What are the Health Benefits of Mushrooms?

A portobello mushroom lightly breaded and sauteed on a hamburger bun with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes and some leafy greens is unbelievably delicious and a great substitute for a hamburger. Very filling, too!

I am not surprised to read that prehistoric people gathered and ate mushrooms. We have mushrooms growing in our timber and I always start looking for them around the first part of May. The weather can have a big impact on how many I find, but I try to get to them before our horses eat them.

Because I grew up going mushroom hunting with my family, I know exactly which ones I am looking for. Some mushrooms may not be toxic, but don't really taste all that great.

I like to bring home a big sack of mushrooms and fry them in butter. My family can sit down and polish off a big plate of these in a hurry. There is nothing better than fresh mushrooms like this. It is just an added bonus that they are so healthy for us.

I don't like eating mushrooms. It is more the texture of them than anything else, because I don't think they really have any taste at all. It doesn't matter how they have been prepared, I just don't like them. When I am looking for foods that give me a lot of benefits, mushrooms are not on my list.

My husband, on the other hand, loves them. If I make pizza at home, I put a lot of mushrooms on his side of the pizza. This is easy to do when you are making something like pizza, but much harder to do if you are adding them to a casserole or salad.

Wow -- it sounds like everybody could benefit from eating more mushrooms. I was especially interested in the positive results they have seen with mushrooms and Alzheimer's disease.

This terrible disease runs in my family, and I am trying to take precautions early and do as many things as I know to possibly prevent it. I have been looking at alternative ways of doing this, and it looks like I have found another one.

Most vegetables lose a lot of their nutrients after being cooked. I like the fact that this doesn't happen with mushrooms.

I had no idea mushrooms had so many health benefits. I was also very pleasantly surprised to read that you could substitute meat with mushrooms. I am not a vegetarian, but am trying to cut a lot of the meat out of my diet. I have been looking for things that give me the same 'full feeling' that meat gives me. Since I enjoy the taste of mushrooms, this is something I am going to start enjoying a lot more often.

@sunnySkys - That's probably a good idea. All things in moderation, I always say. And as the article said, make sure you buy your mushrooms from the store unless you know what you're doing. I just read an article a little while ago about a woman who poisoned her whole family with wild mushrooms she had collected.

I had no idea that there were so many mushroom benefits. I like mushrooms okay, but I don't really eat them too often. I think I'm going to start trying to add mushrooms to a few meals a week.

Of course, I'm not going to go overboard. As the article said, it's not a good idea to eat mushrooms in excess. However, I guess that's true of most foods. It's healthiest to vary your diet some, and not eat the same stuff over and over again.

@LoriCharlie - That's funny about your friends. I actually have a few friends that aren't vegetarian, but hate mushrooms just the same. They say the slimy texture grosses them out, and they also don't like the fact that mushrooms are fungus. I personally think they're delicious and I don't care where they came form. It's not any grosser than eating meat.

@sputnik - Mushrooms are a great substitute for meat. I'm not a vegetarian, but I like to make some of my meals meatless. When I do that, I usually put mushrooms in. They're almost as satisfying to me as meat.

And, funnily enough, I have a few friends who are vegetarian that actually hate mushrooms. To them, mushrooms are too "meaty" and it really grosses them out. They aren't vegetarians that miss meat, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. But anyway, that was just more confirmation to me that mushroom really are kind of "meat-like."

Mushrooms are a good substitute for ground beef. They have less calories and are therefore good weight loss food.

Mushrooms such as portobello contain sizable amount of vitamin D, an important vitamin. Lack of vitamin D increases the risk of many diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.