In case you are not familiar that there is mushroom coffee you will soon learn about it. Although it sounds like it is not appetizing, its taste is similar to the taste of coffee, but it has a ton of health benefits and fewer unwanted effects. It’s brewed simply by infusing beans of coffee with certain types of mushrooms, like Ganoderma lucidum, also known as reishi mushrooms, or other kinds of medicinal mushrooms, such as cordyceps and lion’s mane.
You might find it under names like Reishi Coffee, Ganoderma Coffee, or simply Mushroom Coffee.
The content of caffeine in mushroom coffee is lower than the content in the traditional coffee, it is in the range from 9 milligrams to 75 milligrams, depending on the brand. The content of caffeine in regular coffee is from 150 to 200 milligrams per serving.
The reishi mushroom belongs to the polypores’ genus that grow on wood. This mushroom has basidiospores with double wall which differentiates it from other polypores. It’s been used for centuries. Emperors as well as other royals have used it, especially in Chinese medicine. However, the western culture has overlooked it for years. It’s known for his best properties for supporting the liver, boosting the immune system and fighting cancer.
Until the 1970s, reishi was hard to find and expensive, but when it was discovered how to grow the mushroom inside on a larger scale, many people began discovering its benefits and a dramatic improvement in their overall health. Today, it’s being used in a number of different ways, including creating a tasty coffee.
Lion’s mane mushrooms, also known as bearded hedgehog, bearded tooth mushroom and bearded tooth fungus among others, is especially noted for its benefits to the nervous system and brain, with the potential ability to help treat Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis, leg cramps, anxiety and more.
Cordyceps is a mushroom which is combination of a caterpillar and one fungus that is found in Sikkim. That is a place in India found at over 14,000 feet. Traditional healers in this area have often recommended it as an “all illnesses tonic,” thanks to its ability to improve energy, stamina, appetite, libido, endurance, and sleep.
10 Reasons to Give Mushroom Coffee a Try
1. Mushroom coffee is less acidic
Most coffee contains natural acids, which may cause heartburn and stomach upset. For those who suffer but don’t want to give up consuming a mug of java in the morning, they could switch to a coffee that is low-acid like mushroom coffee as a great alternative. But even those who don’t suffer from those problems can benefit, as better health often begins by helping the body become more alkaline. The balance of acid and alkaline is essential because many body’s functions occur at a certain acid or alkaline level. Lots of enzymes and as well as body’s chemical reactions happen at a specific pH.
If you your goal is boosting the body’s energy in a natural way as well as slowing down the process of aging, you should thy an alkaline diet. That’s because a more acidic diet will have a negative effect on our bones and muscles the older we get. As reported by Natural News, an analysis by the National Institutes of Health explained, “As we grow old, we loss a muscle mass, which could predispose to fractures and falls. A three-year research made with a diet abundant with potassium, like vegetables and fruits, and also with reduced level of acid, revealed the preservation of the muscle mass in women and men that are older.”
A diet that’s more alkaline also supports weight loss so you can shed unwanted pounds, and may even help to prevent cancer.
2. You can easily enjoy drinking your afternoon coffee without concerning about being awake during the night
Due to the small caffeine amount in mushroom coffee, you can enjoy a cup in the afternoon or evening without having to worry about being kept awake all night. In fact, drinking mushroom coffee is encouraging the rest at night to be better. It’s even been used to treat insomnia, rather than contributing to it. A study by scientists at China’s Peking University in China published in February 2012 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology found that the extract from Ganoderma lucidum (reishi) can induce sleep in rats who freely moved around in the test environment.
The consumption of mushroom coffee is helpful for alleviating chronic conditions like fatigue disease, which makes one feel exhausted nearly all the time.
3. Improves the immune system
The coffee itself has many antioxidants. However a mushroom coffee adds more, which provides a super improvement to the immune system. The effects of Reishi that are helpful to strengthen the immune system have been published in many studies that are scientific, including a randomized, double-blind study published in the January 2009 issue of Phytotherapy Research. The researchers found significant improvements in the immune cell counts of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. They noted that ganoderma lucidum improved immune function, improving patients’ ability to fight off cancer, as well as any secondary infections that could compromise their treatment and their health.
4. Lower cholesterol
Mushroom coffee could be helpful for lowering the overall cholesterol, and in that way it improves the cardiovascular health. By signaling the liver to kick in production, the Swiss Nestle Research Center found that the herb was a “renowned medicinal species” and “inhibited cholesterol synthesis” in a 2005 study.
5. Promoting weight loss
Drinking mushroom coffee may help promote weight loss in a number of ways. In addition to being part of an alkaline diet, which naturally helps one to shed pounds, it further assists by increasing the body’s metabolism. According to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, ganoderma, in particular, contains active properties that can increase your metabolic rate after consumption. A higher metabolism means that your body uses more energy to digest food more efficiently. The energy is gained by breaking down the deposits of fat and body’s calories and leads to loss of weight.
6. Healthier cardiovascular system
In addition to improving the health of your cardiovascular system by lowering cholesterol, mushroom coffee supports cardiovascular health by promoting blood flow while lowering oxygen consumption to the heart, as plaque can cause an early death by blocking and clogging artery walls.
7. Liver protection
Studies have found that patients with hepatitis B have improved significantly within just a month after taking reishi, one of the primary mushrooms used in mushroom coffee. After patients with elevated liver enzymes and bilirubin took the mushroom for three months, all of their values were within a healthy range, revealing that mushroom coffee may serve as a very effective liver protectant.
8. Say goodbye to urinary tract infections
Normally caused by bacteria, urinary tract infections come with very uncomfortable symptoms like cramps in the lower abdomen, painful and frequent urination, and fever. The University of Maryland Medical Center reports that taking 150 to 300 milligrams of reishi extract two to three times per day may relieve urinary tract infections, a much welcome bit of news for those that suffer from them frequently.
9. Lowering the risk of Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder that makes it difficult to walk, balance and coordinate the body, an incurable condition that no one would wish on their worst enemy, but research has found that drinking mushroom coffee, may help to fight this disease. A study published in the June 2011 issue of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine revealed that the mushroom’s inflammatory properties may help battle Parkinson’s by preventing the gradual degeneration of nerve cells. It may also protect against other degenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s disease.
10. Anti-inflammatory properties
Speaking of anti-inflammatory properties, test made in a laboratory have revealed that the compounds that are bioactive extracted from reishi and some other mushrooms have anti-inflammatory properties that are very powerful, as well as anti-tumor, anti-aging and immuno-modulatory properties. Several reishi-derived substances are also antibacterial and antiviral, exerting direct inhibitory actions against human herpes viruses, the influenza virus, and even HIV.
What this means is that, in addition to protecting against Parkinson’s, maintaining a proper level of inflammation through diet and lifestyle, including consuming anti-inflammatory foods and beverages like mushroom coffee, means a lower risk of developing other diseases too. As certified and famous clinical nutricionist, doctor of natural medicine and doctor of chiropractic, Dr. Axe, and many other professional health experts have said, a diet filled with anti-inflammatory foods can transform and restore your health.
Inflammation plays a very large part in the body’s health. When the immune system overreaches and starts attacking healthy body tissues, an overabundance of inflammation results, causing conditions like arthritis, fibromyalgia, celiac disease, irritable bowel, and more. Even for diseases that aren’t autoimmune, it tends to play a part, as the body is forced to continuously heal tissues in a given area.
