Breast Cancer Defense Now in Fungus Form

When it comes to avoiding breast cancer, a woman’s best nutritional defense may be in the form of a fungus.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Cancer, women that consume at least 10 ounces of mushrooms per day cut their risk of getting breast cancer by nearly 66 percent!

Australian researchers discovered this after recruiting over 2,000 women of Asian descent, half of whom had already been diagnosed with breast cancer.  After analyzing their diets and controlling for contributing factors (e.g. age, family history, exercise, etc.), they found that those women whose diets had a mishmash of mushrooms were the ones most likely to be free of breast cancer (In an interesting aside, when they factored green tea consumption into their analysis, those with the highest consumptions were 90 percent less likely to have breast cancer!).

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Western Australia, located in the country’s capital city of Perth.

No doubt, mushrooms are one of the greatest vegetables out there from a standpoint of nutrition.  They’re extremely low in calories (one cup of sliced mushrooms has 15 calories), and are loaded with potassium (one cup=220 mg), an essential nutrient to maintaining a balanced level of electrolytes in the body.  Mushrooms are also the only vegetable that contains vitamin D naturally – the vitamin that’s been in the news a whole heck of a lot lately.

And let’s not forget selenium.  You certainly don’t hear as much about selenium as you do about vitamin D, but don’t let its publicity problems fool you into believing it’s an unimportant mineral – particularly for men.  The National Institute of Health found it to be key for their fertility, and the American Dietetic Association says selenium is one of the best natural anti-aging minerals known to man.

Going back to the study, you may be wondering just how much 10 ounces of mushrooms actually is, because if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably forgotten your conversion tables.  Well, lucky for you, I’ve done all the hard work.

Roughly speaking, 10 ounces of mushrooms is about 300 grams.  And 84 grams of mushrooms is the equivalent of one serving of mushrooms.  So we’re talking about three cups of button mushrooms per day.

Now, that might sound like a lot, but try and fit some white button mushrooms into a measuring cup – three or four of them will fill it to the brim.

It’s easy to implement mushrooms in your diet.  Besides their being awesome additions to tossed salads, you can use a large portabella mushroom in your sandwich (its meaty texture makes it a great sandwich filler), slice up some mushrooms for use in marinara sauces, or sauté them with lean poultry, like chicken breast or turkey.

Any mushroom is OK in my book, but if you’re looking for the mushroom with the best nutritional profile overall…there’s no one winner.  Each variety has its own positives (for example, the white button mushroom is lowest in calories, the crimini mushroom is highest in selenium, the portabella mushroom is highest in potassium).

Whichever you choose, and however you slice it, get the world’s most fabulous fungus into your diet.

Sources
naturalnews.com
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
mushroomcouncil.com