HARNESS THE POWER OF NATURE

• Mushrooms contain more selenium than any vegetable or fruit: Nearly 40 % of the daily recommended allowance of the trace mineral can be found in just four cremini mushroom.
  
• Selenium is an antioxidant, essential for the production of enzymes and proteins (called selenoproteins) that help make DNA and protect against cell damage and infection. “Our DNA is part of our body’s defense system protecting us from environmental harms,” says Li.
  
• Evidence also suggests selenium may combat the blues. In a 2018 review in the journal Nutrients, researchers linked a diet high in selenium to reduced susceptibility to depression; they believe that it may help defend the nervous system against oxidative stress. “There is a strong connection between inflammation and depres­sion,” says integrative-medicine physician and herbalist Aviva Romm, MD. “Selenium’s ability to protect cells and DNA from inflammatory damage makes it an important nutrient.”

• A 2014 BMJ study found that almost 70% of the U.S. population has an insufficient level of vitamin D. A raft of studies connect a vitamin D deficit to several types of cancer as well as type 1 and type 2 diabetes and a host of  autoimmune diseases. New research also suggests that vitamin-D deficiency may increase the risk of contracting COVID-19.
  
• We get vitamin D from the sun and from food, but mushrooms are our only nonfortified edible source.
  
• A cup of maitake mushrooms (a.k.a. hen of the woods) has 99% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin D. Not all varieties have that robust amount; it depends on their exposure to sunlight. Like humans, mushrooms require sunlight to make vitamin D, so wild-growing mushrooms, such as chanterelles and morels, contain more than commercially grown varieties, like the white button, which are often grown in the dark.
  
• Today, many commercial mushroom growers boost their harvests’ vitamin-D levels by exposing the mushrooms to sunlight or UV rays after picking.
  
• After being exposed to UV light, five white button mushrooms, four cremini, or one portobello each provide more than a person’s daily dose of D. (Look for “UV-treated,” “UV-B,” or “rich in vitamin D” on the label.)
• You can boost vitamin D yourself by placing mushrooms in the sun. Maryland’s Nutrient Data Laboratory reported that exposing portobellos to UV light for 15 to 20 seconds caused their vitamin D2 to increase from 0.2 mcg to 11.2 mcg.

• Mushrooms are packed with these powerful antioxidants, which help mitigate inflammation and oxidation, two drivers that accelerate aging and fuel diseases like cancer, heart disease, and dementia.
  
• The body can’t make ergothioneine, so we must get it from food.
  This used to be easier: In the past, tiny amounts of ergothioneine — found in underground fungal networks — made their way into many foods. Millions of miles of fungal networks crisscrossed healthy soil, and plants grown in it absorbed ­ergothioneine through their roots. Animals grazing on those plants collected more in their bodies, and hence the nutrient moved up the food chain.
  
• Conventional farming that employs aggressive tillage of the soil appears to be disrupting the fungal networks that pass ergothioneine to plants, thereby reducing its availability. This may significantly affect our long-term health, says Robert Beelman, PhD, professor emeritus of food science and director of the Penn State Center for Plant and Mushroom Products for Health. He notes that studies suggest ergothioneine levels in the American diet have dropped in the last century. Still, because mushrooms are basically “big balls of fungi,” says ­Beelman, they are the single best source of ergothioneine.

• Glutathione is another high-impact antioxidant. It guards each cell’s energy-producing factories — the mitochondria — from bacteria, viruses, and toxins.
• “Without a doubt, mushrooms are the highest dietary source of these two antioxidants taken together,” ­Beelman explains.
  

(Learn more about this superhero antioxidant that battles toxicity, chronic disease, and premature aging at “Glutathione: The Great Protector“.)