Realfoodology - 43: The Power of Mushrooms w/ Danielle Ryan Broida
Episode Date: June 24, 2021I chat with Danielle Ryan Broida the National Educator at Four Sigmatic all about the magical world of adaptogen mushrooms! We cover why mushrooms are so important and which mushrooms are best for imm...unity, skin, cognitive function, sleep, anxiety and energy. We also touch on mushrooms in coffee, adaptogens and what that means, does the body get used to them and so much more! Show Links: https://us.foursigmatic.com/ https://www.instagram.com/danielleryanbroida/ https://www.danielleryanwellness.com/ https://zenwatersystems.com/products/maifan-mineral-stones https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/ https://findaspring.com/ Berkey water filter: https://amzn.to/3y3VGoy
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On today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast.
There's this brilliant synergy that happens when we combine adaptogens,
which are supportive to our stress response.
They're working to find balance and equilibrium in our bodies with a stimulant like caffeine.
You know, when we pair those together,
it's like you're taxing the system at the same time you're bringing it into balance.
And so you don't get a crash.
You don't get jitters.
It's like such a win-win.
Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. I am your host,
Courtney Swan. I am so happy that you're here today. I am the creator behind Real Foodology,
which is of course this podcast, but it is also an Instagram where I post recipes and it
originally started as a food blog. I haven't asked for this in a while, but if is also an Instagram where I post recipes and it originally started as a food blog.
I haven't asked for this in a while, but if you're listening and you love this podcast,
could you please rate and review the podcast? It helps me so much. It helps get this podcast on
more ears. And that is ultimately what I'm hoping to do is to spread the knowledge of health and
wellness to as many people as I can. I chat with Danielle Ryan Broida,
who is the national educator at Four Sigmatic. If you are unaware of Four Sigmatic,
they make adaptogenic and functional mushroom blends. I cannot speak highly enough about them.
I have been drinking their mushroom coffee for at least the last five years. And we talk about the coffee in this episode, but if there, I found that there's a lot of confusion around their coffee that often people think that it's just mushrooms, but it does
actually have coffee in there mixed with mushrooms.
And for me personally, someone who has stress and anxiety, and I don't always have the best
relationship with coffee because it really spikes my anxiety and stress.
I found that their mushroom coffee is the perfect blend of energy, cognitive function, because it has lion's mane in there
and it doesn't give me the jitters and it doesn't have a ton of caffeine. It just gives me a tiny
little amount. So it's perfect if you're someone like me who really deals with a lot of stress and
anxiety around caffeine. But anyways, let's get back to Danielle. Did you know that most cookware
and appliances
are made with forever chemicals? Yes, that means your nonstick pans, your air fryers,
your waffle makers, your blender could possibly have PFAS. And yes, even our beloved crockpots
and pressure cookers. I have actually been talking about this for so long. Back in 2006,
my mom came to my dorm room and made me get rid of all my nonstick pans because she was
concerned about me being exposed to something called Teflon. Teflon is a coating that is used
on nonstick pans and a lot of these appliances that I just named. So I've avoided Teflon,
nonstick, PFA coated appliances, pots and pans, you name it for a very long time.
And the only option for the, for a very long time was just stainless steel pots and pans, you name it for a very long time. And the only option for the,
for a very long time was just stainless steel pots and pans. So I was really excited when a
company like our place came out because they started creating really beautiful cookware and
appliances that are like pieces of art. Every appliance that I have from our place, I legit
want to store it on the counter. And I'm the type of person that
does not want anything on my counter. Cause I like it to look really just clean and minimal,
but I'm so obsessed with all the art place products that I have so many of them displayed
on my counter because they are legit pieces of art. Our place is a mission driven and female
founded brand that makes beautiful kitchen products that are healthy and sustainable.
