When you find this guide, you're probably asking yourself the following questions: How many calories are in mushrooms? Are mushrooms healthy for my body? Will you help me lose weight? Such questions buzz around in your head when you are looking for a healthy alternative to your previous eating habits or simply want a new side dish that is low in calories and tastes delicious at the same time.
Mushrooms are the perfect vegan substitute for meat products and even help you lose weight in a short period of time. They also offer various minerals and are well suited as a healthy, varied meal accompaniment. But there are also some things to consider when collecting and preparing. In this guide, we look at why mushrooms are a good alternative to other foods and what benefits they bring you in the first place.
the essentials in brief
- The main difference is between white and brown mushrooms. The brown mushrooms are a bit more expensive, but also more flavorful.
- Brown and white mushrooms have almost no calories, but many vitamins and minerals. So they are great as a meal.
- One should not consume more than 100 grams of raw mushrooms per day, otherwise one may experience physical ailments. The chitin contained has a toxic effect on our body in large quantities.
Mushroom calories: what you should know
Here we answer all relevant questions on the topic. So please read this part carefully.
What types of mushrooms are there and how many calories do they have?
Basically, a distinction is made between two types of mushrooms, whereby you can find different subspecies within one type: white mushrooms and brown mushrooms.
Brown mushrooms are more complicated to grow and take longer to be ready to pick. Accordingly, they are firmer in nature and are also offered more expensively in the supermarket. (Image source: congerdesign / Pixabay)
These can be bought in every supermarket. Brown mushrooms are more flavorful, but also more expensive. Now follows a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of mushrooms compared to other foods:
Advantages- low calorie
- mineral rich
- rich in vitamins
- High in fiber
- available all year round
- Helps with weight loss
- Good meat substitute
Let's take a look at how many calories mushrooms actually have. There are small differences between the brown and white mushrooms: (1,2,8)
| Mushroom Art | Number of calories per 100 grams (fresh) | Number of calories per 100 grams (fried) |
|---|---|---|
| White Mushroom | 19 calories | 26 calories |
| Brown mushroom | 26 calories | 35 calories |
As you can see, the intense taste of the brown mushrooms is also reflected in the number of calories. Because they are also firmer and take longer to grow, they have more nutritional value when harvested. We also find that mushrooms of any kind are extremely low in calories and perfect for a light meal.
How many mushrooms can you eat per day?
In general, you should not eat more than 100 grams of raw mushrooms per day, otherwise symptoms such as feeling unwell, vomiting or diarrhea may occur. Mushrooms contain chitin, which is needed as a cell structure. Unfortunately, this polysaccharide cannot be utilized by our intestines and, if consumed in large quantities, causes upset stomachs etc.
The chitin in fungi acts as a natural defense mechanism against enemies. If we now eat too many mushrooms, then the chitin has a laxative effect. (Image Source: Darko Djurin / Pixabay)
However, if the mushrooms are heated by boiling, frying or simmering, the effect of the mushrooms disappears and larger quantities of mushrooms can be eaten without hesitation.
However, mushrooms should not be heated too much, otherwise the important vitamins and minerals will disappear and carcinogenic particles will be released if heated too much.
Can you get too many calories from mushrooms?
Because mushrooms don't have a large amount of calories, it would take a huge amount of mushrooms to consume too many calories. We all have different calorie needs per day.
If you eat less than the daily requirement, you will lose weight in the long term, and if you eat more than the daily requirement, you will gain weight.
Specifically, a man between the ages of 19 and 25 needs 2,500 calories a day. (3,4,5) So you would have to eat over 30 pounds of white mushrooms to meet your daily needs. In practice, it is almost impossible to get too many calories from mushrooms.
However, you may be consuming too many vitamins and minerals if you eat too many mushrooms, which can lead to what is known as hypervitaminosis . This means that, figuratively speaking, your vitamin and mineral stores are overloaded.
Can you lose weight with mushrooms?
That's the question everyone asks about mushrooms. "Can you lose weight with mushrooms?". The answer to that is: "Yes, you can!" (6). Among other things, mushrooms are good for a diet without carbohydrates.
Eating a portion of mushrooms once a day helps enormously to achieve your desired weight.
In fact, you should even consider including a few mushrooms in your meal instead of meat, as they have a positive effect on the body. They are a good source of vitamin D and thus also help with weight loss.
Since mushrooms are generally high in vitamins and minerals, but relatively low in calories, they are ideal for losing weight.
In addition, you have a pronounced feeling of satiety after consumption, which also helps with weight loss.
In addition to few calories, do mushrooms also offer vitamins and minerals?
