Asda Helps Fight Winter Blues With Launch of Vitamin D Mushrooms

This week is set to be the bluest of the year, with Blue Monday (January 21) hanging over heads. With Brits firmly in the mid-winter rut, Asda has today announced it is providing a daily dose of sunshine with the launch of Vitamin D Mushrooms, helping the nation through the cold, dark days.

Grown in Ireland, the Vitamin D-enriched mushrooms can provide the 1 in 5 British adults with a Vitamin D deficiency* with 100% of their daily recommended intake in a serving of just 4-5 mushrooms, ensuring eaters get close to their daily dose of D despite the lack of sunlight.

Grown in temperature-controlled tunnels and then stimulated under UV lighting to replicate natural sunlight, the Vitamin D can be found in Asda’s Chestnut Mushrooms. These mushrooms have been given a carefully-measured amount of bright light, triggering a chemical reaction in the flesh of the mushroom, which produces the necessary vitamin.

Andrew Shanks, Asda Mushroom Grower, comments: “After a few months of cold, dark winter, we’re all ready for a little sunshine in our lives to get us through those January blues.

“The launch of our Vitamin D Mushrooms aims to help vitamin-deficient Brits get as much out of their mushrooms as possible, with a simple 100g serving of the earthy mushrooms providing a day’s-worth of Vitamin D.”

Normally grown in dark spaces – as mushrooms don’t need natural sunlight to grow – Asda’s Vitamin D Mushrooms have been carefully cultured by its expert Irish growers, harvesting over 7000 tonnes of mushrooms throughout the year for Asda.

Dr Jude Wilson, Chief Scientific Officer at Monaghan Mushrooms, says:

“At this time of year, we can’t get enough vitamin D from sunlight alone. This means that we need to obtain our vitamin D from our diet. We expose our mushrooms to light and they make vitamin D, through a natural process.

“We’ve known for a long time that mushrooms are a food for the future; they are sustainably grown, high in protein and full of other nutrients, salt and fat free, low in calories yet very filling, offer a great alternative to meat and now provide 100% of your recommended daily amount of Vitamin D.”

Vitamin D helps regulate calcium and phosphate in the body, as well as ensuring healthy bones, teeth and muscles**.

Asda’s Vitamin D Mushrooms can be found in selected stores and online, available Asda Grower’s Selection Chestnut Mushrooms (250g, 0.90p).