Fun Fact Friday - mushrooms and vitamin D

Posted by Charlotte Miller on

It’s Fun Fact Friday, and today’s foodie tip pertains to mushrooms and their amazing ability to produce vitamin D. Fancy that!

You may or may not know that humans produce vitamin D in their skin, in response to sunlight (which is why our vitamin D levels often dip during winter months).  But it’s only in recent years that scientists have discovered that mushrooms have a similar ability - they use a chemical called ergosterol, which reacts with sunlight to make vitamin D in various forms.

You can now buy ‘vitamin D enriched’ mushrooms in the supermarket – which have been purposefully exposed to UV light in order to switch on their remarkable vitamin D generating powers. But here’s an insider tip: you can just buy regular old mushrooms and do it yourself at home by giving them a short burst on the windowsill or outside in the sun . Careful though not keep your shrooms sitting out in the hot sun for too long, lest they wither and get the sun stroke.

According to the experts at https://australianmushrooms.com.au/ 100g of mushrooms, when exposed to sunlight for 1 hour, will provide our daily requirement for vitamin D. The vitamin D levels are then locked in – even if you put them back in the dark fridge. And we think that Friday foodie fact is pretty cool.

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