LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT FUNCTIONAL MUSHROOMS

1. “On a spiritual level, some believe that Chaga opens the ‘third eye’ to allow for better emotional and spiritual connections,” says Dawson.

2. “Part of what makes up the structure of a mushroom is chitin. This is tough fibrous material that also makes up the exoskeleton of insects – this structure locks many of the bioactive compounds in the cell walls of mushroom. For this reason, it is important that extraction is performed properly and the mushrooms you choose have high levels of bio active compounds,” says Daikin.

3. The oldest materia medica, called The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica – the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing – has a category of herbs called the ‘superior herbs’, with these herbs broken into four categories. One of those is fungi. “A huge proportion of those superior herbs are the mushrooms that we know of today like Reishi,” explains Taylor.

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