calories in mushrooms: oysters

Calories in Mushrooms: Nutritional Info for Eating Mushrooms

Are you interested in knowing the amount of calories in mushrooms? We provide that information for you on a variety of edible mushrooms in this article

Today I’m writing about calories in mushrooms, specifically for a variety of popular edible mushrooms. These delicious mushrooms can be found at grocery stores or farmers' markets. You can also grow them at your own home, which is a practice that more people are getting involved with. What is better than growing your own delicious, healthful food at home and doing it for a cheaper cost than you pay in store for gourmet mushrooms? One of the major benefits to know about is our mushroom spawn. With the variety of mushroom spawn we provide, you can grow your own delicious mushrooms at home all-year-round. This includes the use of mushroom grow kits or other varieties of high-quality spawn.

Calories in Mushrooms: A look at the numbers

We share info on calories on mushrooms below. These statistics are coming from the USDA’s research on the subject. Some of it may vary between strains, but this serves as a starting point for learning about the amount of calories in mushrooms. Below I’ve listed the type of mushroom and the amount of calories it has if you were to consume one cup of pieces or sliced mushrooms.
  • Chanterelle mushroom: 21 calories (54 grams)
  • Enoki mushroom: 23 calories (64 grams)
  • Maitake mushroom: 22 calories (diced, 70 grams)
  • Morel mushroom: 20 calories (66 grams)
  • Oyster mushroom: 29 calories (86 grams)
  • Shiitake mushroom: 34 calories (note: this is for 100 grams, and not one cup)

Calories in mushrooms: Raw versus cooked

Many of these stats on the caloric value in mushrooms relate to raw mushrooms. I recommend cooking mushrooms before eating them. There are a variety of reasons for this, which I have written about in this other article. Taste and toxicity are part of the reasoning. Check out this article if you want to know more about why eating raw mushrooms may not be the best approach to mushroom consumption. The video below discusses nuances of cooking specialty mushrooms. 

Calories in mushrooms: A look at the nutritional value of cooked mushrooms

The Healthy Eating section of SF Gate discusses the differences between cooked and raw mushrooms, in addition to giving a comparison in terms of calories, fiber and protein.

"By volume, cooked mushrooms are nutritionally comparable to raw mushrooms. However, a cup of cooked mushrooms contains twice as many mushrooms as a cup of raw mushrooms. Each mushroom loses up to half of its nutrients, particularly its water-soluble vitamin content, when it is cooked. To properly compare raw mushrooms to cooked mushrooms, use the same number of mushrooms, rather than weight or volume."

The article continues with the nutritional comparison of calories in mushrooms, fiber and protein:

"Six large, raw white mushrooms have 24 calories and 1.1 grams of fiber. Cooking them reduces their calorie content to 20 and increases their fiber content to 1.6 grams. More significantly, six raw mushrooms contain 3.3 grams of protein. When cooked, they lose more than half of their protein content and provide only 1.5 grams of protein. A serving of cooked or raw mushrooms has approximately .35 grams of fat, but raw mushrooms are higher in sugar, with 2.1 grams per serving compared to 1.7 grams of sugar in the cooked mushrooms."

How to benefit from your own shiitake, oyster and maitake mushrooms

There’s a lot to the nutritional value of mushrooms. In addition to the caloric info you got above, mushrooms contain vitamins and (like B1, B2, B3, B6, D, iron, magnesium), dietary fiber, and protein, too. Mushrooms also contain many essential minerals, including iron, phosphor, copper, potassium and selenium. Popular species of edible mushrooms normally contain 19-35% protein. Compare that to the general protein content of the following foods:
  • Rice: 7.3%
  • Wheat: 13.2%
  • Soybean: 39.1%
  • Milk: 25.2%

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. There are nine amino acids essential to humans because our bodies cannot make them. While animal-based foods generally contain all the necessary amino acids, plant-based proteins are usually low in one or more kind. Mushrooms, however, contain all nine types of essential amino acids. Here's another video on cooking mushrooms. This one focuses on the oyster mushroom:

Overall, the amount of calories in mushrooms in much lower than you will find in many other foods. This is one of the reasons people love to eat mushrooms. If you want to get some of these healthful benefits by eating delicious mushrooms, we can help you grow your own at home! We have mushroom growing kits and spawn for a few of the mushrooms listed above, including shiitake, maitake, and oyster. We actually have three types of delicious oyster mushrooms: blue, pink, and yellow. Check out our mushroom growing kits now -- they’re perfect for mushroom lovers and healthy food enthusiasts.

The popularity of edible mushrooms is growing, as people discover the delicious taste they add to a variety of dishes. The nutritional components are even more attractive and are a major reason more people are turning to eating mushrooms. We are excited to see the community of mushroom enthusiasts continue to grow. 

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