Nutrient-dense and unique

In his book, Wild Edible Fungi author E. R. Boa details how the vast majority of recognized edible mushrooms cannot be cultivated, and must therefore be gathered from the woods by hand, making it prized as food and an income source for locals in Northern Italy and the hills of China alike.

Furthermore, long-term studies of mushroom picking in the mountains of Switzerland have shown that picking wild mushrooms has no impact on future harvests. That’s partly because mushroom harvesting is not a complete science, but also because mycelial structures are dramatically resilient.

Like a bio-internet, mycelial networks represent the main bulk of the biomass of the fungal kingdom, one of the six kingdoms of life. They weave through the soil and connect trees, soil microbes, and other plants to the animals above through the deployment of the mycelium’s fruiting body, which we call the mushroom.

This incredible form of life has been shown to transfer information and nutrients between plants, taking payment in the form of carbohydrates from trees in order to protect them from pests and bacteria.

As a food item, they are excellent sources of many important micronutrients and phytonutrients such as vitamin B2, 3, and 5, a host of minerals like copper and selenium, and a variety of carotenoids, indoles, and polyphenols, which serve as anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory agents.

Mushrooms cultivated for the supermarket likely contain negligible amounts of vitamin D, but due to the fungal presence of a substance called ergosterol, a wild mushroom which has exposure to UV light can contain up to 1,500 IUs of vitamin D3 and D2, something which is very rare in most unfortified foods.

Medicinal effects

A study of 663 elderly Chinese found that those who consumed two servings of mushrooms per week had a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment, while two epidemiological studies found a prevention in the growth of amyloid proteins in the brains of older people which cause Alzheimer’s.

That’s only what Harvard decided to note on their website, but the depth of medical studies on mushrooms is breathtaking.

Studies have shown that Reishi mushroom, which is considered a valuable remedy in Chinese medicine, protects the liver, significantly inhibits allergic reactions, and activates immune cells, particularly ones that kill tumor cells.

A South Korean study found that white blood cells treated with the chaga mushroom showed 40% less DNA damage than those that didn’t. Like the scratching of a disk, DNA damage drives many of the chronic diseases in our society.

In the journal Agriculture and Food Chemistry Lion’s Mane mushroom, commonly sold in supplement stores, was shown to confer too many protective effects to list, and was described as having exceptional nutritional and health-promoting aspects.

These are just some of the species cultivated for commercial sale and consumption. Like animals, fungi evolved special defense mechanisms against pathogens, such as penicillin, and those that live in a wild environment, rather than a controlled one, are likely to be far richer in these health-promoting compounds.

Gathering mushrooms is a wonderful excuse to go walking in the forest, and joining local community foraging groups to learn first-hand expert knowledge on mushroom species is a much better way to start foraging than with a guidebook. WaL

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