Health - Mushroom diet 'could help shed pounds'

Mushrooms could soon become the latest weapon in winning the battle of the bulge worldwide, if researchers are to be believed.

A new study has found that mushrooms are not only a good source of Vitamin D but a diet rich in the popular fungus could help people shed the flab, according to reports in the British media.

In the study, volunteers who ate mushrooms rather than meat in four otherwise identical meals a week shed almost 6 kg over five weeks, with one losing 9.5 kg. In fact, one man and nine woman, aged between 25 and 61, shed a total of 57.6 kg over the course of the trial.

According to Sarah Schenker, the dietician who led the trial, "Mushrooms make a fantastic low-density meat substitute and can assist dieters without them having to radically change their eating patterns. Mushrooms are great value for money."

The study came after a research earlier this year, led by Dr Lawrence Cheskin and published in journal 'Appetite', in which 54 volunteers ate up to four different lean ground beef recipes over four days, also suggested that a mushroom-diet could help in cutting the flab.

In fact, the volunteers then ate the same meals over another four days, but substituted the beef with white button mushrooms. It was found that volunteers consumed on average 420 fewer calories and 30 gm less fat.

The research had concluded that under ten mushroom meal waps would cut one pound in body fat.

Mushrooms are also valued as a good source of Vitamin D. Just one standard serving, combined with five minutes of sunlight, can supply the recommended daily amount of the same compound.