Month: October 2014

Mushrooms Are Way More Amazing Than You Think

Known for their distinctive umami flavor and meaty texture, mushrooms are a great addition to any dish from Asian stir-fries to pasta sauces. And since September is National Mushroom Month, we thought we’d celebrate by sharing some fun facts about fungi.

mushroom

Mushrooms are the only item in the produce aisle with Vitamin D—and they’re one of the few non-fortified food sources. Mushrooms contain a fungal sterol (ergosterol) that converts to vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Mushroom growers have the ability to produce mushrooms with 100% Daily Value (400 IU) of vitamin D per serving, approximately 4-5 white button or crimini mushrooms, or one portabella.

Authors of a recent Nutrition Today article note mushrooms’ nutrient and culinary characteristics suggest it may be time to re-evaluate food groupings and health benefits by adding a third kingdom—fungi/mycology—to the existing two food kingdoms of plants/botany and animals/zoology. Mushrooms are one of the few foods that provide ergothioneine, an important antioxidant related to immunity.

In 2012, Americans consumed four pounds of mushrooms per capita. Mushrooms are claiming more space in the marketplace: They’re a $1.1 billion industry with more than 900 million pounds of mushrooms grown in the U.S. in the last year.

Approximately four million students across the country have the opportunity to order the mushroom blend burger at lunch, which is a mixture of ground meat and cooked mushrooms. And surprisingly, the blend burger has a 92% preference in school district pilots with k-12 students.

Speaking of mushroom blends, it looks like the kids are getting a preview of what’s to come in restaurants. Some of America’s favorite chefs, including Richard Blais, are leading the trend to blend and featuring mushroom blend items as a part of their menus in restaurants across the United States.

Pennsylvania knocks the other states out of the water when it comes to growing ‘shrooms: they made 65% of the total volume of sales this past year. In fact, Kennett Square, Pa., is considered the mushroom capital of the world! (Too much a stretch to wonder if they have mushroom houses too?)

Ancient Egyptians believed mushrooms were the plant of immortality, according to hieroglyphics 4,600 years ago.White button: This is the most popular variety, making up about 90% of all mushrooms consumed in the U.S. They have a mild flavor that intensifies when they’re cooked and are great in pastas, on pizza, sautéed as a topping for a burger or sandwich and raw in salads.

Crimini: Also known as baby ‘bellas these small brown mushrooms have a deep, earthy flavor that makes them great when paired with meaty dishes or sautéed with red wine.

Portabella: The larger cousins of criminis, these large brown mushrooms have a great meaty texture and earthy, full-bodied flavor that makes them a great meat substitute. Try them on a bun, stuffed, or as a steak.

Maitake: These are fan-shaped mushrooms without caps and are also known as “the hen of the woods.” They have a distinct aroma and a rich, woodsy taste that amps up the mushroom flavor in any dish. Use them when you want a bold mushroom flavor, such as in a cream of mushroom soup or a sauce.

Shiitake: Brown with an umbrella-shaped cap, these mushrooms have curved stems that should be removed. They taste best when cooked as cooking brings out their rich, woodsy flavor. Their meaty texture makes them the perfect addition to stir-fries.
Enoki: These cream-colored mushrooms have long, spindly steams and tiny button-shaped caps. Before serving, trim the roots at the cluster base and separate the stems. They are crunchy and mild-tasting, which makes them perfect for enjoying raw in salads and on sandwiches.

Oyster: These delicately flavored mushrooms have a velvety texture and can be grey, pale yellow, or even blue! Sautéing them with butter and onions brings out their flavor and they are a great addition to pasta dishes.

Beech: Tiny in size, these mushrooms have white or light brown caps and are crunchy with a mild, sweet-nutty flavor. Add at the last minute to soups, stews, sauces, and stir-fries to maintain their crunchy texture.

Wild mushrooms: This includes varieties such as morels, truffles, and chanterelles, which can be very expensive and are considered delicacies. Their rich, distinctive flavor makes them popular with chefs of fine restaurants around the world

Source: yahoo

High calcium in blood may signal cancer

High levels of calcium in blood, a condition known as hypercalcaemia, can be used by doctors as an early indication of certain types of cancer, says a study, indicating that a simple blood test may help prevent the deadly disease. The risk is particularly prominent among men.

High calcium in blood may signal cancer

While the connection of hypercalcaemia to cancer is well known, this study has, for the first time, shown that often it can predate the diagnosis of cancer in primary care. Hypercalcaemia is the most common metabolic disorder associated with cancer, occurring in 10 to 20 percent of people with cancer.

“We wanted to look at the issue from a different perspective and find out if high calcium levels in blood could be used as an early indicator of cancer and therefore in the diagnosis of cancer,” said Fergus Hamilton, who led the research from University of Bristol in Britain. For the study, the researchers analysed the electronic records of 54,000 patients who had elevated levels of calcium and looked at how many of them went on to receive a cancer diagnosis.

In men, even mild hypercalcaemia conferred a risk of cancer in one year of 11.5 percent. If the calcium was above limits, the risk increased to 28 percent. In women, the risks were much less, with the corresponding figures being 4.1 percent and 8.7 percent.

In men, 81 percent of the cancer associated with hypercalcaemia was caused by lung, prostate, myeloma, colorectal and other haematological cancers.
In women, cancer was much less common.

There are a number of possible explanations for this but we think it might be because women are much more likely to have hyperparathyroidism, another cause of hypercalcaemia, Hamilton added. “Men rarely get this condition, so their hypercalcaemia is more likely to be due to cancer,” he explained.

The study appeared in the British Journal of Cancer.
Source: mid day

 

Doctors perform rare surgery on man with five heart chambers

In what is claimed to be the first -of-its-kind surgery in the country and only the third in the world, doctors at a hospital treated a man suffering from a rare congenital heart condition of having five atrial chambers instead of four.

Doctors perform rare surgery on man with five heart chambers

42-year-old Pali Devaram, who had been suffering from breathlessness and continuous coughing and heart pain, was diagnosed with the rare heart defect termed ‘Cortriatrium with Mitral Regurgitation’ after he underwent a medical check up at Medipulse Hospital here.

“On diagnosis, we found him to be suffering from a rare congenital disease… We carried out some more tests in consultation with a cardiothoracic surgeon and found him to have five chambers in his heart instead of four,” the private hospital’s Cardiologist Alok Madan said. Madan said Cortriatrium is a defect where an additional membrane or a septum creates fifth chamber in the heart.

After the final diagnosis, a team of doctors carried out a nearly four-hour-long surgery on Devaram on Wednesday. “We cut the membrane, which had created the wall above fourth valve thereby forming a fifth chamber and made it a four chambered heart, which is a normal heart,” Cardiothoracic surgeon Sanjeev Suresh Waidand said.

Now, the patient would be able to lead a normal life as any other healthy person, he added.

Claiming it to be the first-of-its-kind surgery in India and only the third in the world, the hospital’s director Navneet Agarwal said, “First two surgeries of such type have been administered in China and Germany.”

He said that the age of the patient and the severe Mitral Regurgitation made this surgery unique and rare, which costed about Rs 1.25 lakh to the patient. Patient’s relative Dinesh said they had visited many doctors and hospitals across the country but no one was able to diagnose the disease.

“In last two months, Pali’s problems of breathlessness, constant coughing and heart pain had aggravated,” he said.