Eating mushrooms every day nearly halves your chances of getting cancer.
People who eat 18 grams of mushrooms—roughly equivalent to four teaspoons—each day reduce their cancer risk by 45 percent. It doesn’t seem to matter too much which type of mushroom you eat as they all have a similar protective effect, say researchers from Penn State College of Medicine.
They’re certainly a super food, especially because they contain ergothioneine, a powerful antioxidant that protects against cancer, and mushrooms are the richest dietary source around, said lead researcher Djibril Ba.
His researchers analysed 17 cancer studies that involved more than 19,500 cancer patients. Those who ate mushrooms daily had the greatest protection, especially against breast cancer, although this may be because most of the studies focused on the cancer.
Participants were eating many varieties of mushroom, and although shiitake, oyster, maitake and king oyster had the highest levels of ergothioneine, all types of mushrooms seemed to have a similar protective effect.
(Source: Advances in Nutrition, 2021; doi: 10.1093/advances/nmab015)
