Four Super Foods For The Advanced Foodie

Super foods come in many forms and can be used medicinally as well as for maintenance nutrition. These four foods hold a superior rating as super foods that aid the body with homeostasis.

Reishi mushrooms:

Asians and Chinese consider reishi mushrooms the top herb available. Known as the king of mushrooms, it is considered a miraculous healer in Chinese Medicine. Reishi mushrooms return the body to a state of homeostasis where the organs function together in harmony. These mushrooms are credited as immune system modulators. WebMD says reishi mushrooms boost the immune system, aid viral infections like the flu, assist lung issues like asthma and bronchitis, help with heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney disease, cancer, liver disease, HIV, altitude sickness, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, ulcers, poisoning and herpes.

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The Mushroom Forager says reishi mushrooms grow on hemlock trees  in the Northeast and Southwest May through July. He says, “Reishi are hard to mistake for other conch mushroom, with their gradient of lacquered red, orange, yellow and white hues.”

Mushroom-appreciation says reishi mushrooms can be found on, “Hardwood stumps and logs including oaks, elms, beeches, maples, and more. The tsugae species seems to prefer conifers, mainly hemlocks (tsuga means hemlock).”

They say identification has many traits saying they have a, “Kidney or fan-shaped and reddish with a wet, lacquered appearance when young. The shiny, reddish cap is one of the main identifying features of reishi mushrooms. As they age the flesh becomes tougher and spores drop. Air currents often blow these spores to the top of the mushroom, dulling its shiny cap. The cap rarely gets larger than a foot across and an inch or two thick. It may or may not be attached to a stem. The newest growth often shows up as a whitish edge.”

To see a video of reishi foraging click here or here.  

Wild chaga:

Wild chaga is known as the Queen of the Mushrooms as well as the King of the Forest. It is known for its high level of antioxidants (Super Oxide Dismutate, Betulinic Acids, Betulin, Melanin), allowing it to be a strong fighter of free radicals. Chaga works against cell degeneration, cancer and is considered an effective  immune system booster. Wild chaga works as an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory. Chaga is famed to protect against overgrowth of candida yeasts. 

Wild chaga.com says, “Chaga is a mushroom that grows over the course of many years on birch trees, sucking the life force and medicine out of the tree and making it bio-available to us humans. Unlike most other tree mushrooms, chaga grows on living trees.”

To learn how to harvest wild chaga click here.   

Cacao:

Cacao comes from a cacao seed grown on the tropical cacao tree, from the evergreen family.The most healthy cacao is grown in the shade of other trees. Cacao is processed into cocoa.

Enjoy Dark Chocolate, a website dedicated to the benefits of healthy raw chocolate says, “Cacao is not added TO dark chocolate; it IS chocolate at the core! You get pure cacao when you don’t add other things to it (sweeteners, fat, etc…) and the term ‘dark chocolate’ is synonymous with ‘pure chocolate’ to varying degrees. The darker and less affected the chocolate – the stronger and more powerful the effects of the health enhancing ingredients.”

Cacao contains many benefits including antioxidants, theobromine (a detoxifier), phenylethylamine (mood enhancer) and essential minerals. It has shown to aid in coronary disease.

The National Institute of Health says, “The amount and integrity of procyanidins often suffer in the manufacturing of chocolate, chiefly due to oxidation and alkalinization.” Any product that says cacao, not the processed form of cocoa, will benefit.

Cacao nibs are the healthiest source as they are the cacao seed opened and dried, not yet processed.

Goji berries:

Goji berries come from a shrub grown in China with an orange-red fruit. They are known for aiding against diabetes, high blood pressure, fever and diseases of the eye. 

WebMD says, “Water Some studies using goji berry juice found possible benefits in mental well-being and calmness, athletic performance, happiness, quality of sleep, and feelings of good health. But those were preliminary studies that need to be repeated before drawing conclusions.”

 

 

 

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*Nourishing Plot is written by a mom whose son has been delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia through food. This is not a news article published by a paper trying to make money. This blog is put out by a mom who sees first hand the effects of nourishing food vs food-ish items. No company pays her for writing these blogs, she considers this a form of missionary work. It is her desire to scream it from the rooftops so that others don’t suffer from the damaging effect of today’s “food”.

 

 

 Other sources:

http://www.enjoydarkchocolate.com/dark-chocolate/what-is-cacao.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/08/02/cacao-nibs_n_3695571.html

 http://themushroomforager.com/2011/06/23/the-restorative-reishi/

http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/reishi-mushroom-identification.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/041916_cacao_scientific_research_health_benefits.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21699218

 

Guide to Reishi Mushroom

http://www.webmd.com/balance/goji-berries-health-benefits-and-side-effects

 

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-905-REISHI%20MUSHROOM.aspx?activeIngredientId=905&activeIngredientName=REISHI%20MUSHROOM

http://wildchaga.com/?page_id=7