What Foods Have the Same Nutrients as Mushrooms?

What Are Mushrooms?

Mushrooms aren’t actually a vegetable (although they are classified as a culinary vegetable), but rather include any spore-bearing, fruiting body of a fungus – worldwide there are approximately 14,000 species!

Currently, over 200 edible mushroom species are cultivated, though only a small fraction of them are widely available; however, wild mushrooms can be foraged from nature.

Examples of more commonly available edible types of mushrooms available at most grocery stores include: chanterelles, cremini, enoki, maitake, morel, oyster mushroom, portabella, puffballs, shiitake mushroom, and white button mushroom.

What if I Don’t Like Mushrooms?

If you aren’t a fan of mushrooms, what can you eat instead that will give you the same nutrition? This is a tough one! Mushrooms are really unique nutritionally and belong in a class of their own because they are fungi, not plants.

That being said, let’s take a look at 3 key nutrients in mushrooms that are beneficial for our health and alternative foods where we can obtain them.

Mushrooms contain a class of phytonutrients called triterpenes. Other foods high in triterpenes include olives (and extra virgin olive oil), grapes, persimmons, and herbs and spices.

Mushrooms also contain the non-proteinogenic amino acid ergothioneine, which is also known as the “longevity vitamin”. Non-proteinogenic means this amino acid is not incorporated into proteins but it is used in biochemical pathways. Mushrooms are the best food source of ergothioneine and one of the only food sources. The only food that I’m aware of that can compete with mushrooms is tempeh. You can also find it in small amounts in chicken liver and asparagus.

The last nutrient that mushrooms have that you can’t get easily from other foods is two classes of fiber, chitin and chitosan. You can get them from other fungi so nutritional yeast would have some. Other good sources include insects like crickets (due to their exoskeletons) and shellfish shells. For example, soft-shell crab and certain shrimp preparations where the shell is soft enough to eat (e.g., deep-fried) would be high in these fibers.

Additionally, mushrooms are high in beta-glucan fiber, which can be found in oats and barley.

The takeaway here is that mushrooms are nutritionally unique and extraordinarily beneficial. If you just don’t like them and it’s not an allergy, you might want to consider mushroom extracts. Mushroom extracts tend to have a bitter, earthy flavor, but you can add them to coffee, hot chocolate, and smoothies to mask their flavor or purchase capsules if that’s easier. These extracts can be a great way to incorporate the benefits of mushrooms into your diet without the taste and also an excellent way to increase the variety of mushrooms you’re consuming.

As always, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to eat mushrooms if you don’t want to.  Focus on all of the nutrient-dense foods you enjoy, have access to, and can afford and prepare them in a way that you love!  There is no one perfect Nutrivore diet—there is a ton of flexibility of food choice that aligns with Nutrivore principles. And, Nutrivore celebrates every small step you take towards consuming a more nutrient-replete diet. Don’t forget that the diet you follow or don’t follow now does not impact your long-term health, what does is your lifelong eating patterns!