All their products are made without PFAS, which are the forever chemicals and also made without PTFE, which is Teflon. If a company is not outwardly
stating that they don't use these chemicals, then if they are using nonstick coating on their
appliances, they are absolutely using forever chemicals. And there's been increasing global
scrutiny for their impact on the environment and our health and recognizing this impact,
the EU plans to prohibit PFAS by 2025. Our place has always been PFAS free and they offer durable toxin-free ceramic
coatings, ensuring a healthy, safe cooking experience. And let me tell you, you guys,
they are changing the game with non-toxic appliances. They have a blender, they have an
air fryer, they have a crock pot pot not to mention their amazing always pan they have a
perfect pot which is just the perfect size for soups and they also just came out with a cast iron
that I am loving as well and I more recently replaced all of the bowls and plates in my
kitchen because I really needed an upgrade my other ones were so old so I got some from our
place and they are so beautiful. The
ceramics are beautiful. The colors are amazing. Like I said, everything is like a piece of art.
If you want to try any of the products from our place, go to from our place.com and enter my code
real foodology checkout to receive 10% off sitewide. That's from our place.com code real
foodology. Our place offers a 100 day trial with free shipping and returns. This is really exciting. Organifi now has kid stuff. They just released two kid products. One
is called Easy Greens, and it's a refreshing green apple juice where kids will never know
that it's packed with veggies. And the other one is called Protect. It's a delicious wild berry
punch like the Kool-Aid that we used to have as a kid, but without any sugar. This is really
exciting. And if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Organifi and most specifically
because every single product that they make is glyphosate residue free. So you know that you're
going to be able to give these powders to your kids and know that they will be able to consume
them safely without any glyphosate in it. So let's break down each one. The Easy Greens is a
nourishing and delicious blend of superfoods and veggies that provides essential nutrients, probiotics, and digestive enzymes to bring balance to kids
growing bodies without fillers, additives, or junk. It helps to fill in nutritional gaps,
aids in growth and development, supports digestive health, has a rich micronutrient profile,
and includes digestive enzymes. This would be a great way to sneak in greens for your little one
without them actually knowing that it's healthy for them. And the second one, which is the wild berry punch similar to Kool-Aid,
is called Protect. And it is to support your child's daily immune health with food-derived
nutrients that work to strengthen their body's first line of defense. I know just through
girlfriends of mine that have children that when your kids are going to school, going to daycare,
they're coming home sick a lot more often
just because they're getting exposed to different kids
and different viruses when they're out in the world
playing with kids.
So this would be a great way to help
to support your little one's immune health.
It's organic and it's also made
with real whole food ingredients.
It has a delicious berry taste and it's low sugar
and it's gentle enough for kids to take every single day.
And I really love the ingredients in this one.
It's orange and acerol cherry,
which is a powerful source of vitamin C and antioxidants,
astragalus, elderberry, and propolis.
These are all really great for overall immune health.
If you wanna try the products that I talked about today
or any of the Organifi products,
go to organifi.com slash realfoodology
and use code realfoodology for 20% off.
Again, that's Organifi.
It's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology and use code realfoodology for 20% off. Again, that's Organifi. It's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I dot com slash realfoodology. So Danielle and I dive into the magical world of adaptogen
mushrooms. We talk about why would you want to consume mushrooms, what mushrooms are best for
immunity, skin, cognitive function, sleep, anxiety, energy.
Like I said before, we talk about mushrooms in our coffee, adaptogens and what that means and
what they do in the body. And does the body get used to adaptogens or can you take them long-term?
We talk so much more. I'm so excited for you guys to hear this episode. I have really gotten into
adaptogens in the last couple of years, because as I mentioned earlier, as someone who struggles
a lot with stress and anxiety, I've found that they really, really helped me a lot with my stress
and anxiety. So I'm excited to dive into this conversation and I can't wait for you guys to
hear it. Danielle, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm so excited to have you on.
Thanks for having me. I'm stoked to talk to you today.
Yeah.
So for people listening, why don't you give them a little bit of a background on what
you do?
Yeah.
So by trade, I'm a registered herbalist of the American Herbalist Guild.
I'm also a holistic nutritionist.
I'm an instructor of mycology.
So I teach about the science and history and herbal medicine
use of functional mushrooms.
And then day-to-day, I'm the national educator of a functional food brand called Four Sigmatic.
So really, all of my life and passion is about using the plants and the mushrooms as medicine
to increase our vitality, to support
our sleep and our brain and our overall wellbeing so that we can really show up in the world as
our best, most vital overflowing versions of ourselves. I love that so much. I found Four
Sigmatic probably like five years ago now. And the
first thing I found was your mushroom coffee. And I think a lot of people get confused and
they think that it's not, it doesn't have coffee at all, that it's just mushrooms.