Question quickly answered: "Oh yes they do!" (7). Mushrooms are full of minerals and vitamins that have a positive effect on our body. You can find more foods that contain vitamins here .
In the following, we present the 5 most contained vitamins and minerals in 2 tables, which are found in the popular mushrooms: (8)
| vitamin | Amount per 100 grams | Description |
|---|---|---|
| B2 | 0.6 mg | Vitamin B2, also called riboflavin or lactoflavin, is needed to convert glucose or fatty acids into energy. |
| B3 | 8.1 mg | Vitamin B3, also called niacin or nicotinic acid, is used as a building block of two co-enzymes (NAD and NADH). These help generate energy for metabolism. |
| B5 | 2.8 mg | Vitamin B5, also known as pantothenic acid, is a component of coenzyme A and is therefore important for energy metabolism. It is very important in breaking down fats, carbohydrates and various amino acids. |
| C | 5.8 mg | Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin. It is involved in many metabolic processes and protects the cells from aggressive oxygen compounds. It is mainly found in vegetables. |
| E | 0.1 mg | Vitamin E, also known as tocopherols, has an antioxidant effect and thus prevents aggressive oxygen compounds from causing cell damage. |
As you can see, mushrooms contain a lot of vitamins and ensure that we replenish our vitamin balance.
Below is the table of minerals present in mushrooms, their amount per 100 grams of mushrooms and a description of the minerals:
| minerals | Amount per 100 grams | Description |
|---|---|---|
| chlorine | 99.0 mg | Chlorine or chloride is part of the gastric juice as hydrochloric acid, which helps with digestion and supports the defense against pathogens. |
| magnesium | below 20 mg | Magnesium is important for muscle contraction, for communication between nerve cells and between nerve-muscle cells, and for heart activity. It also helps build bones and teeth. |
| phosphorus | 191.0 mg | Phosphorus plays an important role in energy metabolism and serves as a building block for bones and teeth. It is also needed to build cell walls and to stabilize the pH value in the blood. |
| potassium | 577 mg | Potassium is involved in signal transmission between cells and maintains electrical voltage. Furthermore, our body regulates its pH value (acidity) with potassium. |
| sulfur | 50 mg | Our body needs sulfur for detoxification. Tobacco smoke, alcohol and environmental toxins are neutralized by sulfur and the body is cleansed. |
Caution: Too much vitamin and mineral intake is just as bad as too little.
As you can see, mushrooms contain important minerals that are required for a wide variety of functions in the body. (9)
Thus, they are a good addition to the meal, if you not only want to lose weight, but also want to replenish some minerals, mushrooms are perfect.
What is the best way to incorporate mushrooms into your daily meals?
Mushrooms should definitely be included in your diet. There is no exact guideline as to how many mushrooms you should eat, but they already show an effect from 2 - 3 times a week.
One idea would be to eat mushrooms as a side dish for dinner. To do this, heat them up and stir in a light sauce. However, this should not be too greasy, otherwise the mushrooms will just fill themselves with it.
Do low-calorie mushrooms lower cholesterol at the same time?
Since mushrooms are free of dietary cholesterol and also contain beta-glucans, they have an ideal effect against blood cholesterol levels. (10,11) Beta glucan is a dietary fiber. Through dietary fiber, bile salts are bound and excreted in the intestine.
It is just as important for our body to consume enough fiber as well as few calories. This is the only way we get the message that we are full and can stop eating.
It is important for the blood to be able to move freely and without resistance in the body. Cholesterol and fats thicken the blood or cell walls, slowing blood flow, which can lead to a heart attack and more. (Image source: Arek Socha / Pixabay)
As a result, the body produces new bile salts, which requires new cholesterol from the blood. Thus, the cholesterol level in the blood decreases in the long term. A good cholesterol level is important as a prevention of strokes and heart attacks.
Do mushrooms strengthen the immune system despite having few calories?
Studies show that mushrooms are excellent for neutralizing free radicals (aggressive oxygen particles) and thus strengthening the immune system. (12)
Free radicals are molecules that are produced during metabolism. These are missing an electron, which they steal from your body's molecules, damaging them.
With the antioxidants in mushrooms, your cells are supported and protected from these free radicals. Mushrooms are also said to prevent breast cancer. (13)
What are the low-calorie alternatives to mushrooms?
In addition to mushrooms, many other types of mushrooms have few calories but lots of minerals. Other good alternatives would be vegetables or fruit, as they are generally low in calories and high in vitamins and nutrients. Below are some good mushroom alternatives per 100 grams to try: (14)
- Chanterelle raw: 21 calories
- Portabella Mushrooms Raw: 22 calories
- Maitake Mushrooms Raw: 31 calories
- Porcini mushroom raw: 32 calories
- Oyster oysters raw: 33 calories
- Shiitake mushrooms raw: 34 calories
You can see that the button mushroom is one of the mushrooms that have the fewest calories. However, the alternative mushrooms sometimes offer more protein and other nutrients, for example.
