According to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Eating mushrooms offer health benefits; Pennsylvania Mushroom eating is linked to decreased cancer risk, according to a new study published in May 2021. According to another study published by researchers, people who consume mushrooms are less likely to die early. The researchers have now published a third mushroom study.
According to the studies, persons who consume mushrooms in moderation are less likely to suffer from depression. There has been minimal investigation on the antidepressant benefits of mushrooms. Small clinical trials on what are mushrooms good for with less than 100 participants were the norm in previous studies.
The Mental Health Foundation’s Dr. David Crepaz-Keay, who was not engaged in the latest study but evaluated it for MNT, assessed the findings.
What the Investigation Discovered
There were 24,699 participants in total, and each one of them completed the questionnaires twice. They needed to recall all of their food intakes to conduct these surveys. Women of non-Hispanic ethnicity who had completed college were the most likely to report eating mushrooms when polled. Depressive disorders affected 5.9% of the participants in the study as a whole.
Researchers know the mushrooms extract benefits with studies of some participants who ate mushrooms made up 5.2 percent of the group. The researchers split these mushroom eaters into three categories based on how much they consumed.
They found that only those who ate a median amount of mushrooms (4.9 grams [g] per day) were shown to have a reduced risk of depression.
Curiously, individuals who consumed the most mushrooms (19.6 g daily) showed no reduction in depression at all. This suggests that a median consumption is optimal for people suffering from depression.
It’s possible that “the number of study participants [who] consumed half-a-serving sizes of mushrooms or more was fairly tiny, so it could just be statistical variance.”
Possible Underlying Mechanisms
Mushrooms are the largest dietary supply of the amino acid ergothioneine – and anti-inflammatory that humans cannot produce, says study author Dr. Djibril Ba, Ph.D., M.P.H. Antioxidative stress can lead to depression. Thus, it’s important to have high levels of this.”
Potassium is another factor that could play a role. Among the most popular mushroom varieties in the United States are button mushrooms. Researchers have found that taking potassium supplements can help with anxiety symptoms in certain studies.
Caveats by the Researchers
The researchers list the study’s limitations.
Data analysis could not detect the relative depressive value of individual mushroom types since it did not include information on which mushrooms participants ate.
Second, the participants’ mushroom intakes were computed using USDA recipe codes, which may or may not correctly reflect the participants’ recipes. This is a potential issue.
Last but not least, it may or may not have been accurate to use 24-hour self-reported food consumption. It’s possible that the link between mushroom consumption and depression risk was overestimated due to “non-differential measurement error.” They’re absolutely correct in their assertions.
Final Words
Starting with this study, researchers hope to understand better the role of mushrooms in reducing depressive symptoms and other mushroom benefits. It supports the premise that plant meals rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are linked to good mental health and open new study paths.
