Whether you suffer from a poor immune system, high blood pressure, diabetes or a range of other health ailments, a local author believes mushrooms may be exactly the cure you’re looking for.
There are more than 150,000 species of mushrooms, and each species offers different benefits.
Robert Rogers, who has spent more than a decade studying fungi, even recently writing a book called “The Fungal Pharmacy,” says one of the most important component in mushrooms are beta glucans, which have the ability to regulate the immune system.
“If your immune system is working sub-par and you need some boosting, for example in acute illness, it ramps up your immune system. If you have autoimmune responses like rheumatoid arthritis, it damps it down,” he said.
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“And they have other compounds that are useful for Type 2 diabetes, various kinds of respiratory problems, kidney problems, some of them are sexual tonics.”
When it comes to lowering high cholesterol, Rogers says two meals of oyster mushrooms a week would make a difference.
Michael Avenati, of Mo-Na Food Distributors sells his mushrooms to local restaurants and has been seeing a growing trend. “People are starting to eat better and explore more options for food,” he said. “I think people have looked closer at the foods they’re choosing and mushrooms do have plenty of good quality nutrition to offer people.”
Still, Rogers, who teaches a herbology class at MacEwan University, thinks we still have a long way to go before we fully utilize the pharmaceutical potential of mushrooms.
“Canada is really much behind the scenes in terms of the world usage of medicinal mushrooms and these can be picked any time of the year.”
Of the 150,000 species of mushrooms that exist around the world, we only know about 10 percent of them.
With files from Su-Ling Goh.
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