The Best Mushroom

And speaking of fungus (which is what keeps tempeh together), which is healthier: button mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, or portobello? Okay, for full disclosure, this is a trick question. These are all the exact same mushroom. Those little white mushrooms turn into crimini, and then grow up to be portobellos—isn’t that neat?

Okay, so here’s the real question. Button, chanterelle, morel (which, incidentally, should never be eaten raw, or with alcohol),—oyster mushrooms, porcini—which is Italian for piglet (evidently when the mushrooms are really small, they look like piglets?). And, finally, shiitake. It’s going to be a toughie.

Okay, so here’s the graph. One’s an obvious overachiever; one’s a slacking underachiever. First, the slacker. Of the six, which is the least healthy, based on antioxidant content? Take a second. Do you think it’s the button mushroom? The chanterelle? Morel? Oyster? Porcini? Shiitake? This one’s a surprise: chanterelle mushrooms. Apparently, the least healthy mushroom there is. Interestingly, plain old cheap and easy white mushrooms are way up here at number two! Portobellos and crimini also number two.

Okay, but who’s the superstar? Only one in four now. Who guesses morels? Oyster mushroom? Porcini? Shiitake? The healthiest mushroom on the planet, it seems (so far tested), is the little piggy! Porcini mushrooms.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

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• U.S. Department of Agriculture. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods—2007. November 2007.

• alcohol
• chanterelle mushrooms
• crimini mushrooms
• mushrooms
• oyster mushrooms
• portobello mushrooms