And so I tell people all the time on my Instagram, I'm like, you have to try this out because it's
for me, um, for someone that really suffers a lot from anxiety and stress,
and I can't have a lot of coffee because it gives me jitters and it really just contributes to my anxiety. Finding the Four Sigmatic Coffee was a game
changer for me because it helped me. It allowed me to have that like little jolt of energy,
but then I love the one with lion's mane in it. And I want to talk about lion's mane
because I feel like it really makes a difference in my cognitive function. I feel like I'm
thinking clear and then I don't get the jittery caffeine side effects.
It's such a win-win for me in my eyes. Yeah. Let's talk about mushroom coffee for a second.
This is such a easy lead in for people that are like, what are you talking about? I don't know
where to start with herbal medicine or adaptogens or mushrooms. And it's like, can be really kind
of intimidating. It's a big world and there's so much to learn and know. And what's really critical about, I think, both of our approaches with nutrition and food, it's like,
you don't take something once and expect all your problems to go away. The consistency is huge,
we have to be able to build routines around these things because we're not, you know,
this like creating a pill for an ill kind of idea,
right? It's not like, oh, one time you take Lion's Mane, your focus is great. You know,
your brain's ready to go the rest of the year. No, it's how can we do these things and incorporate
these really, you know, the world's most nutrient dense ingredients, these power foods,
really that come in the form of, you know, we'll go into this more, but adaptogens are really the kind of most complex foods on the planet. And there's plants in there
and there's mushrooms in there and we have to learn to build them into our everyday life.
And it's really hard to start new routines, like any new routine. We all know this. And
especially routines that involve ingredients or things you maybe have
never heard of like lion's mane or chaga or ashwagandha or whatever it might be. And so
the philosophy, the idea is like, how can we look at what we're already doing every day? Like what
are things we're not going to give up and that are maybe not that bad for us. Maybe they're even
slightly good for us. And 70% of
Americans drink a cup of coffee every day. It's the number one source of antioxidants in the
American diet. Like we're not giving up our cup of coffee. And so we're like, okay, how can we,
not only is that a great way to make it consistent, but what I love about, you know,
when we start analyzing our routines is really asking ourselves,
like, why do I do that in the first place? Right. And like, what am I really trying to get from it?
And with coffee, as you mentioned, like you want to focus and, you know, have a lot of energy and
be productive. And yet what ends up happening is we get this big caffeine rush. We feel productive
for a little bit, hopefully, but then we get a crash and jitters and all
these crazy negative side effects, heart palpitations and sweating and the list goes on.
All the things.
Yeah, minor panic attacks if you're me.
Yeah, I feel you and you're not alone.
So yeah, I mean, what happens when we add adaptogens, lion's mane chaga being adaptogens
into our coffee is we're making our coffee more effective, right? Lion's mane is our mushroom for
cognitive support and we can get deep into the science if we want today. Let's do it. Yes. And,
but beyond even kind of that better for you cup of coffee, making it more effective,
there's this brilliant synergy that happens when we combine adaptogens, which are supportive
to our stress response.
They're working to find balance and equilibrium in our bodies with a stimulant like caffeine.
You know, when we pair those together, it's like you're taxing the system at the same
time you're bringing it into balance.
