Want to lose weight?

If you are, like me, a woman between the age of 30 and 50 and have a presence on social networking sites, you must share my frustration with the ads. Literally, all of them tell me I must click on them to learn this one "weird tip" on how to lose weight. And you know what that tip is? "Eat less, exercise more". Yep. Bad news. There is no other way to shed those pounds.

Agaricus bisporus, an often-
overlooked wonder food

Now, unless you are an active forager, mushrooms are not likely to help you with exercise. However, they can help you to eat less, or rather, significantly lower the calorie content of your food. This is because the energy content of 100 grams of mushrooms is just 16 kilocalories. For comparison, 100 grams of lean beef mince contain 173 kcal, and 100 grams of pork contain 263 kcal. The only foods with similarly low values are celery (14kcal), lettuce (14kcal) and cucumber (16kcal). However, none of these you can add to pasta sauce or a stew, while mushrooms will do just fine. Substitute half of your meat with mushrooms, and the calorie value of your dish will, too, drop by half. What's more, the meal will seem to be just as filling since you'd be consuming the same volume of food, and it will taste just as great because mushrooms would absorb and enhance any flavours already present.

Shiitake: packed with goodness,
waiting for you at local supermarket

I think everybody should love mushrooms just for this one wondrous property, but they have to offer even more. They are a great source of dietary fibre, five types of vitamin B and several essential minerals. Some exotic varieties offer significant health benefits, such as antimicrobial and antiviral properties, and even lowering the risk of breast and prostate cancer. But even the most mundane and widely available kinds are surprisingly good. Thus, white button mushrooms contain large amounts of powerful antioxidants (these protect your cells from damage and slow down ageing), and shiitake mushrooms will boost your immune system, lower blood cholesterol and help prevent heart disease. So, get some next time you go past the mushroom isle in your local supermarket. They are all good for you.

Image credits:
Agaricus bisporus, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license;
Shiitake mushroom, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.