Preliminary research suggests that increasing intake of low-energy foods like mushrooms can treat or prevent obesity. This is good news for the more than one-third of US adults aged 20 and older who are obese, according to the Centre for Disease Control. Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

In the study led by Lawrence Cheskin, director of John Hopkins Weight Management Centre and funded by the Mushroom Council, participants were randomly chosen to receive either beef or mushroom lunch entrées over four days - lasagna, napoleon, sloppy Joe and chilli.

Subjects then switched entrées to consume the other ingredient (mushroom or beef) the following week.

Energy (calorie) intakes were significantly higher during meat meals than mushroom meals, a difference that averaged 420 more calories and 30 more fat grams per day over the four-day test period.

Subjects’ ratings for palatability (meal appeal), appetite, satiation (after meal fullness) and satiety (general fullness) did not differ between groups.

"The most intriguing finding was that subjects seemed to accept mushrooms as a palatable and suitable culinary substitute for meat," said Cheskin.

"They didn’t compensate for the lower calorie mushroom meal by eating more food later in the day."

The preliminary findings of Cheskin’s team follow findings from other initial data that suggested if men substituted a 4-ounce Portabella mushroom for a 4-ounce grilled hamburger every time they ate a grilled hamburger over the course of a year, and didn’t change anything else, they could save more than 18,000 calories and nearly 3,000 grams of fat.

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