I talked the other day about the media attention surrounding olive oil. Well, not too far behind it you’ll find mushrooms. But unlike olive oil with its three or four different varieties, there are literally dozens of different kinds of mushrooms, and the ones you usually hear touted for their health benefits are the Asian varieties like shiitake and maitake. While these mushrooms are undeniably good for you, they’re not the most commonly consumed types. So unless you eat a lot of Chinese take-out, you’re probably not tapping into their full potential.
But recent research shows that you can get some significant protection against breast cancer from the mushrooms that most of us do eat on a regular basis: the white button variety you’ll find packaged in just about every supermarket in the country.
Researchers studied how several different kinds of mushrooms affected aromatase, an enzyme that helps the body make estrogen. (Excess estrogen can lead to cancer formation.) They found that not only did some common varieties of mushrooms block the action of aromatase in the body, but that the extracts of some of these mushrooms actually reduced the growth of breast cancer cells in test tubes and slowed tumor growth in experimental animals.
The researchers found that Portobello, cremini, and shiitake mushrooms all had positive effects, but white button mushrooms actually outranked them all and provided the strongest anti-cancer benefits. And it did so in a much smaller portion than you might expect.
According to the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Shiuan Chen, “You don’t need a strong effect to cause cancer prevention. Eating 100 grams or even less of mushrooms per day could have an effect on preventing new breast cancers.” That’s just a couple of ounces of mushrooms per day — maybe three or four decent-sized ones from a 16-ounce package. At that amount, you’ll barely even know they’re there in your diet — but your body certainly will.
Nutrition & Healing Source:
“Anti-aromatase activity of phytochemicals in white button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus),” Cancer Research 2006; 66(24): 12,026-12,034
