NutraCast: The mushroom filler hiding in plain sight

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Brendan Smith, CEO of Raw Botanics explains what to look for—and what to avoid—when purchasing mushroom supplements.

Not all fungal products are equal and if you want the benefits, you have to know which part you’re getting in your supplements. With so many different kinds of mushrooms and products on the market, knowing what to look for can be overwhelming.

“Looking into what product I would select off the shelf, I would look at the label. I would look for a company that is selling fruit body extract as their mushroom ingredient and I would avoid companies using the mycelium on grain. The reason I would do that isn't because mycelium has less nutrients in it than the fruit body,” said Brendan Smith, CEO of Raw Botanics. “Knowing the supplement business, I know that it is much easier and faster and cheaper to produce mycelium on grain than it is to produce a fruit body. So if you were to go out as a brand and you were to shop it around and try to find cultivators to produce your supplement brand, you would find everyone selling you and quoting you on mycelium on grain, that's the first thing that's going to come across your desk. That's what everyone uses and they're using it because it's cheap. They're not using it because it's better for you.”

To hear more about mushroom product labeling, the role of testing and how Smith uses mushrooms to help him cope with PTSD, listen to the NutraCast. 

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