Part of our mission with sharing our new Mystic Mushrooms line is to bring more awareness around our fungal friends' benefits and for you to know how to discern high-quality mushroom supplements from low-quality mushroom supplements.
As we've explored the world of mushrooms powders with a more scrutinizing eye, we've come to find that testing needs to be held to a higher standard.
Why?
Because scientific data is easily misrepresented.
Below, we'll explain it as simply as possible. Read slowly or a couple of times, and with a cup of cacao!
Not All Beta-D-Glucans Are The Same!
The building blocks of mushroom cell walls are complex polysaccharides called Beta-D-Glucans. Beta-D-Glucans have been found to be beneficial to the immune system and great for cardiovascular health.
It's been found that cereal grains also contain similar polysaccharides, but what people have failed to mention is that not all Beta-D-Glucans are the same, and cereal grain Beta-D-Glucans lack the substantial health benefits that mushrooms have to offer.
Here's the thing, as a result, myceliated grains ground up and sold as mushroom powders might show up as being just as beneficial as truly medicinal fruiting body mushrooms because the standard test doesn't differentiate between the types of Beta-D-Glucans.
It was frustrating for us to realize, but this is why we went through so much to get mushrooms grown on logs like they love growing on in nature!
And here's the good news: there are better tests that can be used.
Reliable Tests For Your Health
Here's what we believe are definitive tests for true mushroom content that can distinguish reliably from mycelium grown on grains.
Test for Ergosterol
Ergosterol is a triterpenoid compound distinct to fungus. In fact, ergosterol testing is used in the US grain industry to test for the presence of fungus (when they don't want it!)! Ergosterol is not only a useful measurement of true mushroom content, it also has antitumor and antioxidant benefits.
Test for Triterpenoids
Triterpenoids are lipids present in some mushrooms and another important factor in immunological potency. Research shows that triterpenoids are liver protective, lipid-lowering, antioxidant, offer inhibition of histamine release, and are anti-inflammatory. They also support the immune activation of beta-glucans. Not all types of mushrooms have these, but for example, in reishi and chaga mushrooms, triterpenoids are the bitter taste you will experience.
Test for Starch
Fruiting body mushrooms have very little starch. Starch is an alpha-glucan found in grains. So mycelium grown on grains tests very high in starch, revealing that most of the "mushroom powder" is actually filler and devoid of active compounds. It has no medicinal value. Laboratory testing confirms that mycelium produced on grain is low in mushroom beta-glucans and very high in starch, or alpha-glucans. This is the complete opposite of a genuine medicinal mushroom. The commonly used standard tests measure both medicinal beta-glucans and non-medicinal alpha-glucans. The test is useless, because it cannot differentiate from the two. Make sure any mushroom products you buy have been tested for mushroom beta-glucan levels.
Use a Sophisticated Beta-D-Glucans Test
There are tests such as one developed by Megazyme International that can distinguish between mushroom Beta-D-Glucans and other Beta-D-Glucans. These are the most important compounds in medicinal mushrooms, as they activate or potentiate both innate and adaptive immunity. Beta-glucans are not degraded by digestive enzymes, so they pass intact into the intestine where our body has specific beta-glucan receptor sites. When beta-glucans activate our immune system, the numbers of macrophages, NK cells, and subsets of T-cells are increased and their functions are enhanced. This shields us against cancers and viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections. The majority of the research is based on these beta-glucans. High-quality medicinal mushroom products will have high levels of beta-glucans. All beta-glucan levels are verified for our mushrooms.
We hope you've enjoyed learning a bit more about our mushroom friends and look forward to sharing more information with you all!
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about Mystic Mushrooms or our cacao, for that matter!
Mystic Mushrooms & Cacao Love,
Jonas & The Ora Cacao Family
In Case You Missed It!
Our gift cards are now live!
You can shop them here.
These are great for a few reasons:
- You can let the recipient choose their favorite cacao.
- You can give the gift of cacao even if we are out of stock on particular cacao.
- If the recipient travels often, they can redeem a gift card to order and choose delivery at the best time and location for them.
Shipping Deadlines
- For international orders, we recommend using express delivery for all destinations for delivery by Christmas, and for delivery by New Year's Day this is the last week to use standard shipping for deliveries to Europe and Canada. You can read all about international shipping during the holidays here.
- For the US, we have another couple of weeks to get orders in, but it's best to order sooner than later because there may be unexpected delays.
Mushrooms For Your Health
*Important: 🚚 We are now back to our regular shipping schedule w/out ice packs now that the weather is cooling back down!
📦 Orders ship Monday through Thursday without ice packs.
🕰️ Thursday @ 1pm PT is the last order time to make the above shipping window.
🏡 Bring your package inside as soon as you can after it is delivered!
📲 We recommend opting in for text message delivery notifications; to do this, enter your phone number at checkout and you will receive updates on your cacao!
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