How can fungi be used to enhance the nutrition of the human food? Justify.

Question

Can fungi be used to enhance the nutritional value of human food? Justify.

Answer 1

There are many ways that fungi benefit human nutrition, depending on what approach / perspective you want to look at it from. Here are a few ways:

1. Mushrooms are a source of fiber and antioxidants. This helps with our digestion and balancing out some of our internal chemistry.
2. Fungus form symbiotic relationships with plants. Depending on the species they can do several things:
3. Enhance the growth of food plants by supplying them with extra nutrients (essentially, they trade nutrients and material to plants in exchange for small amounts of sugar).
4. Promote connectivity between different plants to allow for improved chemical signaling and nutrient exchange between plants. This benefits more traditional agriculture methods and ecosystems (this is important because many of our pharmaceuticals / vitamins are wild-harvested.
5. Fungus can be bio-engineered to have additional nutrients or even produce medication. Since we only harvest the mushroom part of the plant we have a sustainable source for food or pharmaceuticals.
6. Fungus typically have lower care needs since they are detritovores (break down other organisms to get their nutrients). They makes them growable in regions that may struggle with other forms of agriculture. Mixed with bioengineering they have potential to augment food in areas that may struggle with food security.