White Button Mushrooms Proven To Improve Glucose Regulation

Researchers in Penn State have found that consuming white button mushrooms can act like a probiotic that make certain shifts in the gut. These shifts in turn can help improve regulation of glucose in the body. This research, if taken forward can probably find new ways of prevention and treatment for diabetes.

Mushrooms To The Rescue

“Managing glucose better has implications for diabetes, as well as other metabolic diseases,” said Margherita T. Cantorna, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Immunology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences to Science Daily. The researchers studied the effect of mushrooms on mice by feeding one group with microbiota and the second which were germ free weren’t fed any. “You can compare the mice with the microbiota with the germ-free mice to get an idea of the contributions of the microbiota,” said Cantorna.

“There were big differences in the kinds of metabolites we found in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as in the liver and serum, of the animals fed mushrooms that had microbiota than the ones that didn’t,” she added. The researchers concluded that mushrooms acted as a probiotic and helped the growth of the good bacteria present in the gut. “It’s pretty clear that almost any change you make to the diet, changes the microbiota,” said Cantorna.