Mushrooms: The Unsung Heros
Mushrooms. You can eat them on salads, pizza, in a Blended Burger or on a burger at Max Dale’s and some people who’ll just eat them raw. There are still plenty of people in the world who don’t like mushrooms. Some may dislike the taste of this particular fungus but do you know what this special organism is doing for the body outside of being eaten? Scientists have been researching the helpful and unique properties that can only be found in mushrooms. So whether or not you LOVE this topping, it’s hard to deny the good things that they do for you and the environment.
Mushrooms aren’t a plant, they don’t come from seeds and they don’t use the sun to perform photosynthesis. They come from spores that are so tiny that you need a microscope to see them and because the spores don’t have chlorophyll (the substance that makes leaves green and helps with photosynthesis), mushrooms will rely on sawdust, grain, wooden plugs, straw, wood chips, or liquid for nourishment. They’re also known as decomposers, meaning they decompose dead organic material and help cycle the nutrients back into the soil where it can do more good for the environment around us.
There’s even more science behind this miracle substance! Paul Stamets, a mycologist has done research claiming that mushrooms can clean up everything from oil spills to nuclear meltdowns. (His research is funded mostly by the profits from his private company). He believes that mushrooms will be a game-changer in disparate fields such as medicine, forestry, pesticides and pollution control. This is the grand vision of his 2005 novel, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. And since then he has gained nine patents on antiviral, pesticidal and remediative properties of mushrooms.
There’s so much potential for this little fungus. From medical research, for mushrooms to help curb cancer by the EuroMed Foundation, to the hope that mushrooms could be a way to cleaning up our environment of dangerous pollutants, there are so many useful ways that scientists are finding this fungus among us can really make a difference in our lives. And our burgers!
Be sure to check out Max Dale’s Blended Burger to taste the difference.
Here’s to good taste and good health.