And so you don't get a crash you
don't get jitters it's like such a win-win uh yeah that's great I was gonna make a joke but I mean I
apply this more to alcohol but um I say like during the day when I'm drinking like my green
juice and everything before I know I'm gonna go out at night I'm detoxing before I retox and it's
kind of like similar when you're putting those two things together like synergistically it's like
you know they're working together and counteracting. Um, I love that
green juice cocktails. Yeah. I used to, um, I used to work for a pop star. I was on tour with her
and everyone knew me as the person that like in the morning, cause you know, people, when you're
on tour, they rage and they drink a lot of alcohol. And so in the morning I would be in the hotel lobby handing out like
green juices and coconut waters and being like, all right guys, this is for your headache. This
is for your hangover. That's amazing. It's so important. And detox is so misunderstood. I was
a detox coach. Um, I had a clinical practice with herbal medicine and nutrition,
but before that was just doing detox coaching. And it's like this detox before you, what did
you call it? Detox before you re-tox? Yeah. It's like our bodies are constantly detoxing. We have
this like false perception of like, okay, I need to set aside this week where I'm going to starve
myself and I'm going to detox. And it's like, no, that's so not what detox is. Like our bodies are constantly going through this
detoxification process. And how can we support that every day? Right? Absolutely. And actually,
while we're on the subject of detoxifying, are there specific mushrooms that support those
pathways? Yeah. So when we think about detoxification, obviously we think
of our liver, right? Our sieve, our biggest internal organ for really processing and deciding,
you know, liver has over 500 functions. It's so brilliant. But we think about liver when it comes
to detox because there's these two phases of detoxification that happen
to really remove any toxicity from our body.
And there are certain functional mushrooms.
Some of you guys might be surprised by this,
but shiitake, which actually doubles as a culinary mushroom,
is an herbal medicine as well. It's a, it's an
amazing, uh, medicine that's been used for thousands of years. And one of the most potent,
um, kind of qualities about, about shiitake is this idea, a concept of hepatoprotective. So
it's tonifying and protective to the liver, um, which helps to increase the effectiveness of
these detoxification pathways.
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Well, kind of the external way we assess what's happening with our liver is our skin health. And
so if we can increase the detoxification process of our liver, the most obvious external result
is this glowing skin. So shiitake is awesome for detox and liver health.
I didn't know that, but you know, it is, it's interesting.
You bring that up about the, the beautifying components, because this is the number one
thing I tell anyone that comes to me looking for support around their acne, because personally
in my own life, and I figured this out through my studies when I was getting my master's
in nutrition.
But then in my own like anecdotal life is that when my, when I was younger, I had really
crazy cystic acne along my chin. But then in my own like anecdotal life is that when my, when I was younger, I had really crazy
cystic acne along my chin. And no matter what I did, I could not get rid of it until finally
one day someone said to me, it was like in one of my classes, when I'm professors was like,
you know, the, the liver is what, um, if it's clogged or if it's like not functioning properly,
it can lead to acne or other things like showing up on your skin,
even sometimes like dull skin. And then on top of that, if you think about for women, well,
for men too, but for women specifically, I was having a hormonal imbalance. And if your liver is maybe like a little bit sluggish, you're not probably not getting rid of all of your excess
estrogen, which you get through it's metabolized through your liver. And then also you poop it out
through your, um, like it gets excreted through your, your stools. Um, but that's really interesting. And I think a lot of people don't
really make that connection initially. Yeah. And I'm so glad you bring that up because it's getting
to the root of the problem. Like so many times, whether it's acne or, you know, in my practice,
someone coming to me with, you name it, whatever external symptom, like I have swelling or I have, you know, red spots happening or I have eczema or hair loss,
we're so quick to react to the problem. And what happens when we react to the problem is the
problem comes back, right? Because the internal source of the problem hasn't been addressed.
And so this is really, you know,
when it comes to the mushrooms, but also just when it comes to a holistic approach to nutrition,
to herbalism, it's how can we really switch the model that so many of us are used to today,
which is like fix the problem, fix the root so that the problem isn't a problem in the first place, right? So it doesn't come back.
And yeah, I had a doctor on my podcast recently, and we were talking about sugar and he used this
example. And I've been able to apply this to so many different areas of functional medicine. Now,
he said, if you, let's say you had a problem with cockroaches in your kitchen and you had a little
like corner in your kitchen that had a bunch of crumbs. And instead of getting rid of those crumbs, you just kept spraying the
cockroaches with raid. Well, you got rid of those cockroaches, but then more going to come
instead of actually addressing the issue where you actually just needed to clean up the crumbs.
And that, isn't that amazing? I was like, Oh, that makes so much sense. But when you apply
that to the body, it means you need to actually get to the root cause of what
is happening inside the body. We can't just like throw all these things
out at like medication or whatever, and just expect it to go away. Yes, 100%. And this is where
my passion for functional mushrooms really comes in, because they are the foundation of really building and nourishing our systems from a root-based place.
