Maitake Mushrooms Weight Loss Diet Nutrition Tips Guide

Maitake Mushrooms With Many Health Benefits

By Veronica Tripplethorn

Growing in large clumps, with some weighing upwards of 100 pounds, the maitake mushrooms thrive at the base of tree stumps and roots. Although indigenous to the northern area of Japan, they do grow in forests in some parts of eastern America, Canada, Europe and Asia. These all natural mushrooms are said to have a meaty taste, making them a culinary prize.

It has been recorded for over a thousand years that certain mushrooms can help the human body to recover from and sometimes prevent some illnesses. They have been prized in several parts of the world and Chinese medicine believes strongly in their many health benefits.

The King Of Mushrooms

There are ancient medical texts from China and Japan that note these benefits and the medicinal properties of the different types of mushrooms. The Japanese actually consider the maitake to be the king of mushrooms and it holds a special place among all of the medicinally beneficial mushrooms.

At one time they were so highly valued that the people in Japan who collected them, would keep their location a secret.

Highest Rate Of Effectiveness

During the first part of the 1980’s, an expert mycologist and professor of microbiology was researching the medicinal properties of many different mushrooms. Originally, the time was generally spent on studying the medicinal shiitake mushrooms, but when the research began to show that the maitake mushrooms had a different molecular structure, one that showed a great amount of anti-tumor activity, the study began to shift toward the maitake.

The maitake mushroom also has another unique quality. When taken orally, it has the highest rate of effectiveness of any of the other mushrooms used for medicinal purposes. Before that time, research had shown that products such as the reishi mushroom extract were best administered by injection.

It was at that point that the decision was made to review options and focus even more of the study on the maitake mushroom variety. The extract is made from a special strain of the maitake, without using any kind of harsh solvents and without any kind of preservatives being added.

Help With Weight Loss And Diabetes

Now the extract from maitake mushrooms is being used in Japan and other areas of the world, as a very popular cancer and related adjuvant therapy. It has also shown promise in the treatment of weight loss, diabetes, malaria, hypertension, high triglycerides and cholesterol, HIV, chronic fatigue syndrome, along with other chronic type viral infections.

There are a few basic ways that these medicinal mushrooms and their extracts can help to fight cancer. They slow down or stop the growth of tumors, they help in the prevention of metastasis, they work well along with chemotherapy to help reduce adverse side effects such as nausea and pain, and they help to protect the healthy cells from becoming cancerous.

Please Note: All information given on this site is for general information purposes and is not to replace any medical opinion or medical diagnosis given by a qualified medical doctor, a dietitian/nutritional expert or any other medical expert, as individual circumstances may vary. Please see your medical doctor, before any action is taken to alleviate symptoms.

This Article was about Maitake Mushrooms.

About the Author:
Veronica Tripplethorn is an author of health, nutrition, dieting and weight loss articles including Celiac Disease, Holistic Health, Hollywood 48-Hour Miracle Diet, Massage Therapy.
Keep a lookout for more of her articles coming soon.

More Facts About Mushrooms...

What can medicinal mushrooms do for the body?
Ah, where to begin? Medicinal mushrooms have a laundry list of positive chemical properties and it differs depending on what genus of mushroom you are ingesting. Some mushrooms have polysaccharides and beta-glucans. The polysaccharides can help with blood sugar. The beta-glucans have been proven to stimulate the immune system by boosting the production of NK cells, T Cells and cytokines.

Mushrooms can even affect your hormonal balance. Some work to limit the production of estrogen and some work to limit the production of testosterone. Almost all mushrooms have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. Countless in vitro lab studies have shown that many of the world’s most deadly viruses have been inhibited in petri dishes where certain mushrooms were grown.

There has even been research that shows that certain mushrooms can help inhibit cancer growth and aid in the activity of chemotherapy. So it really becomes a question of what can mushrooms not do for your body?