We now have a list of low-calorie vegetables per 100 grams that you could consider as an alternative: (15)
- Chinese cabbage: 13 calories
- Iceberg Lettuce: 14 calories
- Cucumbers: 15 calories
- Radishes: 16 calories
- Asparagus: 18 calories
- Pumpkin: 19 calories
- Zucchini: 20 calories
- Peppers: 21 calories
With these alternative products you have the same effect in terms of your desired weight. You also have many different ways to incorporate them into your meal. Just because the vegetables didn't taste good in one way doesn't automatically make them bad in every way of preparation. All you have to do is adjust to your taste and experiment a little.
Conclusion
Mushrooms and mushrooms in general are a very low-calorie species, but they provide many additional minerals and vitamins that our body needs. If you're planning to lose weight but aren't sure whether you should use mushrooms, you now know what a positive effect they can have. Mushrooms are the ideal meat substitute and they taste good too.
If you eat a meal with mushrooms once a day (ideally dinner), you will be back at your desired weight in no time. Just remember that you don't eat too many raw a day or you'll face physical discomfort. Nausea or even diarrhea can quickly ruin your day. However, if you boil, boil or fry the mushrooms, you can eat more of them without having to be afraid.
Individual proofs(15)
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- Bieslaski HK, Bischoff SC, Pirlich M, Weimann A. Nutritional medicine. Based on the curriculum for nutritional medicine of the German Medical Association, 5th edition. Thieme, Stuttgart 2018. Source
- Heinrich Kasper, Walter Burghardt, Copyright, Editor(s): Heinrich Kasper, Nutritional Medicine and Dietetics (Twelfth Edition), urban & fisherman, 2014, Page IV, ISBN 9783437420139, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-3-437-42013-9.02001-7. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9783437420139020017) Source
- German Nutrition Society (ed.): Recommendations for nutrient intake. 5. Revision. Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt/Main (1991) Source
- Geisler C, Braun W, Pourhassan M, Schweitzer L, Glüer CC, Bosy-Westphal A, Müller MJ. Age-Dependent Changes in Resting Energy Expenditure (REE): Insights from Detailed Body Composition Analysis in Normal and Overweight Healthy Caucasians. nutrients. 2016 Jun 1;8(6):322. doi: 10.3390/nu8060322. PMID: 27258302; PMCID: PMC4924163. Source
- Chatterjee S, Sarma MK, Deb U, Steinhauser G, Walther C, Gupta DK. Mushrooms: from nutrition to mycoremediation. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2017 Aug;24(24):19480-19493. doi: 10.1007/s11356-017-9826-3. Epub 2017 Aug 3. PMID: 28770504. Source
- yazio.com: Champignons (mushrooms), fried Source
- Müller MJ, Bosy-Westphal A, Later W, Haas V, Heller M. Functional body composition: insights into the regulation of energy metabolism and some clinical applications. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep;63(9):1045-56. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2009.55. Epub 2009 Jul 22. PMID: 19623201. Source
- Falandysz J. Selenium in edible mushrooms. J Environ Sci Health C Environ Carcinog Ecotoxicol Rev. 2008 Jul-Sep;26(3):256-99. doi: 10.1080/10590500802350086. PMID: 18781538. Source
- Hypolipidemic and Antiatherogenesis Effect of Culinary-Medicinal Pink Oyster Mushroom, Pleurotus salmoneostramineus L. Vass. (Higher Basidiomycetes), in Hypercholesterolemic Rats, Ki Nam Yoon, Nuhu Alam, Mi Ja Shim, DOI: 10.1615/IntJMedMushr.v14.i1.30 Source
- Carlson BA, Yoo MH, Shrimali RK, Irons R, Gladyshev VN, Hatfield DL, Park JM. Role of selenium-containing proteins in T-cell and macrophage function. Proc Nutr Soc. 2010 Aug;69(3):300-10. doi: 10.1017/S002966511000176X. Epub 2010 Jun 25. PMID: 20576203; PMCID: PMC3169015. Source
- 1. Martin KR, Brophy SK. Commonly consumed and specialty dietary mushrooms reduce cellular proliferation in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Experimental Biology and Medicine. 2010;235(11):1306-1314. doi:10.1258/ebm.2010.010113 Source
- Lebensmittel-naehrstoffe.de: Calorie table for mushrooms, June 2017 Source
- www.foodspring.ch: Calorie table for food: fruit, vegetables & more, Leonie Leber Source