So you don't take a functional mushroom to experience a certain reaction. You know,
you can maybe like take cordyceps and get some energy or lion's mane and feel more productivity
over time, but really they're working on a much deeper level. And they're targeting a couple different areas of our body that are all part of the foundation.
And one of those is the immune system.
So we'll dive into that real quick.
There's all our category of functional mushrooms.
So there's a couple hundred mushrooms that are functional, 600, 700 of them.
And what this means, they have known studied benefits to the human body. And one of the most common compounds in all of these functional mushrooms are these complex
sugar chains, polysaccharides, that are specifically in the mushrooms, beta-D-glucans.
And what they do is have the ability to modulate our immune system. Very unique. They're like
cruise control for the immune system. So they can either
stimulate certain immune cells, macrophages, natural killer cells, or suppress immune activity
based on the body that needs them. So in my practice, I mostly focused on autoimmune conditions
where there's too much overactive immune activity happening and you need something that's going to
support and tonify the system without suppressing the immune system so much that the body can't function and
respond to everyday antigens and whatever comes its way. So all of our functional mushrooms have
this immune ability to modulate. It's really incredible. So very root-based. The other piece
is supporting our stress response. And they all do this in different ways, but they're adaptogens, this really unique class of plants and mushrooms that allow our bodies to, they basically give our bodies tools to more quickly respond to stressors, which are inevitable. The stressor could be a toxin in the environment and
our air and our water and the pesticides in our food or things like watching the news or getting
cut off by in a car or someone yelling at you. Like the stressors are constantly coming, right?
Our bodies are like, our bodies are amazing. They're constantly working to keep us in this
state of equilibrium. You know, our blood sugar, our blood pressure, our temperature, like they're like, OK, calibrating constantly.
And adaptions make that easier to do.
So they give our bodies the resilience to more quickly respond to those stressors and then bring us back into the state of equilibrium.
So we're not stuck in, you know, this, this,
um, fight or flight state. Well, and the cool thing about adaptogen, sorry, um,
is that they literally adapt to your own body's needs specifically. And that's what's so cool
about them is that the effects of, let's say, for example, ashwagandha on me are going to be
different on you because my body has different needs for ashwagandha than maybe your body does.
Yes, absolutely. Most of them demonstrate this, whether we use the analogy of cruise control
or this gas break system. And so they have compounds that are working like let's take
cacao, like chocolate might be a good common example.
That's not like as far out.
Is that an adaptogen?
Yes, cacao is an adaptogen.
I didn't know that.
Cool.
So, I mean, cacao gets processed so much to the point that it no longer retains its, you know, OG adaptogenic qualities.
But true, pure, you know, minimally processed cacao
is highly adaptogenic. And a cool way to think about it is that there's different compounds
working together. So all of our whole foods that have a range of different phytochemicals,
they could be minerals, nutrients, amino acids, lipids, you know, working together. And in adaptogens, there's usually a compound
that has more of a gas, you know, or stimulating effect. So in cacao, we have a lot of people think
that cacao has caffeine. It actually has a compound called theobromine. It's similar in
the molecular structure, but it's not caffeine, but it can be kind of uplifting. So we have that as kind of the
gas, but then also we know that, you know, women that are hormonal, we crave a lot of chocolate
likely because it's so rich in magnesium, right? We are all so 70% of us are deficient in magnesium,
number one nutrient deficiency in the American diet, as I'm sure you know. So like
magnesium is our ultimate cellular relaxer, like, oh, magnesium for muscle tension, for deep sleep,
for headaches. Like we all need more magnesium. It's the dream. Yeah. And so we have, and that's
the break, right? So we have these two compounds. There's so much else happening, but that can
either be depending on the state of your
body. When you ingest that cacao, that can either bring you into more of kind of like an uplifting
stimulated place or into a more grounding, relaxed place based on where your body is meeting
that ingredient, right? And that whole species, it's like matchmaking, like, okay.
That is so interesting. And you know what it reminds me of is matcha green tea. Matcha is
really high in something called L-theanine and L-theanine is great for anxiety, stress.
