How do Medicinal Mushrooms compare with other Nutritional Supplements?

Medicinal Mushrooms are the most powerful natural healing substances. They are classified as “Adaptogens” meaning that they support the body to heal and balance itself holistically.

Adaptogens support your body to naturally regulate itself by normalizing over activity or under activity of the organs and glands. 

Most nutritional supplements deliver ingredients in an isolated state whereas Medicinal Mushroom supplements are consumed in a whole state where each ingredient or aspect synergistically supports other ingredients to deliver their benefits optimally. There is a very high level of bio-availability of a properly grown and processed Medicinal Mushroom product.

More and more people – doctors among them – have become aware that when it comes to preventing illness and disease, food plays a major role. This shift toward good nutrition as the key to a long, healthy life isn't just based on anecdotal evidence. A growing body of medical research is backing the old adage that “you are what you eat.” This nutritional research is also finding that not all foods are equal. When it comes to good nutrition some are better than others.  

Researchers and health practitioners are identifying what they call “super foods” – foods shown to have tremendous health benefits, including the ability to help prevent many diseases.

The super foods theory has led to increased studies on the health benefits of specific foods, with mushrooms being one food that has received much recent attention. And what researchers are finding is that mushrooms really do provide many high level health benefits. Mushrooms are complex biological organisms that contain numerous bioactive nutrients and antioxidants.

High in antioxidants, beta-glucans and polysaccharides, mushrooms are one of nature’s most perfect foods.

Not only are they loaded with healthy nutrients, but those nutrients are easily absorbed and used by humans. Recent research has focused on a unique potent antioxidant in mushrooms – called L-Ergothioneine (ERGO) – as a natural way of nutritionally supporting your body’s immune system.

ERGO appears to be a far more powerful antioxidant than other substances such as beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. One unit of synthetic ERGO antioxidant is equal to 7,000 units of the antioxidant Trolox (water soluble vitamin E.) Antioxidants are the body’s defense system against cellular damage.

Research has shown that the ERGO antioxidant found in mushrooms is not only one of the most potent of antioxidants but also the one most efficiently used by the body. Humans possess a unique specific “transport” system that moves ERGO into important cells in the body, such as the red and white blood cells. And unlike antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, unused ERGO appears to be stored by the body for quick use rather than flushed as waste.

The awareness that nutrition plays a key role in promoting good health has led to the growth of the multi-billion dollar nutritional supplement market.

The purpose of all of these nutritional supplements is to provide the body with the nutrients it needs to thrive, protecting us from today’s increased health challenges and supporting us to live longer, healthier lives.

Since most of us no longer eat properly or cannot get the full array of nutrients we require from our nutrient depleted foods, we have come to depend on these nutritional supplements, such as vitamin pills, to fill in the gaps. The problem, however, is that most of these supplements on which we rely often contain synthetic or extracted chemicals and nutrients whose absorption, cell penetration and physiologic effects are questionable.

Most nutrition experts today agree that the best nutrition comes from whole foods. The cellular processes of humans is complex and needs a complex food to match. Mushrooms, as it turns out, are one of the most complex foods available, containing more than 3,000 specific chemicals that match the system requirements of humans. The best advice for good nutrition should perhaps not be "Eat your vegetables" but instead, "Eat your mushrooms."