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Mushrooms, Beta-Glucans and Bile Excretion
The principle type of soluble fibre in legumes is pectin. While legumes are a healthy food, for reasons I have explained, pectin has some big downsides, we don't want to over consume foods containing it. The other main type of soluble fibre that helps to sequester bile is beta-glucan. It is well known as being high in oats but it is also found in fungi. Beta-glucan is a preferable form of soluble fibre since it does not convert into methanol and formaldehyde.
"The underlying mechanisms of β-glucans from mushrooms have not yet been explained. It has been repeatedly confirmed that the consumption of fungi decreases blood cholesterol levels in animals (160,161) and the increased intake of fungi may reduce CVD risk. Clinical trials have also confirmed that the consumption of soluble β-glucans reduces total cholesterol levels, including LDL-C, without affecting HDL-C and triglyceride levels (38,39,118)."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810204/
Mushrooms are an excellent food but are especially helpful while detoxing vA. In addition to their ability to assist with vA excretion they are also an excellent source of riboflavin and pantothenic acid. It is best to consume a variety of species for maximum health benefits.
Mushrooms contain a mix of soluble beta-glucan and insoluble beta-glucan. It is generally thought that insoluble fiber cannot sequester bile. It's not that black and white:
"Previously, it was considered that soluble dietary fiber lowered levels of lipids and cholesterol in the blood and that insoluble dietary fiber only contributed to fecal bulking. However, it has now been demonstrated that these effects depend on the degree of viscosity and fermentation capability of fiber (95)."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810204/
Interesting! I have 3 types of fibers that I want to mention to you just for the heck of it.
I was on a gluten-free list for a long time, and the owner was very into glucomanan and felt it benefited her gut greatly: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/shirataki-noodles-101
My great grandmother from Germany always had a few little bowls of condiments on the dinner table. These were various permuations of stewed prunes, senna and apple sauce. The 11 children were told to eat more when constipated. In general, they were used as a condiment. Senna appears to be a herbal laxitive. I think the senna one was used only when necessary.
Slippery Elm bark is recommended by people who have websites devoted to kidney-failure cats
Thank you Sir . I will be adding mushrooms to my diet soon.
I've always loved mushrooms. I have an antique German plaque handed down to me, with a "no place like home" poem. There is a cute little cottage illustrated, and in the foreground: Mushrooms. (I'm not sure if they are culinary though, I think they are hallucinogentic haha....) Mushrooms were a big part of European life.
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Stewed prunes are such a trad thing for oldies that I'm thinking they should not be dismissed easily. I've read that the carotenes of dried herbs are less than the carotenes of fresh, and I bet the same can be said for dried fruit (especially if LIGHT is involved in the drying. (sun dried for instance). Perhaps the senna mixed with the prune reduced the amount needed.
Pectin is pretty common in historical cooking, though. Currant jelly was a common condiment.
I don't know where I learned this but somewhere along the way it was stuck in my craw that fruit fiber is gentler than seed fiber.
I'm betting that mushroom fiber is also gentler than seed fiber.
You're welcome.
I eat small amounts of jam and relish that contain pectin. Pectin is not an issue in moderate amounts, fruit and legumes are fine in moderation. I eat a can of beans as well as some fruit most days.
Yeah mushrooms give me ancestral memories of rustic European villages surrounded by oak forest where children could go and collect hazelnuts, blueberries and mushrooms.
I also eat some jam on my sorghum flour pancake. That home made jam is almost like gelatin. So it must be very high in pectin. Ok no more jam. What about bananas? Wonder if they hinder my progress.. I eat like 2 a day.. Are there other foods high in beta glucan besides mushrooms and oats? Mushrooms are quite expensive here and oats are nono for me..
Jiri, I think your best bet for beta glucan would be gluten free whole grains like millet, amaranth and buckwheat. If you do some research on that please let us know. Mushrooms aren't expensive? My supermarket marks down the price when they are getting close to their use by date, that certainly allows people on limited budgets to buy them.
Very unlikely that two bananas and some jam will give you issues. Our body is perfectly able to process methanol and formaldehyde, pectin is just something to keep in mind not to go overboard on. For example if someone ate two cans of beans, a big fruit salad, two cups of fruit juice, jam, multiple servings of veges and then also had some aspartame soda they would be getting enough methanol to have a serious health effect I would think. With the goal of optimal health in mind I think it is best to control how much fruit, vege and legumes one consumes per day.
@tim-2 I think that amount of beta glucan in millet, buckwheat etc.. will be really low. The best source are oats. I would try gluten free oats. I know they have very similar protein to gluten, but maybe I can handle it ok. I really want limit my pectin and fructose intake to minimum. So far I tried beans for 4 days and I have a lot of gas and loose stool all the time. Which is better than constipation, but I think my liver has hard time with this.. Yes mushrooms are expensive here. Especially when I consider they have no calories, macro nutrients. I would eat them just for beta glucan..
I made some strawberry jam this week with this recipe: https://www.marthastewart.com/335256/quick-strawberry-jam. It has the benefit of having no ADDED pectin, at least. I will probably make more jams as the season proceeds, and put it into the freezer in small amounts. As it says in the comments, the consistency might need some fiddling,
I have been baking most of my baked goods with a healthy dose of buckwheat flour. This was because at one point wheat flour was limited and I bought a bag. It is a very in-offenive way to add a bit of whole grain to something like a pancake or muffin. However, IT DOES CHANGE THE COLOR TO MORE YELLOW. There are pigments.
Oats also have some pigments.
My german great-grandmother always added a small amount of Rye to each bread loaf.
It appears that barley has beta glucans. Now, barley is something we moderns eat less of, my german grandmother always put it in soups, and beer is made of it! Barley is yummy.