Mushrooms may boost your immunity

A mushroom class inhabitant to Asia may boost immunity when eaten daily, a new study has claimed.

Scientists discovered increased immunity in people who ate a cooked shiitake mushroom every day for four weeks.

In the research conducted by UF Food Science and Human Nutrition Professor Sue Percival, 52 healthy adults, age 21 to 41, were given a four-week supply of dry shiitake mushrooms, popular in countries like Japan and China.

Participants bought the mushrooms and cooked them. Then they consume one, 4-ounce serving of mushrooms each day during the experiment.

During blood tests before and after the experiment, researchers saw better-functioning gamma delta T-cells and reductions in inflammatory proteins.

“Eating a shiitake class mushroom daily, you could see changes in their immune system that are beneficial,” said Percival.

Percival said, “We are focusing on increasing the immune system, but we are also decreasing the allergy that the immune system produces.”

To be eligible for the study, participants could not be vegetarians. They should not drink tea, or take substitutes as antioxidants or pro-biotics before the study.

They also might not drink over 14 glasses of alcoholic beverages per week or eat more than seven servings of fruits and vegetables per day during the experiment.