These Common Kitchen Mushroom Species Are Medicines in Disguise
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Read Time:6 Minute, 48 Second
This is part two of a three-part series on edible mushrooms as medicinal supplements, you can read part one here.
While many people think of mushrooms as either a delicious side-dish, or a poisonous forest dweller, even the normally-edible ones represent powerful nutraceuticals, and in the multi-billion dollar supplement industry, they are one of the fastest-growing products.
As the supplement industry is currently valued at $220 billion, $25.4 billion of that is the mushroom trade. Medicinal mushroom supplements pair with several emerging trends, such as the shift towards “functional foods” or “whole foods” supplements, i.e. products that contain an entire concentrated food item and not an isolated chemical or nutrient.
Claims abound regarding what mushrooms have the potential to do inside of us. During COVID-19 there was an interest in mushrooms not only as an anti-viral agent, but also because they are one of the only foods to contain vitamin D, one of the most essential in preventing negative COVID outcomes.
However they are also touted as having anticancer and antibacterial properties. Others are claimed to slow aging, or act as a “nootropic,” a nutrient that powers brain activity similar to caffeine. Beyond some of these admittedly well-researched claims, mushrooms are undoubtedly rich in a variety of more traditionally researched ingredients that alone make them worth sticking in a stew, in a wok, or on top of a steak.
In the second part of a three-part story on medicinal mushrooms and supplementing with them, we will look at culinary species, as well as how to pick a good supplement.
Put them in a pan
Many mushrooms that are thought of as cooking ingredients could easily be described as crossing over from food into edible medicine, something some people call “functional food”. At what point does a food item become so protective and fitness-promoting can we consider it in the same class as medicine? Modern scientists are hashing that out more or less in this generation, but oyster mushrooms and shiitake, certainly fit the bill.
There are 40 individuals in the oyster mushroom family, and are considered culinarily as about one step above white, button, and cremini mushrooms which are mass-produced and used in packaged foods here in the U.S.
“Many authors indicate that oyster mushrooms could be classified as functional food due to their positive effect on the human organism,” reads a review on the species, concluding that among the various compounds, such as beta-glucans, terpenoids, and polyphenols, oyster mushrooms exhibit “immunostimulatory, anti-neoplastic, anti-diabetic, anti-atherosclerotic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and anti-oxidative properties”.
Oyster mushrooms are also powerful regulators of blood sugar and cholesterol, producing natural statins that prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol—the key reaction in the production of atherosclerosis-causing arterial plaque. Lectins, another kind of compound from oyster mushrooms, have been found to reduce blood sugar levels.
The fungus from the east
Along with oyster and button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms are one of the most cultivated species. A bit pricy at a supermarket due to their importation from abroad, this comestible fungus has been described as a “tool of medicine,” and as one recent review on shitake pointed out, once science and medicine began validating ancient medicinal knowledge on the use of mushrooms, clinics began springing up across East Asia that relied on shiitake mushroom and mushroom derivatives as treatment options.
As early as 199 CE, Japanese imperial records name shiitake, and by 1,313 CE, the Chinese were already writing down different methods of cultivation.
Like the oyster mushroom, shiitake fibers suppress cancers. Chihara et al. wrote that an isolated compound called lentinan “was found to almost completely regress the solid type tumors of Sarcoma 180 and several kinds of tumors including methylchloranthrene-induced fibrosarcoma in synergic host-tumor system A”.
A review of published literature on shiitake finds some incredibly interesting specifics about its health-promoting properties, for example, a minuscule addition of a factor from shiitake called eritadenine, reduced blood serum cholesterol in mice by 25% in as little as a week.
It’s worth mentioning that much of what has been already written in this series, especially regarding the effects of the mushroom fiber beta-glucan, applies to shiitake mushrooms. With their terpenoids, fibers, and polyphenols, they exhibit antibacterial, immuno-modulating, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antioxidant effects.
Shiitake has been demonstrated to improve results of infection from hepatitis B by completely restoring levels of the enzyme glutamic pyruvic transaminase, in mice with toxic hepatitis.
How to pick the right supplement
It goes without saying that eating any mushroom is the best way to ensure you’re getting the full benefits of these legit superfoods. However there are a few things one should note.
There are often dozens of choices of brands for supplementing mushrooms, but not all are created equal. For example, mere hours after harvesting, mushrooms, even cultivated ones, can begin to decay. Preservation is unavoidable, but some methods, such as drying, are harmful to the nutrient density of the shrooms in question.
Gamma and electron-beam irradiation, or ultraviolet-beta irradiation, are two methods that don’t compromise the compounds that most studies find to be the most therapeutic. While there was a decrease, one study found, in unsaturated fatty acids from the gamma and electron-beam irradiation methods, unsaturated fats are not richly found in mushrooms nor are they the source for many of the most highlighted health benefits.
There is a risk in assuming that all the other compounds will work just the same without the presence of unsaturated fats, as food matrix mechanics don’t always work that way. But compared to drying, which reduces the content of the critical beta-glucan fiber, or freezing, which reduces vitamin content, one might take the chance with the radiation.
For this, examining how the mushroom was preserved or prepared into a supplement form is key to making sure you’re getting the full nutrient complement. Not a lot of science has been done on this, and remaining flexible about what could be proven to be superior in the future is probably the right approach.
Another big difference between products is that many supplement brands will advertise that they contain 100% fruiting bodies, i.e. the mushroom, and not “mycelium” which is the fungal root-like, brain-like structure. This, some say, means it contains more beneficial nutrients.
One of the world-leading experts on mushrooms as medicine however, Dr. Paul Stamets, works alongside a supplement company that mixes fruiting bodies and mycelium together, something which other companies do as well, so it’s by no means obvious that 100% fruiting bodies is superior.
Some mushroom blends seem ideal, but actually contain very little of the actual mushroom; always check the actual milligram content. Another choice that must be made is between an extract and a whole-food supplement. There are arguments to select either, but considering beta-glucan makes up much of the mushroom itself, a whole foods supplement could be theorized as superior.
Some extracts will explain they are standardized to contain x-amount of beta-glucans, but since most mushrooms can be 60% beta-glucans, also listed as polysaccharides, that should be close to what the ingredients label should read. WaL
In part three of this three-part review, WaL will examine the mental benefits often touted of medicinal mushrooms.
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