And so it kind of, it's why a lot of people switch to matcha when they're, when they decided
coffee gives them too much anxiety is because it has that calming effect while also giving you energy at the same time. It's like a miracle almost, you know?
Yes. That's such a great example. Yeah. So our adaptogens work really similarly.
And that matcha is not an adaption because of that caffeine. So it's,
even though it's, yeah, very balanced, it still pushing us in in one direction where adaptogens
there's a couple other things that criteria that need to be met like being non-toxic and
non-habit forming caffeine we kind of can build a habit so the more we need the more we want
but that balancing that's like the cool thing about using whole foods. It's like, they are so brilliant.
They're not just these isolated compounds that have like, just going to launch you off
or knock you out.
It's like, there is this beautiful complexity of, you know, compounds working together to
bring us.
Yeah.
Really, really amazing effects.
That is really cool.
And it always brings me back to the phrase
mother nature knows best, you know, mother nature has literally provided us with everything that we
need across the board food. Um, when you talk about adaptogens, um, things that we need to
help like adapt to the stressors of everyday life. I mean, it is pretty incredible. Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like everything I do is I was a big environmental activist back in
the day and I go through, I just watched Seaspiracy last week. So I'm like, Oh my God, you do. It's
coming back like full force, but really I think, you know, the approach to taking care of our own
bodies and nutrition and food and, you know, whole food plant-based medicine is such a powerful way
to do that is so that we can feel good enough to show up for the world and, and really do our part
and remember the connection. Like you said, that every breath we take is every bite of food we take
is dependent on, on the health of our planet. So. Absolutely. And it's all connected.
And I've been talking about this a lot recently. We don't have to go down this rabbit hole, but just,
um, you know, our farming practices alone are showing us that the further we get from nature,
the sicker we become, you know? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. This is, you know, if there was one
word that I would use to describe the intelligence of the fungal kingdom,
it would be connectivity. And I really believe there are greatest teachers of connection,
and that can play out in so many ways, whether it's connection to our own bodies by taking us
out of a state of stress, you know, strengthening our immune system to get us more in touch to what's truly going on in our bodies. But really, when we look at how fungi interact in
nature, they are, they're the grand connectors, like they are the bridge between life and death
are the grand decomposers of the world. So, you know, moldy cheese in the fridge or fallen trees in the forest, they are
decomposing everything. And then when we look at the structure of the mycelial network, which is
the underground, you know, essentially root system of what mushrooms fruit from, it is connecting
the statistics now are over 90% of plants on earth. I believe that every plant is dependent on this relationship, this symbiotic relationship with mycelium. And it is literally, you know, every step we take on the planet, we're stepping on at least 300 miles of mycelial biomass. Every breath we take in, we're breathing in 10 fungal
spores. So we are living in harmony with the fungi, whether we're conscious of it or not.
And I think that the bridge to really being able to show up and remember our connection to the
planet, our need to support our planet is going to come through more connection to the mushrooms
that connect everything. Can we talk a little bit more about that underground network? I actually,
that was going to be one of my questions for you, for people listening that are really unaware of
it. And to be honest, I don't know too much about it other than what you just said. Can we give a
little background on it? Yeah. So we'll, we'll zoom out I'll start from the same place in that fungi are their own biological kingdom.
So this is massive, just says we're part of the animal kingdom.
There's the plant kingdom.
Fungi are their own massive kingdom like this.
And there's a highly debated number of species in this kingdom, but it's huge. What we do agree upon is that
there's at least six times as many species of fungi as there are all plants on earth.
So think of, think of every plant you can name, like fruit, veggie, shrub, grass, tree, grain,
you know, and now how many fungal species you can name, You know, it's big. And yet there's six times as many in this fungal kingdom at least.
And only certain fungi actually fruit, which means they grow into a mushroom.
So a mushroom is actually like the apple of a tree. And the majority of species that even grow mushrooms,
the majority of that species lives underground or within the root system of a tree.
And it lives as this network comprised of these little thread-like hairs.
