3 Best Mushrooms for Gut Health (Backed by Science)
Mushrooms are one of those things people either love or hate, but they’re so much more than a controversial pizza topping. Medicinal mushrooms are fungi that can pack some serious health benefits. In fact, they usually don’t even look like the button mushrooms you’re used to seeing in the grocery store.
Functional mushrooms can have many uses, from supporting brain power to promoting gut health. But why is gut health so important, and which mushrooms are best for the gut? Here’s the lowdown on everything you need to know.
What Is Gut Health?
The “gut” is a simple term that basically includes the entire digestive tract. Specifically, when people talk about their “guts,” they usually mean their stomachs and intestines.
These organs are part of every human body, so it might seem strange to think that they can be healthy or unhealthy. In fact, there are a few key factors that make up gut health.
These include:
- The Gut Microbiome: There are trillions of bacteria that live throughout your intestines, but mostly in your large intestine. These bacteria produce digestive enzymes and other compounds that are important for health. That said, this delicate balance is easily upset.
- Gut Motility: This refers to how long it takes the body to digest food. If food moves slowly through the digestive tract, it can cause indigestion. Normally, it should take between two to five days to digest food.
- Intestinal Permeability: The intestinal walls naturally allow nutrients to pass through them into the bloodstream. However, they can sometimes be a little too open, allowing toxins to pass through as well.
- Irritation: The gut can get irritated by bacteria, viruses, toxins, and even the food you eat.
Why Is Gut Health Important?
You might not spend a lot of time thinking about what goes on inside your digestive system, but we can pretty much guarantee you’ll notice when something’s off. It could start with indigestion, bloating, nausea, or constipation. However, the gut deals with far more than just digestion.
The gut is the physical center of the body, both in location and function. Having poor gut health means you won’t be able to absorb as many nutrients from your food, you might experience gut irritation, and you might even feel stressed.
There’s something called the gut-brain axis, which basically explains how gut health affects emotional and brain health, and vice versa. For instance, the gut creates 95 percent of the body’s serotonin. This chemical doesn’t just play a role in mood and digestion — it’s also an ingredient in melatonin, the body’s sleep hormone.
The gut also affects immune health, and having poor gut health can leave you more open to catching colds. There’s even something called the gut-skin axis, which describes how gut health can affect skin health. It turns out that poor gut health could be behind your breakouts, dryness, or overall lackluster skin tone.
3 Best Mushrooms for Gut Health
Clearly, the gut is the star of the show when it comes to health. Fix your gut, and you might just fix a host of other issues along with it!
There are plenty of ways you can support your gut health, such as exercising, getting sunlight, managing stress, getting plenty of sleep, and eating gut-healthy foods. However, another major thing you can do is consider taking mushroom supplements. Here are our favorites for gut health.
1. Lion’s Mane
Lion’s mane mushroom is a rich source of beta-glucans. These are carbohydrates that double as prebiotic fiber, which acts like food for the bacteria in your small and large intestines.
Lion’s mane can also bind to toxins, encouraging the body’s natural detoxification pathways. This can ease irritation in the gut and help support the gut-brain connection. This leads to some other benefits of lion’s mane, such as supporting brain health, focus, and mental health.
2. Reishi
Reishi mushrooms can support the intestinal lining, encouraging healthy intestinal permeability. Reishi can also support a balanced gut microbiome, specifically when it comes to the balance between bacteria and yeast.
3. Chaga
Chaga mushroom is another mushroom that contains lots of beta-glucans. Beyond its prebiotic properties, chaga can also support balance within the gut microbiome and support the immune system. Both chaga and lion’s mane contain certain compounds that can help soothe irritation within the gut, as well.
Chaga is also a great source of antioxidants, which are molecules that can help neutralize the effects of free radicals. These can help support gut health and also overall health in both the short term and long term.
How Can You Take Mushrooms for Gut Health?
When you’re looking for a mushroom supplement, don’t fall victim to clever marketing. There are three key things you need to be aware of:
- How the Mushroom Is Processed: The human body cannot use the beneficial compounds in raw mushrooms unless they’re extracted, so make sure you specifically look for supplements that use mushroom extract.
- How the Mushroom Is Fed: Some brands feed their mushrooms grains instead of wood to help speed up production. However, this can lead to a lower-quality supplement that might not have all of the benefits you’re looking for.
- Which Part of the Mushroom Is Used: Mycelium, or the underground part of the mushroom, is commonly used in supplements. However, it’s also not as high in beta-glucans and other beneficial compounds. Instead, you may want to look for supplements that use mushroom fruiting bodies.
Our Mushroom Coffee+ checks all of these boxes and more. Featuring double-extracted, wood-fed lion’s mane and chaga fruiting bodies, our formula is made with your gut in mind. Plus, it contains other ingredients that can help support gut health. For instance, collagen can help support the intestinal lining, while L-theanine can help ease feelings of stress.
The Bottom Line
We’re not exaggerating when we say gut health is one of the keys to full-body health. Whether your issue is brain fog, skin breakouts, indigestion, stress, or poor sleep, it’s likely that you can trace it back to your gut.
At Everyday Dose, we designed our nootropics stack to take advantage of this knowledge. We knew our formula shouldn’t just provide cognitive support — it should support the gut, too. That’s why we developed our full selection of mushroom blends with only five of the highest-quality ingredients out there. Shop all of our blends today and find one that works for you!
Sources:
The Gut-Brain Axis: Influence of Microbiota on Mood and Mental Health | PMC
The Gut-Skin Axis: Interaction of Gut Microbiome and Skin Diseases | Frontiers Research Topic
5 Reasons to Consider Chaga Mushrooms | American Association of Naturopathic Physicians
