In almost every village in Nigeria, Mushrooms can be found, especially in the southern part of the country where oil palm trees are mostly located. Mushrooms provide valuable nutrients, including fiber, niacin,
pantothenic acid, riboflavin, selenium and copper. They are also low in
both calories and energy density, making them a good way to fill up
without going over your daily calorie limit. This allows you to lose
weight and fat without feeling deprived.
You can eat quite a few mushrooms without consuming many
calories. A cup of raw sliced white mushrooms has just 15 calories, a
cup of grilled sliced portabella mushrooms has 35 calories and a cup of
cooked sliced shiitake mushrooms has 81 calories. Cooking mushrooms
increases their volume, which is why a cup of cooked mushrooms has more
calories than a cup of raw mushrooms.
Foods low in energy density, like mushrooms, have relatively
few calories per gram, making them very diet-friendly. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is the volume of food you
put in your stomach that fills you up, not the number of calories. So
if you fill up on foods low in energy density, you can eat fewer
calories per meal and lose weight without feeling hungry between meals.
Without exercise, however, about 25 percent of each pound you lose will
come from muscle instead of fat.
Switch out some of the meat in each of your meals with
mushrooms, and you'll probably achieve better weight- and fat-loss
results. A study published in "Appetite" found that
people who substituted mushrooms for red meat consumed fewer calories
and lost more weight and body fat than those who followed the control
diet.
Add raw or cooked mushrooms to salads, wraps, soups or pasta.
Swap out the pepperoni or sausage on your pizza for mushrooms and other
low-calorie vegetables. For the best body-fat-loss results, use
mushrooms instead of higher-calorie foods rather than just adding them
to foods you already eat. If you don't want to replace all of the meat
in your main dish with mushrooms, try replacing just part of the meat to
lower the fat and calories while increasing the fiber. That way, you'll
feel fuller on less food.
