We are constantly being exhorted to eat five servings of fruit or vegetables a day, cut down on red meat, eat more fish and so on. But very few mention that other kingdom of gastronomic delights, fungi. What nutritional value does your average edible fungus have?
鈥� Until recently the village of Bourr茅 in central France, where I live, was a major production centre for mushrooms. Now all we have left is an artisanal operation as a tourist attraction.
However, the two kinds of mushrooms which were the mainstays of the industry are still produced here: Agaricus bisporus, or champignon de Paris, which in English tends to be simply called a 鈥渕ushroom鈥�; and Lentinula edodes, the shiitake mushroom. The former has slightly more than 3 grams of protein per 100 grams, and a range of trace minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese. It also contains vitamin C and several B vitamins. Shiitake mushrooms contain rather more zinc but are lower in protein and vitamin C.
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As a vegetarian I find mushrooms invaluable as a way of providing some variation in the texture of my food. They tend to go well with many sauces usually designed for meat. Nutritionally, they compare reasonably well with other foods from non-animal sources. And cooked properly, in olive oil with garlic and thyme, for example, they taste great.
Steve McGiffen, Bourr茅, Loir-et-Cher, France
鈥� Fungi, mostly represented by mushrooms and truffles, are edible, nutritionally rich organisms. Mushrooms are an excellent source of proteins, minerals and dietary fibre, with only small quantities of fats, cholesterol and fatty acids. They are also a source of three essential B vitamins 鈥� riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid 鈥� along with other vitamin groups. All told, mushrooms make an exceptionally good foodstuff for people with diabetes or high cholesterol.
Several Basidiomycetes species have been reported to contain phytochemicals that might be beneficial in the fields of immunology and cardiology, while preliminary results on the effect of lectin from the common edible mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, have shown some potential for treating psoriasis.
Saikat Basu, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada