Agaricus bisporus white mushroom

White button mushrooms

 Aromatase is an enzyme that turns androgens man hormones into estrogens lady hormones. This is most important in the development of hormone dependent cancers, which is why foods that have anti-aromatase activity are heavily studied so that drug companies can figure out how to make drugs with the same activity. White button mushrooms are one of the foods that you will find in these studies, though I suspect that most mushrooms have the same benefits white buttons are just the cheapest, so probably they are the easiest to study in large amounts – that is purely my speculation though. If you’re going to go off the deep end on eating mushrooms, make sure that you cook them first (in grassfed butter!. Eating raw mushrooms in large amounts can expose you to a toxin inherent in mushrooms which is broken down when they are exposed to heat.

Mushrooms are among the many foods thought to play an important role in keeping the immune system healthy. Now, Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists have conducted an animal-model and cell-culture study showing that white button mushrooms enhanced the activity of critical cells in the body's immune system.

In the United States, white button mushrooms represent 90 percent of the total mushrooms consumed.

The study was conducted at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University by center director Simin Meydani, colleague Dayong Wu, and others.

The results suggest that white button mushrooms may promote immune function by increasing production of antiviral and other proteins that are released by cells while seeking to protect and repair tissue.

Wu and co-investigators are with the HNRCA Nutritional Immunology Laboratory in Boston, Mass. The study's cell-culture phase showed that white button mushrooms enhanced the maturity of immune system cells called "dendritic cells," from bone marrow.

Dendritic cells can make T cells - important white blood cells that can recognize and eventually deactivate or destroy antigens on invading microbes.

When immune system cells are exposed to disease-causing pathogens, such as bacteria, the body begins to increase the number and function of immune system cells, according to Meydani. People need an adequate supply of nutrients to produce an adequate defense against the pathogen. The key is to prevent deficiencies that can compromise the immune system.

The study appears in a 2008 issue of Journal of Nutrition.

Read more about this and other research related to improving health through nutrition in the July 2010 issue of Agricultural Research magazine, available online at:http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul10/immunity0710.htm

Agaricus bisporus known variously when white as common mushroom, button mushroom, white mushroom, cultivated mushroom, table mushroom, champignon mushroom, cremini/crimini mushroom, when brown as Swiss brown mushroom,Roman brown mushroom, Italian brown, Italian mushroom, brown cap mushrooms, chestnut mushroom, and when mature as Portobello mushroomis an edible basidiomycete mushroom native to grasslands in Europe and North America. Agaricus bisporus is cultivated in more than 70 countries and is one of the most commonly and widely consumed mushrooms in the world.