10 Important Benefits to Start Drinking Mushroom Coffee Now!

Nescafe, Bru, Starbucks, CCD, Barista are the first words that come to mind when we talk of coffee. It is one of world’s most popular beverages after tea. People have been drinking coffee and using it in food, desserts, and beauty treatments for centuries. But we are quite sure you aren’t familiar with another coffee known as “mushroom coffee”. Sounds unappetizing, isn’t it? Surprisingly the taste is quite similar to normal coffee, but the health benefits of mushroom coffee outnumber its side effects. It is made by infusing special medicinal mushrooms such as the Ganoderma Lucidum, lion’s mane or the cordyceps.

Also known as reishi coffee, Ganoderma Lucidum coffee, or Mushroom coffee in simpler terms the mushroom used in such coffee literally means the ‘soul or spirit mushroom’. It is a combination of several fungal species of the Ganoderma genus.

The caffeine content in reishi mushroom coffee is around 9mg, which is quite low when compared to traditional coffee that has around 150 mg to 200 mg of caffeine in it. It is known to boost the immune system, fight cancer and liver diseases. The lion’s mane mushroom is known to help with issues of the nervous system and the brain, while it could possibly help with Parkinsons’ or Alzheimer’s treatment, minor cerebral damage, multiple sclerosis, nervousness, leg spasms and others.

Traditional healers from Sikkim recommend cordyceps mushroom as a tonic for all illnesses, as it has the capability to improve hunger, vitality, strength, stamina, libido and sleep. The Chinese have been using these mushrooms in their traditional medicine for more than 2000 years, but not until 1970 did it catch the fancy of the west. That is when they discovered a number of its benefits and the improvement caused on their overall health.

Not only is the mushroom coffee tasty, but take a look at the health benefits of mushroom extract coffee.

1. Less Acidic:

Normal everyday coffee contains a lot of natural acids that could lead to heartburn and an upset stomach. If you are one of those who loves that cup of Joe even after all the heartburn, then Ganoderma Lucidum coffee is a great alternative as its natural acid content is very low.

2. Low Caffeine:

Enjoy your cup of java, without being worried about staying up late into the night. Mushroom coffee has low caffeine content and instead of keeping you awake, it helps you sleep better at night. It is often used to treat insomnia. A study published by the Peking University, China in 2012 found that extracts from the reishi mushroom help to induce sleep and alleviate severe conditions like fatigue disease i.e. a disease where the person feels exhausted all the time.

3. Improves Body’s Defense:

Coffee has a number of antioxidants that offer health benefits, but when it is combined with medicinal mushrooms, the number of antioxidants and its potency increases. This helps to strengthen the body’s defense mechanism. There have been a number of research studies that can corroborate this fact. The research findings published in a Phytotherapy Research magazine in 2009, found medicinal mushrooms to help increase the number of white blood cells in patients receiving cancer treatment. The ganoderma lucidum increased the patient’s immunity and his ability to fight cancer and other secondary infections which could hamper cancer treatment.

4. Prevents Cholesterol Build-Up:

Mushroom extracts coffee, helps to lower our body’s cholesterol, which further helps to improve the cardiovascular system of our body. This fact was verified by the Swiss Nestle Research center in 2005, when they found medicinal mushrooms had the ability to inhibit production of cholesterol in the body.

5. Prevents Weight Gain:

Drinking mushroom coffee not only helps to keep the weight down because it is alkaline in nature, but it also helps to speed up the body’s metabolic rate. According to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, mushroom especially ganoderma has active properties that help to increase metabolism after consumption. Increased metabolism uses more energy to properly digest food. Energy in our body is derived by breaking down body fat, which leads to loss of weight.

6. Strengthens the Vascular System:

The mushroom in the coffee is known to aid circulation of blood in the body while reducing the consumption of oxygen to the heart, also prevents production of plaque which could clog the artery walls.

7. Protects the Liver:

A recent study found hepatitis B patients on reishi mushroom extract coffee, displayed an improvement in their condition. Those suffering from elevated liver enzymes and bilirubin, found their enzymes returning to a healthy range within 3 months of consuming mushroom coffee.

8. No More Urinary Infections:

Lower abdomen spasms, painful and recurrent urination and fever are a few signs of urinary infections, which are caused by bacteria. According to a report by the Maryland Medical Center, having 150 mg to 300 mg of reishi extracts twice or thrice a day helps to relieve urinary infections significantly.

9. Lower the Risk of Parkinson:

Parkinson’s  disease is an incurable wasting disease where people find it difficult to walk, have trouble with balancing and body coordination. However, research studies have found that drinking ganoderma lucidum coffee could help to fight this disease. This was validated in a study published in 2011 by the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative medicine, which revealed that the anti-inflammatory properties medicinal mushroom has, could help to fight Parkinson’s by preventing steady deterioration of nerve cells. It could also protect against other wasting diseases like Alzheimer’s.

10. Prevents Inflammation:

Medicinal mushrooms especially the reishi mushrooms have bioactive compounds that prevent inflammation. These medicinal mushrooms are powerful anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-aging, as well as anti-tumor. These properties help to strengthen the body’s immune system while fighting against viruses like herpes, flu and even Aids.

Just because you now know about the health benefits of mushroom coffee, it doesn’t mean that you have a diet that has lots of mushroom coffee in it. You need to make sure that you have a good diet that includes everything that our body needs, including food that is known to have anti-inflammatory properties. Consult Ayurveda Specialists in Mumbai or Ayurveda Hospitals in Mumbai before you decide to start drinking mushroom infused coffee, especially if you suffer from cancer or life threatening diseases.