Vitamin D

[Pollypet]

This morning I bought a pack of mushrooms, and as it was a sunny day, I put them outside to sunbathe. No - I’m not going crazy! Did anyone else listen to Tim Spector’s recent radio interview ( part of the Zoe Health Study) about research which shows mushrooms are like humans and can generate their own Vitamin D from the sun? I found it fascinating and certainly one way of introducing natural Vit D into my diet. So, sunbathing mushrooms it is then!

[Alanna012]

Well I never! And I love mushrooms, I shall place them right near the kitchen window in future!

[Pollypet in reply to Alanna012]

It may be that direct sunlight light is needed from being outside - just like we can’t get a suntan through glass windows. 😍

[Alanna012 in reply to Pollypet]

Oh I see. Not sure I can trust the nosey squirrels in my garden not to throw them everywhere but no harm in taking mushrooms out for some air while I'm also outside🙂

[Stourie in reply to Pollypet]

yes you can get a tan through glass but it takes an awful long time. Jo xx

[Poppy_Ann]

I would never expect mushrooms to increase vitamin d with sunlight as they prefer dark damp places to grow did they measure the vit d in a set weight ie measure 50 grams of mushrooms before being in the sun or 50 grams of mushrooms after being in the sun if they if they weighed them after being in the sun then I would expect them to gain more of what they measured due to the Loss of water from being in the sun but if they measured the mushrooms before being in the sun then split every mushroom in half then put one half in the sun and kept the other half in the dark then measured the amount of vitamin D, if they compared both against each other, unless the total vit d from the ones from in the sun was higher even though there would be less weight they should contain more vitamin D, it is easy to get the numbers that you want when testing one against another but you should make sure you are making the tests fair.

[radd in reply to Poppy_Ann]

Mushroom & Vit D interesting reading. ...... fungi.com/blogs/articles/pl...

A Review of Mushrooms as a Potential Source of Dietary Vitamin D .. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[Pollypet in reply to radd]

Thanks - interesting reading.

[Hashiboy in reply to radd]

Thanks radd the second article is brilliant.

[radd]

Pollypet,

Yes, I did and it was an incredible discovery.

I too have started leaving my mushrooms in the sun 😀. I love all Zoe research and listening to their guests.

[Hedgeree]

Hi Pollypet,

I didn't hear that but very interesting though.

But I've noticed that some prepackaged supermarket mushrooms do have enhanced vitamin D marked on their wrapping (can't remember the wording they used or which supermarket?) Not sure if they're more expensive than 'regular' mushrooms?

I'm guessing the growers possibly grow them under a UVB lamp similar to what people use when they keep reptiles? (so they get their vitamin D3 essential for their animals' health)

But I've not explored how they actually do it.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to Hedgeree]

I remember seeing this, can't be doing with shrooms myself but it showed them just very quickly zapping them under a UV light

[Hedgeree in reply to TiggerMe]

Ah right. I imagined them growing slowly under a UV lamp but that would have cost implications. Zapping makes economic sense for the grower/manufacturer.

[helvella Administrator]

Some fungi are sold with vitamin D claims - and I think they have already been exposed to UV. I do not know if further exposure forms more vitamin D.

The form of vitamin D varies - D2, D3 or some claim D4. (I have not gone down that rabbit hole!) Often a mixture.

If you'd like to spend the rest of the day or week reading, you could follow this link!

scholar.google.com/scholar?...

[posthinking01]

Hi seems like a good idea but as someone who suffers with candida which is a yeast/fungal problem and mushrooms are fungal - be careful you are not just allowing the mushrooms to produce more nasties.

[Phil865 in reply to posthinking01]

That's what I was wondering about as well. I too have intestinal candida overgrowth issues. Seems it is in everybody. Because of that I cut out raw mushrooms to be safe.

[mstp]

I didn't hear that which is a bit remiss of me ad I am doing the ZOE Nutrition Programme at the moment. My mushroo.s will be sitting outside next time it's sunny!

[Britpol]

Apparently, fresh bread left in the sun also acquires vitamin D . Is that true?

[helvella Administrator in reply to Britpol]

Might be true. But I suspect simply not much point for most of us! The amount doesn't appear to be enough so we need other sources. And, if we end up taking it as a supplement anyway, we might as well increase that dose a bit!

Plus, in northern parts, where there is little solar UV much of the year, it would have to be by UV lamp - not sun.

Interesting, though.

nutritioninsight.com/news/e...

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Britpol]

Yeast is used in breadmaking. Yeast is a fungi so this would likely be the reason for vit D increasing in sunlight in the same way as mushrooms.

[posthinking01 in reply to Britpol]

Not sure whether this is a good idea as once again yeast could be re-activated in heat.

[Ratherbegardening]

I went to a talk by James Wong (ethnobotanist) some years ago about food. He also said this, but I seem to remember he said take mushrooms out of the fridge for 20 mins before using to increase the vitamin D content.

[Stourie in reply to Ratherbegardening]

I’ve never put mushrooms in the fridge. Wouldn’t have entered my head to do that 😊 Jo xx

[Batty1]

I make mushroom meatballs, mushroom pulled pork sandwiches and mushroom burgers pretty often always knew they had vitamin d but I never heard about putting them in the sun before cooking… hmm

[Phil865]

This is a fascinating topic. Thanks for posting and I will read up more on fungi sun tans.

[thyr01d]

Great post Pollypet, as a vegan (expect you know we can't have products, like cornflakes, containing D3 which is so often the supplemented vitamin because it's from sheep) this is really good news. Did the programme mention which vitamin D was produced?

[helvella Administrator in reply to thyr01d]

Not all D3 is from sheep. Some, at least, comes from lichen.

The paper is more complicated than you might think as D2, D3 and D4 are all potentially made by UV exposure of fungi. You really need to check each species of fungi, for a start.

[thyr01d in reply to helvella]

Thanks so much for this Helvella, this information has made a difference to our lives!

[Pollypet in reply to thyr01d]

Indeed - D2

[thyr01d in reply to Pollypet]

Thanks Pollypet

[Verbena_67]

Yes! I have heard this, and thanks for reminding me!

[Nonamefree]

Hi everyone. I've never commented before but I've learnt a lot from reading the daily posts. Thank you all. I watched a TV program series where they went round the factories showing how things were done, and one week it was mushroom packaging for supermarkets. The mushrooms are picked, sorted, measured into their trays, and then go onto a closed conveyor belt which has overhead UV lights to give them the vitamin D before the trays are sealed. Didn't tell you how much Vit D unfortunately, but I found it interesting.