How to Prepare Medicinal Mushrooms

Medicinal mushrooms have been used for centuries as a health aid -- they are one of the stars of traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine, two cultures that are known to have especially low disease rates in some categories. Whole food supplements containing medicinal mushrooms are becoming increasingly popular, with cordyceps, maitake and reishi mushrooms now readily available through respected natural, organic suppliers like New Chapter. Today we are looking at the different ways you can prepare and take whole food supplements with organic mushrooms, that preserve the medicinal value and cater to different tastes.

Making a tea from your New Chapter Mushrooms

If you purchase dried mushrooms, sometimes the easiest way to take them is in a tea. Far from prolonging the agony of having to swallow something that tastes disgusting, for anyone averse to the taste of mushrooms making a tea mellows the flavor significantly, while preserving the medicinal benefits. To make a tea from your dried mushroom whole food supplements:

• Grind your dried mushrooms to a powder in a coffee grinder
• Place them in a saucepan, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Simmer at least 20-30 minutes, and for maximum benefit, simmer for 2-4 hours.
• You can keep the grounds to reheat for another cup of tea -- just discard them when they stop coloring the water
• Filter the tea through a coffee filter, and then drink!

The easy way to take New Chapter mushrooms

The easiest method for taking them is simply buying them in capsule form. Some people believe that absorption differs when taken in a capsule as compared to a tea -- the heated liquid medium may make a difference. However this is very small, and if you just don’t have the time to brew and drink mushroom tea then a capsule is infinitely preferable to not getting the benefits of these New Chapter mushrooms at all.

Extracts

Extracts can be mixed into hot or cold beverages (like smoothies). A benefit of this method is that hot drinks aren’t required -- and nor is swallowing capsules for those who have difficulty with this. Thirty drops of this whole food supplement extract are required, and it is best to mix these in with a savory or nutty flavoured drink to get the best flavor mixture.