They are tubular in nature. They're called hyphae. And the collection of hyphae are as known as mycelium. And they form these mats. If anyone's a gardener, has dug in soil, you've likely seen this kind of like white, often white, can be other colors, stringy stuff within soil. That's mycelium. It's in all
soils on earth. It's actually in most plants. We used to think that it just wrapped around
the roots of plants. And now we know that it actually penetrates through the cell walls of
plants. So any part of a plant that you look at, right, like a seed leaf flower, you'll see mycelium within that. And I love this concept so much as a
plant-based eater and nutritionist and herbalist, because we give so much credit to
our plants. And yet fungi are kind of these secret underground players that all of our plants are dependent upon for survival. So, you know, plants
used to be in like their algal form, like in swamps in the ocean, and they needed a root system to be
able to bring them onto land. And so there was this interaction, this symbiosis that happened where fungi and algae
began to meet. And, you know, plants on earth were then created and began to span and spread.
But where the plants are able to photosynthesize, right, and collect energy from the sun and turn that into sugars. They bring it
down into their plant being. And then what the fungi do is help bring both moisture, so bring
that water into the plants, as well as life-sustaining minerals. So a plant, you know, we talk about like
our cacao, for example, that's magnesium rich, the cacao gets a vast majority of that
magnesium through a symbiotic partnership with it's called mycorrhizae fungi, myco being fungi
and rhizae being root systems. So this fungal partner that is connected to its root system that can literally go search for miles underneath the
forest floor to mine and harvest minerals and then bring that back into the plant to keep it alive.
So there's this like relationship constantly happening with all of our plants. And it's all happening through this, through this,
this mycelial network, which it's like the cardiovascular system of the planet,
right? Like exchanging nutrients, exchanging information constantly. It's so fascinating.
Yeah, that's fascinating. I've actually never heard of it explained like that before.
And it makes so much sense when you think about just, for example, when we kill the
soil in conventional farming, we're also killing off that network, which would make perfect
sense as to why now we're seeing declining vitamin and minerals in our food.
Yes, our soil health.
Oh, my gosh, is it gosh. It's so critical. And yeah, it's completely a nightmare
and it's completely dependent on what's present in our food. You know, we were like, yeah.
That's so interesting. And I've heard it explained like this before, but please correct me if I'm
wrong, but this underground network is how they all communicate to each other, right? They're all
communicating to each other through this fungi like network, right? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It's
a communication network. It's the pattern. Yeah. The pattern of mycelium, there's a few patterns
that mimic it's pattern. What's the other word for it? But it's nearly identical to the human brain,
this networking pattern, the human brain of the internet and of the universe.
Wow. That's fascinating.
Underneath our feet, everywhere we are, right? Constantly communicating and signaling and messaging and, and giving one another information, um, to, to really like keep the planet alive, to keep our, all of our, our, um, soils abundant, to keep our plants with the nutrients they need. I mean, it's, there's a, there's an awesome movie called fantastic fungi that gives a lot of visual visuals to this. Have you seen it?
I haven't, but it's on my list. I've had several people now tell me I need to watch it.
Okay, this is your final reminder.
The universe is like, go watch that already.
Yeah, we've just never had that sort of footage.
The amazing director, Louis Schwartzberg,
he spent 13 years doing time-lapses
of different mushrooms fruiting.
And I mean, we can see and have this
like visual understanding of this network that so often we don't pay attention to because we can't
see it, right? We don't have this, like, they're not like plants that are really showy and bright
and colorful. Mushrooms really, you know, harbor this place of mystery and being in the corner and being
shrewded in darkness and you know they live in the debris and we're bringing that and through
this film it really brings that to light so we can start having conversation about the potential of
this kingdom so you know beyond medicine fantastic fungi will give a lot of other examples, but we're finding that this
mycelial network is, has massive potential for a number of different ecological outlets from being
amazing company out of Boulder, Colorado, that's using this mycelium as a meat alternative.
Oh, cool. There's a company that's creating leather from the mycelium. Um,
you know, other packaging alternatives. Um, I mean, the list goes on. It's, it's,
I've seen mushroom jerky. I don't know. Is that the same as the Boulder company you were talking
about? Or is that different? Different. Um, the, the Boulder company is called meataty and they like, you can literally cut, it's like pieces
of steak.
Like it bleeds.
It's crazy.
