(Tom: If you consume my top bars or NutriBlast Greens+ or Greens+ Vegan you will be very pleased to know that they contain 8 medicinal mushrooms: Agrikon, Blazei, Chaga, Cordyceps, Maitake, Mesima Sang Huang, Reishi and Shiitake. Not to dissuade you from eating extra mushrroms as there is a limit to what I can cram into a 10 gram serving but just to show you that I am working hard to deliver the best nutrition I can with my ingredients.)
Numerous studies have shown that regular consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with reduced risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and all-cause mortality. And although technically not a vegetable, edible mushrooms (a fungus) are definitely in the healthy food group.
Mushrooms are known for their immune boosting and anticancer properties. Mushrooms are rich in bioactive compounds, including phytochemicals (alkaloids, phenolic acids, flavonoids, carotenoids), polysaccharides (like beta glucans), selenium, vitamins B, C, D, niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, and the powerful antioxidants ergothioneine and glutathione.
The largest meta-analyses on mushrooms and cancer ever, which was just published, found that people who ate 18 grams of mushrooms per day, which is just two medium-sized mushrooms, had a 45 percent lower risk of cancer compared to those who didn’t eat mushrooms.
The researchers evaluated 17 studies from 1966 to 2020, which included over 19,500 cancer patients.
“Mushrooms are the highest dietary source of ergothioneine, which is a unique and potent antioxidant and cellular protector,” said Djibril M. Ba, a graduate student in epidemiology at Penn State College of Medicine. “Replenishing antioxidants in the body may help protect against oxidative stress and lower the risk of cancer.”