While not as commonly consumed as shiitake or portobello mushrooms, chaga mushrooms are another type of mushroom with a variety of health benefits attached to it. These mushrooms are found in colder climates like Siberia and have a rock-like appearance. They are also not quite ‘mushroomy’ in taste, but are still very good for your health.
Let’s look at some of the potential benefits of chaga mushrooms in your diet.
What are Mushroom Life Chaga Mushrooms?
Mushroom Life Chaga mushrooms are found in the colder regions of the northern hemisphere - such as in Korea, Canada, Russia, and other such places. These grow mostly on birch trees. At first glance, these look like clumps of dirt or charcoal, but inside, the fungus tissue is bright orange.
In the past, the chaga mushroom was used as a medicine for a variety of different ailments - from diabetes to cancers. It is typically used as a tea, but nowadays you can also find it as supplements in capsule form.
Unlike other mushrooms, you can’t simply eat them whole, because they have a cork-like texture that requires an extraction process for the useful components to become available for your body to use.
Health Benefits of Mushroom Life Chaga Mushrooms
Although there is very limited information available on the nutritional benefits of chaga mushrooms, research is still ongoing. That said, there are a few things we know to be true. Let’s take a look.
Boosting Immunity
Chaga mushrooms do have a role to play in improving immunity.
When your body needs to defend itself against some sort of problem, cytokines are produced, which are proteins that stimulate the white blood cells. White blood cells are your body’s protective system - they fight against any foreign bodies like viruses or bacteria and keep you from getting sick.
Chaga mushrooms are able to promote and regulate the production of cytokines, which means that the white blood cells are stimulated much faster and fight the harmful entity much better. This means that you become less prone to sickness or infections - from minor things like the cold, to even life threatening problems.
Chaga also reduces inflammation in the body. While inflammation is usually a sign that your body is fighting something, it can sometimes become a problem when it lingers for too long. Problems like rheumatoid arthritis are caused by inflammation.
The production of cytokine, which chaga can regulate, can help with this problem.
Managing Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a major problem for today’s folk, especially with the types of saturated fat present in the foods we eat.
A study carried out on rat populations showed that chaga extract was able to reduce bad LDL cholesterol levels, while other studies showed similar results, as well as an increase in HDL cholesterol, which is the good type.
This means that the antioxidant properties in chaga may be able to help reduce cholesterol levels in humans as well, which can greatly reduce the risk of diseases involving the cardiovascular system, as well as problems like heart attacks.
The antioxidant properties in chaga can also help with reducing high blood pressure, which is often associated with other types of cardiovascular problems.
Fighting Cancer
Chaga is also useful in fighting and preventing the growth and development of cancer. Again, chaga is rich in antioxidants, which means that it can protect the body from free radicals. These are often contributors towards diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.
When your body cannot produce enough antioxidants on its own to combat the effect of free radicals, the oxidative stress can give rise to all sorts of diseases. This includes cancer.
Studies carried out in labs showed that chaga extract does have benefits when it comes to cancer, because it prevents the growth of cancer cells, and keeps cancer from developing to begin with.
Chaga contains triterpene, which is an antioxidant, and very concentrated forms of triterpene can actually kill cancer cells entirely. This means that the secret cure to cancer could just have been chaga all along, but there is more research needed to make any sort of claims about whether or not chaga is useful in humans or not.
Managing Blood Sugar Levels
Chaga is also very useful for people who may be suffering from, or are at risk of diabetes. In fact, problems like insulin resistance or polycystic ovarian syndrome can also be managed by using chaga.
In fact, some studies carried out on animals showed that diabetic mice who consumed chaga extract had lower blood sugar levels, and insulin resistance than the mice who were not given the chaga supplement.
Again, this is likely due to chaga’s antioxidant properties. Some studies showed that chaga supplements taken regularly resulted in blood sugar levels dropping by about 31% over 3 weeks’ time. That said, there is not enough research in the area on humans, so more is needed to determine how well chaga would work for managing blood sugar.
Chaga In Your Diet
While chaga does seem to have quite a number of benefits that would make it a good addition to your diet, there is still some concern around how much of it should be consumed. Generally chaga is well-tolerated, but it could interact with some common medications. For example, if you are already on medication for diabetes, or taking insulin, then the impact chaga has on blood sugar could interfere with your treatment and cause problems.
Chaga can also prevent blood clotting, which can become an issue if you need to take blood thinning medication for any reason. If you have any daily medication, it’s best to get a doctor’s advice before introducing chaga into your diet.
Again, the nutritional benefits of chaga are somewhat locked within the fungus, so you can’t just eat them as they are. The texture is also not very fun to eat.
Instead, the benefits of chaga have to be extracted, and the extract is what is then used. You can make teas and infusions, or consume it in the form of supplements. However, ground chaga or solid chaga chunks will not provide any real benefit, because your body will not be able to access the nutrients within that will provide you with all of the mentioned advantages.
However, this also means that chaga mushrooms are not able to provide as much benefit as the sort of mushrooms that can be consumed whole.
So far, there is also very limited research on how much of the mushroom you can consume in one go. Most research has been carried out on animals, and human results are not yet widely available. That said, there is no harm in consuming chaga every once in a while, especially if you are not taking any medication that it could interfere with, or have any sort of illnesses that it could cause trouble with.
The mushrooms are safe to consume, and when done the right way, also have a great number of health benefits that you would surely profit from.