Crimini Mushrooms

Health Benefits
(Source: World's Healthiest Foods, George Mateljan)

Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Benefits from Crimini Mushrooms

As the world's most widely enjoyed mushroom varieties, button mushrooms (including crimini) make what can only be described as an outstanding contribution to human nourishment and health. Highlighting the contribution of crimini are their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

As a fungus, crimini mushrooms are unusual in their macronutrient content. Many foods provide us with proteins and carbohydrates. But few foods provide us with the unique forms of these macronutrients that are found in crimini. In the protein category, perhaps the most unique protein component in crimini is the sulfur-containing amino acid known as ergothioneine. This amino acid is derived from the more common amino acid, histidine, and it has well-documented antioxidant benefits. In fact, not only has ergothioneine been shown to function as an antioxidant, but in animal studies it has also been shown to protect against chronic oxidative stress. Ergothioneine not only provides us with antioxidant support, but with immune support as well, since it helps protect immune cells from oxidative damage. Research studies have also confirmed the ability of our body to uptake ergothioneine following consumption of crimini mushrooms.

In the carbohydrate category, crimini also provides us with unique nourishment. Here the research has focused on two types of polysaccharides: the glucans (especially beta-glucan) and the heterogalactans (especially fucogalactan). It is the anti-inflammatory nature of these polysaccharides that has received the most research attention. The glucans and heterogalactans in crimini are known to function in an anti-inflammatory capacity by inhibiting the activity of enzymes like cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). They are also known to help reduce inflammatory cell signaling. In addition, the unique polysaccharides in crimini mushrooms can help to stimulate immune function, especially within our digestive tract. Macrophages—the larger-sized white blood cells that are important for many types of immunity—have been shown to undergo increased activation following intake of crimini polysaccharides. In addition, one of our first lines of defense along the linings of our body cavities (including our GI tract) is the production of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA). Researchers have determined that SIgA can be activated by intake of button mushrooms thanks to their polysaccharide content. In human studies, approximately one cup of blanched white button mushrooms per day over a period of three weeks has been shown to increase body levels of SIgA. So, as you can see, the proteins and carbs provided by crimini mushrooms go beyond the proteins and carbs found in most foods with respect to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.

In addition to the unique macronutrient composition of these mushrooms are three key minerals provided by crimini that provide us with antioxidant protection. The first of these minerals is selenium, which is required for proper functioning of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase. Crimini are an excellent source of selenium. The other two minerals are manganese and zinc. These minerals are required for proper functioning of the enzyme superoxide dismutase. Crimini mushrooms are a good to very good source of both minerals.

Broad-Based Nutrient Support from Crimini Mushrooms

In addition to the macronutrient benefits described earlier is the extensive micronutrient support that we get from crimini mushrooms. This unique food is a ranked source of eight different vitamins and six different minerals. In the excellent category you will find the minerals copper, selenium, and phosphorus, as well as the vitamins B2, B3, and pantothenic acid. In the very good category you will find the minerals potassium and zinc, together with vitamin B1. And in the good category you will find manganese, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, and folate. What you are looking at in this list is a single 16-calorie serving of a single food that provides good, very good, or excellent amounts of 50% of all micronutrients that we analyze on our website.

With respect to vitamin B12, however, we do need to add one cautionary note. Throughout our website, we use an up-to-date and comprehensive nutrient database to help us assess the nutrient composition of our foods. Based on this data, we rank crimini mushrooms as a good source of vitamin B12. In fact, crimini mushrooms are our only ranked non-animal source of this vitamin. Despite the database values for B12, however, we believe that the jury is still out on the reliability of crimini mushrooms as a source of vitamin B12. For us, this area of research involves three types of controversy. First, vitamin B12 is not always detected in mushrooms, including crimini mushrooms. Second, when B12 is detected in mushrooms, it is usually found on the outermost portions of the mushrooms, suggesting that bacteria on the mushroom surface may have produced the vitamin B12 rather than the mushrooms themselves. And third, the chemical structure of vitamin B12 found on some mushrooms, while based on the corrin-type ring structure that is characteristic of vitamin B12, can have important differences from the form of B12 that provides us with full vitamin benefits. You may be getting an important B12 boost from consumption of crimini mushrooms! However, you also might not be, and based on the research evidence, we do not recommend that you rely on crimini mushrooms (or other fungi) as your primary source of vitamin B12.

In order to round out our description of the broad-based nutritional support provided by crimini mushrooms, it is important to mention some additional phytonutrients provided by this unique food. Crimini provides us with numerous phenolic acids including gallic, caffeic, ferulic, coumaric, and protocatechuic acid. It also provides us with lesser amounts of flavonoids and other polyphenols. All of these phytonutrients have well-documented antioxidant properties, and they often have well-establish anti-inflammatory properties as well.

Other Likely Health Benefits from Crimini Mushrooms

Throughout our website, we strive to provide you with health benefit information that is based on human studies involving large numbers of people who consume foods in an everyday way. For the most part, we simply do not have studies of this type to document the likely healthy benefits of crimini mushrooms for specific health problems. For the most part, health-based research on crimini mushrooms has involved animal studies or lab analysis of purified extracts or purified components. But we have seen many promising findings in these non-human studies and several small-scale human studies with encouraging outcomes as well.

Animal and lab studies on crimini mushroom powders, extracts, and isolated components have focused on two general areas of health problems: cardiovascular problems and progression of various cancer types. In the cardiovascular category, we have seen multiple studies in which consumption of mushroom extracts has improved blood fat levels, especially levels of triglycerides. In addition, there are a good number of studies showing blood vessel and blood cell protection from oxidation following intake of crimini mushroom powders and extracts. These findings make good sense to us, given the rich antioxidant content of this food.

In the area of cancer progression, we have seen what researchers refer to "anti-tumor" activity following consumption of mushroom extracts by rats and mice, particularly with respect to breast cancers. However, extracts from white button mushrooms have typically been analyzed in these studies, rather than extracts from brown button (crimini) mushrooms. In addition, we have seen less consistent evidence in these white button mushroom studies than found in studies of other mushroom types—for example, shiitake, reishi or Lion's mane mushrooms. Still, it makes sense to us for crimini mushrooms to help lower cancer risk since their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits are well-documented, and risk of many cancer types is increased by chronic unwanted oxidative stress and chronic undesirable inflammation.

In the category of small-scale human studies, we were excited to see a recent study on intake of crimini mushrooms and Metabolic Syndrome. Middle-aged participants in the study consumed approximately one cup of cooked, sliced crimini (white button) mushrooms per day over a period of four months. All participants in the study had been previously diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome. Results of the study showed that the total antioxidant capacity in the bloodstream of the participants increased, and that their level of oxidative stress (as measured by the amount of carboxymethyllysine in their blood serum) decreased. In addition, levels of ergothioneine, a sulfur-containing and antioxidant amino acid, were found to double in the participants' lab results. While many people might not want to consume this amount of crimini mushrooms on a daily basis, we suspect that less frequent consumption would also have resulted in important antioxidant benefits, although probably not as extensive as the benefits demonstrated in this study.

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