You can’t go wrong with mushrooms. They’re fat-free, low-sodium, low-calorie, and cholesterol-free. They’re also packed with fibre, vitamins, and minerals. Nutritional benefits vary depending on the type of mushroom. But overall, they are a good source of the following nutrients.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants help protect the body from damaging free radicals that can cause conditions like heart disease and cancer. They also protect you against damage from aging and boost your immune system. Mushrooms are rich in the antioxidant called selenium. In fact, they are the best source of the mineral in the produce aisle.
Beta glucan
Beta glucan is a form of soluble dietary fiber that’s been strongly linked to improving cholesterol and boosting heart health. It can also help your body regulate blood sugar, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Oyster and shiitake mushrooms are believed to have the most effective beta glucans.
B vitamins
Mushrooms are rich in the B vitamins: riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid. The combination helps protect heart health. Riboflavin is good for red blood cells. Niacin is good for the digestive system and for maintaining healthy skin. Pantothenic acid is good for the nervous system and helps the body make the hormones it needs.
Copper
Copper helps your body make red blood cells, which are used to deliver oxygen all over the body. The mineral is also important to other processes in the body, like maintaining healthy bones and nerves. Even after being cooked, a 1-cup serving of mushrooms can provide about one-third of the daily recommended amount of copper.
Potassium
Potassium is extremely important when it comes to heart, muscle, and nerve function. There’s about as much potassium in 2/3 cup of cooked Portobello mushroom as there is in a medium-sized banana.
Our company values a good work ethic, reliability and people who are driven to grow and develop their skills. Developing our talent is one of our core priorities and we have a range of roles filled recently including some electrical apprentices, a trainee supervisor, a groundman and assist grower.
So lets ask them a few questions:
What made you choose Marland mushrooms?
“For me it was the opportunity to develop more skills, it is close to home and the team support each other” – Jaunita “I have developed a keen interest in growing and agriculture so the opportunity to join the Growing team was exciting for me. I have a massive responsibility, enjoy great support and training and I am working in my field that I am passionate about” – Madson “I just felt comfortable from the interview process to my first day and I have now been here for three months, it is one big happy family. We all work hard, we support each other and the rosters really suit me. I feel part of something” – Mary
What is the best thing about working at Marland Mushrooms?
“I like the people, the team is awesome, the managers are approachable and really supportive and its not out in the heat” – Lachlan “the flexibility of the roster really suits me, they are happy to work with me and my childcare commitments, not many businesses really do that” – Jan “they let us be on the website, we were included and that makes us feel appreciated” – Sim
Would you recommend Marland mushrooms to your friends?
“Maybe not my friends, as I wouldn’t get too much work done working with them, but for anyone who wants to work hard, and be part of a great team and get heaps of experience for sure!” – Nathan “I started at the entry level and have developed into a vital member of the growing team – I owe it all to Marland, Troy and his team are awesome” – Ye Lwin
A novel study is assessing whether medicinal mushrooms and Chinese herbs provide therapeutic benefit in treating acute COVID-19 infection. MACH-19 (Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19) — a multi-center study led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UCLA, in collaboration with the La Jolla Institute for Immunology — is among the first to evaluate these specific integrative medicine approaches using the gold standard of Western medicine: the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
Three trials are currently recruiting for between 66 and 80 patients who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and who are quarantined at home with mild to moderate symptoms. Two are Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Phase 1 clinical safety trials for investigational compounds to treat acute COVID-19.
Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, whose research focuses on using food as medicine, is the principal investigator of MACH-19 (Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19), a multi-center study led by University of California San Diego and UCLA.
“Mushroom-Based Product for COVID-19,” which started December 2020 and is slated to run until December 2022, tests the safety and feasibility of a 50/50 blend of the mushrooms agarikon (Fomitopsis officinalis) and turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) in capsule form.
“Chinese Herbal Formula for COVID-19,” which began in July 2021 and is projected to conclude in December 2022, tests the safety and feasibility of a formulation of 21 Chinese herbs from Taiwan called Qing Fei Pai Du Tang that is widely used as a COVID-19 remedy in China.
“We hope these treatments will reduce the need for hospitalization,” said MACH-19 principal investigator Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, director of research at the Centers for Integrative Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
According to Saxe, the mushrooms were chosen because of their long history of use and recent evidence of immune-enhancing and anti-viral effects. In a preclinical study published in the March 2019 issue of Mycology, agarikon was found to inhibit viruses including influenza A(H1N1), influenza A(H5N1) and herpes. Saxe said he believes medicinal mushrooms inhibit the viruses’ replication, a theory he plans to test against SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase II trial.
Mushrooms have the advantage that they co-evolved with us. So bacteria, viruses and other fungi prey on mushrooms just like they prey on humans. And mushrooms have developed exquisite defenses against those pests, and we believe they can confer those to us when we eat them.”
Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, director of research, Centers for Integrative Health, UC San Diego School of Medicine
MACH-19’s third ongoing trial, “RCT of Mushroom Based Natural Product to Enhance Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccination,” measures whether the same medicinal mushrooms, given in capsules at the time of initial COVID-19 vaccination, can increase antibodies and other measures of immune response. It began in June 2021 and is scheduled for completion in June 2022.
Saxe said his team is nearing launch of a fourth trial, which will look at whether medicinal mushrooms could provide a similar lift to COVID-19 booster shots as an adjuvant, a substance which enhances immune response.
“Vaccines lead to the production of antibodies that can destroy the virus in the blood,” Saxe said. “Mushrooms may not only increase the number of these antibodies, but also enhance T-cell immunity against virally infected cells. Further, because mushrooms bind to receptors on human immune cells, they can modulate our immunity — boosting it in some ways and calming it down in others. And this property of mushrooms may also reduce vaccine-related side effects.”
