Whether you stir them into pasta, grill them for breakfast or toss them raw into salads, there’s never been more reason to include mushrooms in your diet.

They are a good source of B vitamins and essential minerals potassium, selenium, copper and phosphorous. They contain virtually no fat, sugar or salt and are a valuable source of dietary fibre. The white button mushroom is often considered to be the poor relation to its more exotic cousins. But new research from The French Institute of Agricultural Research which compared the antioxidant activity of button mushrooms and the exotic maitake and matsutake mushrooms, found that the white button mushroom has as much, and in some cases more antioxidant properties than more exotic varieties. (Published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture) 

Meanwhile, research published by Hanyang University in South Korea found eating mushrooms may lower the risk of breast cancer.  The research was based on more than 700 women, half of whom had the disease. The group who had mushrooms everyday were estimated to have an 80 per cent reduced risk of cancer.  It was thought the fungi interfered with the action of aromatase, an enzyme that helps the body make oestrogen. White button mushrooms had the strongest effect.