Mushrooms for Weight Loss

Mushrooms are full of hunger-quenching fiber and that “umami” taste that gives so much satisfaction after meals.

These are well-known reasons why eating mushroom can help in weight loss and maintenance. There may be another, more intriguing mechanism as well: just published in Nature Reviews are findings from China showing that extract of Ganoderma mushroom can modulate the gut microbiome, reducing obesity in mice. The mice were fed a high-fat diet, but after receiving extract from the mushroom Ganoderma lucidum, body weight and markers of inflammation and insulin resistance all decreased in the mice.

Ganoderma mushrooms are available at most Asian markets, and because the taste can be described as ‘tough’ and ‘woody’, they are not often used in cooking but rather made into a tea. And of course, one other important caveat is that this study was done in mice, not human beings, so there’s still more work to be done for us to fully understand how extract of Ganoderma can help reduce weight. In the meantime though, feel free to chow down on all those portabellas, shiitake, enoki, chanterelles and crimini mushrooms for all the benefits mentioned above.

Read more at:
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150623/ncomms8489/abs/ncomms8489.html

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