Our analysis showed that 95% of mushroom supplements on the market have devastatingly low quality. Here are a few things that can help you not to get tricked.
Buying powders
These products will have “Chaga powder” or “Cordyceps powder” label. Since these powders are basically dried mushrooms ground into the powder, most important substances in them haven’t been bioactivated. Consuming them in this form decreases their therapeutic potency and therefore will have a significantly lowered positive effect on your health and wellbeing. To activate those substances, mushroom powders need to go through (dual) extraction process (hot water and alcohol). This costly process is the only way to securely remove the chitin. Skip this step and non-extracted mushroom products are indigestible. It locks the bioactive constituents in the cell walls of the mushroom. Only completely removing the chitin guarantees unlocking the full-spectrum biological potency of medicinal mushrooms.
Buying mislabeled mushroom supplements
Polysaccharides (mostly Beta-Glucans) are active ingredients in mushroom extracts and tinctures. Hiding their percentages from the label should be an instant “warning” sign since it alludes it is a low-quality product.
Few more reasons why sellers would hide this data:
-It is NOT an extract but a biomass product, a tincture or dried, ground up and powdered mushroom product. In these products, the bioactive ingredients cannot be determined properly and the bioavailability is so low that you cannot expect therapeutic effects.
-Due to the cheap extraction methodology seller cannot keep these percentages on a constant level.
Serving size vs extract quality tricks
The amount of bioactive ingredients defines the therapeutic potency of the product. So let’s say we offer you MushroomCoffee1 with 50% of polysaccharides for $20, and we offer you MushroomCoffee2 with 20% of polysaccharides for $10.
MushroomCoffee2 is cheaper but for the double price you get 2.5x more bio-active ingredients (polysaccharides) in MushroomCoffee1, therefore it should be a favorable choice.