Functional Fungi: Mushroom marvel or Money pit?
Love them or hate them, could mushrooms be the key to good health. Stacey Morrison focuses on functional fungi in the latest episode of Healthy or Hoax.Functional fungi are the hot new thing in health and wellness circles. Many would say all fungi are functional, but in this case it refers to mushroom powders and supplements which some believe have a huge variety of benefits. In this episode of Healthy or Hoax, host Stacey Morrison investigates functional fungi.There are plenty of New Zealand-based companies getting in on the mushroom supplements game, offering products that claim to boost gut health and immune support, increase oxygen uptake and ease fatigue, and improve heart health and sleeplessness.To find out more about fungi in general, Healthy or Hoax producer Liz Garton attended the annual fungal foray to talk to some mushroom enthusiasts, including Bevan Weir, research leader in mycology and bacteriology at Maanaki Whenua / Landcare Research.Weir says there is no strong evidence for many of the claims around fungi supplements having amazing healing powers."But there's a lot of active research going on, so yeah, there's there's always the possibility," he says.Weir says even if you take out the unproven health benefits, mushrooms are good for you, especially if you're using them in place of meat products with high levels of cholesterol and animal fats."We really don't know if you're thinking about any sort of like specific activity, but I think mushrooms in general are just a really great thing."If you can build it into meals and eat it and if it has some great effects as well, that's just a bonus."Alexander James Bradshaw from the Natural History Museum of Utah, who was in Aotearoa doing postdoctoral research, also attended the foray.He says it's likely there are many medicinal compounds in a wide variety of different mushrooms. Lion's Mane mushrooms, for example contain chemical compounds called hericenones and erinacines."They are starting to come out in the literature as possibly being neurotropic, so actually having the ability to make healthier brain connections," he says.But he warns that the research is in its infancy. And although many companies are already capitalising on the early findings, their claims should always be taken with a grain of salt."My biggest problem with many of is that they are often sold as panacea."Dr Michael Howard practices emergency medicine in Northland and has a PhD in microbiology and immunology. He hopes that the folklore around mushrooms will soon be proven by science…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details