Mushrooms - Love em or Hate em
Mushrooms – Love em or Hate em? An often-under-appreciated food, mushrooms have been eaten and used as medicine for thousands of years. All varieties of mushrooms are low in calories and fat and contain modest amounts of fiber and various nutrients. Due to the presence of an amino acid called glutamate, mushrooms are also recognized for their ability to create umami flavour. Umami is considered the fifth basic taste, alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It is a savory flavour which can enhance low-sodium foods, reducing the need for added salt. Although considered a vegetable, mushrooms are neither a plant nor animal based food. They are a type of fungus that contains a substance called ergosterol, similar in structure to cholesterol in animals. Mushrooms vary in appearance with more than 10,000 known types, but generally they are distinguished by a stem, fleshy rounded cap, and gills underneath the cap. Because some wild mushrooms can be Poisonous and hard to identify, you sh