When in doubt, be sure to order the extra mushrooms on that pizza — it could slash the risk of brain decline in your senior years by 50 percent, according to new data from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Researchers from the Department of Psychological Medicine and Department of Biochemistry say that two cooked standard portions (about 300 grams) of the fungi each week chops the chances of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in half.

MCI sufferers are known to have low levels of amino acid called ergothioneine (or ET).

“ET is a unique antioxidant and anti-inflammatory which humans are unable to synthesize on their own,” says Irwin Cheah, National University of Singapore’s Senior Research Fellow in Biochemistry. “But it can be obtained from dietary sources, one of the main ones being mushrooms.”

Researchers say the results of the six-year study could translate into easy-access health benefits for people aged 60 and over.

“This correlation is surprising and encouraging,” says Feng Lei, an assistant professor at NUS Psychological Medicine. “It seems that a commonly available single ingredient could have a dramatic effect on cognitive decline.”

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