Do you fully digest mushrooms?

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  • The walls of mushrooms are made of cellulose, a dietary fiber that is the main component of most indigestibles like corn. If seeing the shrooms disturbs you, you may want to chew a bit more thoroughly (it'll still remain undigested though).

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    • Actually, fungal cell walls are composed of chitin, not cellulose. Cellulose makes up the cell walls of plants and requires bacteria and long fermination for animals (cows and other herbivores) to actually digest. A study from about 10 years ago found that 20 of 25 subjects had chitinase (chitin digesting enzyme) in their gastric juice. The sample size was low so it's difficult to say how common it actually is. Also, all the subjects were Italian so it's possible that it is more or less prevelant in other populations, like lactase and alcohol dehydrogenase.

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