Mushroom Nutrition as Preventative Healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The defining characteristics of the traditional Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cuisine have been the richness in indigenous foods and ingredients, herbs and spices, fermented foods and beverages, and healthy and whole ingredients used. It is crucial to safeguard the recognized benefits of mainstream traditional foods and ingredients, which gradually eroded in the last decades. Notwithstanding poverty, chronic hunger, malnutrition, and undernourishment in the region, traditional eating habits have been related to positive health outcomes and sustainability. The research prevailed dealing with food availability and access rather than the health, nutrition, and diet quality dimensions of food security based on what people consume per country and on the missing data related to nutrient composition of indigenous foods. As countries become more economically developed, they shift to “modern” occidental foods rich in saturated fats, salt, sugar, fizzy beverages, and sweeteners. As a result, there are increased incidences of previously unreported ailments due to an unbalanced diet. Protein-rich foods in dietary guidelines enhance only those of animal or plant sources, while rich protein sources such as mushrooms have been absent in these charts, even in developed countries. This article considers the valorization of traditional African foodstuffs and ingredients, enhancing the importance of establishing food-based dietary guidelines per country. The crux of this review highlights the potential of mushrooms, namely some underutilized in the SSA, which is the continent’s little exploited gold mine as one of the greatest untapped resources for feeding and providing income for Africa’s growing population, which could play a role in shielding Sub-Saharan Africans against the side effects of an unhealthy stylish diet.

Possibilities of Using Macrolepiota procera in the Production of Prohealth Food and in Medicine

“…Their consumption is recommended not only for adults but also for children. Mushrooms are regarded in these regions as a rich and valuable source of protein and mineral salts [ 56 – 58 ].…”

Mushrooms as future generation healthy foods

“…The prevailing and vast list of secondary metabolites in mushrooms (e.g., lectins, phenolic carboxylic acids, coenzymes, triterpenoids, and among many other bioactive compounds) may oversee the activation of cellular phagocytes, cytotoxic T cells, and anti-body-mediated immunity, consequently expanding protection to disorders ( 4 ).…”

“…Few food and nutrient guidelines were established by a handful of agencies to provide consumers and health practitioners with evidence-based recommendations on nutrient and dietary intakes associated with low risk of nutritional deficiencies and diet-related chronic diseases. However, there is little health research on diet quality based on the standard diet consumed and universal micronutrient supplementation ( 3 , 4 ).…”

An Economical and Sustainable Non-sterilization Cultivation Method of Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus spp.) and its Key Influencing Factor

“…Accordingly, some methods already can cultivate edible fungi, such as oyster mushroom with some herbs and woody plants [3]. And the edible fungi can grow fast to high fecundity with many nutrients [4,5] and several active compounds that can improve immunity [6,7], anti-tumor [8] and confer anti-oxidative properties, etc [9,10]. However, several factors hamper large-scale cultivation of edible fungi.…”