MUSHROOMS AS POOD. 



409 



MUSHROOMS AS FOOD. 



(From Bulletin No. 79, United States Department of Agriculture.) 



There is a widespread idea that mushrooms and other edible fungi 

 are very nutritious foods. They are commonly said to contain very 

 large quantities of protein (nitrogenous material ) and to rank close 

 to meat as sources of this important nutrient. The term "vegetable 

 beefsteak" has been applied to them, and other equally extravagant 

 statements are frequently met with. Numbers of analyses of edible 

 fungi have been reported by the experiment stations. German inves- 

 tigators have also determined their composition and studied their 

 digestibility by human subjects and by methods of artificial diges- 

 tion. 



An extended study of the food value of edible fungi, including 

 their digestibility, has recently been published from the physiologi- 

 cal laboratory of the Sheffield Scientific School, of Yale University. 



Analysis does not show that edible fungi (mushrooms) possess a 

 high food value, as will be seen by the following table, in which 

 their composition is compared with that of several common articles 

 of food: 



Comparison of Composition of Muslirooms and other Foods. 



•Dextrose. tYoung, small specimens. ^Approximation. 



It will be seen that the mushrooms contain a very high percent- 

 age of water. In ordinary food materials protein is the most impor- 

 tant nutrient. As regards protein content, the mushrooms rank 

 about the same as potatoes, though they are decidedly inferior in 

 food value, since they contain much less carbohydrates. Nonal- 

 buminoid nitrogen is thought to have little food value. As will be 

 seen, the mushrooms do not contain a high per centage of nitrogen, 

 and a considerable portion of the nitrogen present is in the form of 

 non albuminoids. 



The value of a food is not determined alone by its composition. 

 The digestibility — that is, the material which the body can retain 

 and utilize — is of even more importance. The experiments at the 

 Sheffield Scientific School showed that from 26 to 59 per cent of the 



