Mushrooms: are they good for you?

What’s on this page

• Are mushrooms vegetables?
• Can you eat uncooked mushrooms?
• Mushroom benefits
• Mushroom nutrition
• Mushrooms and vitamin D
• Mushroom coffee, supplements and teas
• Are mushrooms good for health?

Are mushrooms vegetables?

Often mistaken for vegetables, mushrooms are actually fungi. However, nutritionally they are similar to vegetables and count towards your 5-a-day fruit and vegetables portions. 

Can you eat uncooked mushrooms?

Mushrooms can be broadly split into two types: edible and medicinal.

Edible mushrooms can be eaten raw, dried, or cooked. The most common type is the button mushroom, but these days you can find many more varieties like portobello, shiitake, porcini, chanterelle, maitake, enoki, morel, cremini, and oyster mushrooms.

They are a versatile ingredient in many cooking styles as they provide a variety of flavours and textures. But be careful with wild mushrooms as some can be poisonous.

Medicinal mushrooms have a long history of use in Eastern medicine and are now popular for their claimed health benefits, such as boosting immunity and energy levels, or improving heart health.

They include mushrooms like chaga, lion’s mane, tremella, reishi, cordyceps, king trumpet, and turkey tail. These are mostly consumed as extracts or powders because they can be too tough to eat in their whole form.

Mushroom benefits

All varieties of mushrooms are low in calories and saturated fat making them a healthy addition to your diet.

While they do not contain as much protein as meat, they have more than most vegetables, making them a good source of plant-based protein. Along with their diverse textures and rich savoury flavour, this makes mushrooms a great low-fat alternative to meat.

Although they do not have a high concentration of nutrients, such as fibre, vitamins and minerals, they can still boost your intake of fibre and potassium, especially if you include them as part of your 5-a-day. Higher intakes of fibre and potassium can help lower blood pressure and keep you heart healthy.

Mushrooms and vitamin D

A unique benefit of mushrooms is their potential to provide a dietary source of vitamin D, which is rare in plant foods.

When mushrooms are exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet (UV) light during their growth, by manufacturers or in the wild, they can produce up to 400 IU of vitamin D per 80g. This is the amount the NHS recommends that everyone over the age of 1 should consider taking daily.  

Adding mushrooms to your diet can help you get more vitamin D, especially during the winter months when sunlight exposure is limited. Look out for labels that say, ‘high in vitamin D’.  

Mushroom coffee, supplements and teas 

Mushrooms also contain polyphenols – antioxidants and other plant chemicals – that are linked to better gut and heart health.

As a result, there has been a rising trend in products like medicinal mushroom-infused teas and coffees and powders and capsules sold as mushroom supplements, all boasting health benefits, including promoting heart health. However, the evidence supporting these claims is not strong.

Most of the research comes from lab studies or animal experiments, often using high doses of specific mushroom compounds. While these studies suggest mushrooms can help reduce inflammation, protect cells from damage, and prevent blood clots, these findings have not been consistently proven in human studies.

The takeaway: are mushrooms good for health?

Mushrooms are not a magic bullet for health, but they are a healthy addition to your overall diet.

There’s little convincing evidence that they protect your heart. If you come across heart-health claims on mushroom-based products, consider choosing fresh or dried mushrooms instead of powders, coffees and supplements to get the full benefits of the whole mushroom.

And if you're thinking about taking supplements, it's important to talk to your doctor first. 

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