Other investigators in the study include Andrew Shubov, MD, director of inpatient integrative medicine at UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, and Lan Kao, a clinical Chinese medicine specialist at UCLA. Initial funding for MACH-19 was provided by the Krupp Endowed Fund at UC San Diego.
Natural therapeutics have been used for centuries to treat infectious diseases, according to Saxe, who noted that herbs helped Chinese doctors manage 300 recorded epidemics, while the Greek pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides prescribed agarikon to treat pulmonary infections 2,300 years ago.
Though Western medicine still regards much of integrative medicine as lacking empirical, evidence-based proof, some of its ideas are gaining wider acceptance, such as acupuncture to treat pain and the herbal extract artemisinin to treat malaria. MACH-19, which emerged as an idea by Saxe during a research conference at the beginning of the pandemic, presents the opportunity to provide more evidence.
“If we can demonstrate success, it may open up interest in looking at other botanical formulas and approaches,” Saxe said.
Initial safety data from the trials are expected by the end of this year, with efficacy data ready within a year. Whatever is found, Saxe said that he was happy just getting the FDA’s approval, which he called a sign that Western scientific minds are broadening.
“Like the population as a whole, the FDA has, in recent years, become more aware of integrative, complementary medicine and has shown more of a willingness to find ways to study these approaches,” he said. “But they’re still as rigorous as they are for pharmaceuticals.”
A review by an independent expert panel has found MDMA and psilocybin or “magic mushrooms” may show promise for therapeutic use.
The review, which was commissioned by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and released on Thursday, found the psychedelic drugs could potentially be used to treat treatment-resistant mental illnesses – but only if they were used in closely supervised clinical settings, with intensive professional support.
The TGA has been assessing whether to down-schedule MDMA and psilocybin from prohibited (schedule 9) to controlled (schedule 8) drugs.
That means, if the drugs were rescheduled, they could be used in clinical therapies to treat depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other complex mental illnesses.
One step closer
MDMA and other psychedelics have been considered dangerous ever since the “war on drugs” began but scientific research into their therapeutic uses is always evolving.
Australia’s first legal collection of native “magic” mushrooms could provide medical options to treat severe depression, alcohol and drug addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the fear experienced at the end of terminally ill people’s lives.
While Thursday’s report brings Australia one step closer to seeing MDMA and psilocybin being used to treat mental illnesses, the TGA won’t make a final decision on the reclassification until December.
Director of psychedelic research at Edith Cowan University’s school of medical and health sciences, Dr Stephen Bright, thinks it’s only a matter of time before psychedelics are used in mental health therapies.
“There’s a lot of research into how psilocybin can be used in the treatment of treatment-resistant depression, for obsessive compulsive disorder, to help people come to terms with an end-stage illness, for substance use disorders.”
Doctor Bright believes MDMA will go mainstream first, despite it not being a “classic psychedelic”.
“MDMA is primarily being used to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but there is also some interesting research looking at MDMA to treat anxiety among adults with autism,” he said.
“Earlier this year there was a phase three clinical trial published, and so we’re getting data that’s sort of beyond promising now.”
‘Fine line’ between self-medication and recreation
Like anything that’s ever been prohibited, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
“I think there’s a really fine line between what we call recreational use and medical use, because there’s certainly people using some of these psychedelic drugs in an underground therapeutic environment at the moment,” Dr Bright said.
“And the problem with that is they’re unregulated, we don’t have any quality control.”
While Dr Bright believes regulation would remove some of the dangers associated with drug use, he has strongly advised against self-medication.
“People that have a pre-existing mental health condition, adding the drug on top of that, without the proper psychotherapy is actually quite dangerous and could lead to their mental health condition becoming worse rather than better,” he said.
Despite the growing body of research, Dr Bright believes medical use is still a long way off.
“We need to upscale the research that we’re doing and offer ample opportunity for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counsellors to be trained up in therapy and deliver it.”
The pleasure and pain of psychedelics
Merlin Faber is a lot of things: a convicted drug offender, law student, and believer that “you have to try everything once.” He was also asleep the morning a parcel arrived that changed his life.
“I heard a knock on the door, went to sign for a package and went back to bed thinking it was motorcycle parts or something I’d ordered from overseas,” the 27-year-old said.
But it wasn’t motorcycle parts. It was half a kilogram of MDMA.
“About 10 to 15 minutes later, I heard about 20 car doors slamming outside my house, people at the front and back door, knocking on the windows and yelling my name.
“That’s when I realised that the Australian Federal Police had become involved.”
Merlin first tried psychedelics as a teenager with friends in Canada, and describes his own experiences as therapeutic.
“I found that people who had suffered traumas early on in their life became much more open.”
In 2017, he met a guy at university in Adelaide, who shared his interest in psychedelics.
“This person sort of knew the ways and means to procure drugs online. And so we began talking about our experiences, and it was something that I was told that I could get help with,” he said.
“I wasn’t involved really in the procurement.”
But a jury disagreed and found him guilty of importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug.
Merlin was eventually sentenced to four years in prison, with a non-parole period of 16 months.
“Prison was definitely a significant impact… I would never recommend it to anybody,” he said.
‘It does make you feel hopeful’
For Merlin, the notion that MDMA and psilocybin could be decriminalised for medicinal use is music to his ears – but not for the reason you might expect.
“The use of psilocybin as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and end of life therapy is really quite amazing,” he said.
“And so, seeing things in Australia change, like the decriminalisation of marijuana use in the ACT, it really does make you feel hopeful.”
Having recently been released on parole, Merlin is now studying law at the University of South Australia and hopes to use his experience to help others.
“It’s galvanised my resolve for advocating for a re-assessment of attitudes towards how we treat people, mostly in regard to drugs.”
