. This was true for the white, crimini and portabella 1:1:1 mix and oyster mushrooms.

"This research validated what we already knew that adding mushrooms to your plate is an effective way to reach the dietary goals identified by the DGA," said Mary Jo Feeney, nutrition research coordinator to the Mushroom Council in the US, who funded the study.

For the study, published in the journal Food Science and Nutrition, the team modeled the addition of mushrooms to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2016 dietary data.

The team looked at a composite of white, crimini and portabella mushrooms at a 1:1:1 ratio; one scenario including UV-light exposed mushrooms; and one scenario including oyster mushrooms for both 9 to 18 years and more than 19 years of age based on an 84g or half cup equivalent serving.

The addition a serving of 84 grams of mushrooms to the diet resulted in an increase in dietary fiber (5 per cent-6 per cent), copper (24 per cent-32 per cent), phosphorus (6 per cent), potassium (12 per cent-14 per cent), selenium (13 per cent-14 per cent).

It also showed increase in zinc (5 per cent-6 per cent), riboflavin (13 per cent-15 per cent), niacin (13 per cent-14 per cent), and choline (5 per cent-6 per cent) in both adolescents and adults; but had no impact on calories, carbohydrate, fat or sodium.

A serving of UV-light exposed commonly consumed mushrooms decreased population inadequacy for vitamin D from 95.3 per cent to 52.8 per cent for age group 9-18 years and from 94.9 per cent to 63.6 per cent for age group more than 19 years.