There’s fungus among us…but that might be a good thing!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
It’s pizza night! What’s better than a mushroom pie! They don’t just taste good. Past research tells us some mushrooms may reduce anxiety. But what about depression?
Djibril Ba and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University dug into this deep dish. The researchers used a ten-year survey from around twenty-five thousand people. Participants reported symptoms of depression and their eating habits for two twenty-four hour windows. Then, the team looked for patterns.
And? Mushroom munchers seemed to have lower odds of depression! But the amount of shrooms they munched on didn’t seem to matter. The researchers aren’t yet sure why mushrooms play a role – but they’re looking into it!
Next on the research menu? Maybe discovering which SPECIFIC mushrooms might decrease depression.
If you weren’t already PSYCHED about mushrooms…. Well, DROP some on your pizza! Odds are, you’ll be a much more fun. . . gi.
Reference: Ba, D. M., Gao, X., Al-Shaar, L., Muscat, J. E., Chinchilli, V. M., Beelman, R. B., & Richie, J. P. (2021). Mushroom intake and depression: A population-based study using data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2005-2016. Journal of affective disorders, 294, 686–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.07.080