Like with less than five ingredients, it's like mostly the mycelium and then spices.
That's what I was going to ask is the ingredients, because a lot of these like beyond burgers
and stuff are crap and I would never recommend them to anyone.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is really crazy.
And after you watch the Seaspiracy, I'm like, okay,
when are we going to create these like seafood alternatives? Um, but mycelium offers massive
potential that's clean, right? It's not like a amazing. Yeah. Um, and then the jerky,
have you had mushroom jerky? I have. Yeah. I tried it once. It was maybe like a year ago. And I,
to be honest, it wasn't my favorite, but I've heard that there are other brands that are better
that I need to try. Did you like it? Yeah. I'm obsessed. The, the brand that I love is pans.
Um, this is like, okay, this is okay. We have, you're going to be eating pans jerky while
watching fantastic fungi fungi like turning into
a mushroom this week while drinking my four sigmatic yes yes that jerky it's not the mycelium
it's actually the full they use like the full fruiting body the actual real mushroom of shiitake
and then they flavor it and it's like oh okay well okay. Well, I'm going to check it out. I'm also going to put it in the show notes if anyone else wants to check it out. Perfect. Love it. So let's get into,
I want to talk a little bit about the different mushrooms that do different things in the body.
I have kind of a list of different things. I want to know what specifically targets what thing,
but I have an overarching question, which is,
do all of these mushrooms in all of them, I mean, more like the lion's mane, the chaga,
the cordyceps, do they all have components that do a lot of different things? Are there ones that
you would specifically recommend for, let's say cognitive function or specifically for anxiety, et cetera? Yes. So they all have common compounds like the beta glucans that are immune
modulating, but then beyond that, they have different compounds that target unique things
in the body, which is, so they all do multiple things, right? They're all adaptogens. And so
they all support the immune system. They all support the stress response to an extent. And then additionally,
they offer something unique to the body. So it's like you and I, we're both, you know,
nutritionists and we're into plants. And yet we each offer something slightly different into our
world. Same thing with these functional mushrooms. Cool. Oh, sorry. I wasn't sure if you were
continuing. Should we go into, so you mentioned like some of the big players, uh, lion's mane
is a great place to start. And the majority of our research is on lion's mane supporting cognitive function, right? Focus, concentration, memory. And the
reason for this are two constituents that are unique to lion's mane, the hyacinones and the
iranacines. And they have this unique ability to help activate this hormone called nerve growth factor, which is pretty new. There's not a ton
of research on nerve growth factor, but what we do know is what nerve growth factor does is helps
neurogenesis, helps stimulate neural firing within the blood-brain barrier.
And that's what's also so unique about these urinacines is they're light enough to penetrate the blood-brain barrier.
You know, other things that are able to penetrate are like nicotine and alcohol.
And urinacines are like a real saint in this lineup.
Yeah.
And this also leads to brain longevity, right? Because the more that we know that loss of nerve growth factor
and declining nerve growth factor leads to cell death. And so the more we have cells dying,
the quicker our brain is degenerating. And so a lot of the research with lion's mane is
with different neurodegenerative diseases, things like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia,
to really support the brain's ability to continue that neural firing. And for those of us that don't have those ailments, we experience, you know, focus and just this kind of like light bulb
effect on our brain. Oh, that's so interesting. So what for, I want to go
down the line and talk about a couple of different ones. So for, okay, so that would be for cognitive
function, mostly what about for immunity? I know that's a big one this year. What would be the
mushrooms that are best for immunity? All mushrooms, all functional mushrooms. So like,
well, not all culinary mushrooms, but these functional varieties
are going to be amazing immune modulators.
So, you know, and when you stack functional mushrooms
with each other,
it strengthens their immunomodulating response in the body.
So really like if there was one thing you could use
for long-term natural immune support,
it would be our groups of functional mushrooms.
And if I had to call out one, maybe they're all for immune support,
chaga is incredible.
Anodus obliquus is the Latin name.
And chaga is one of the most antioxidant-rich foods on the planet.
Antioxidants are so critical for fighting free radicals in the
body for, for maintaining a strong and healthy immune system to be able to react and respond to,
you know, toxins and stressors that the body is exposed to. And so, yeah, it's a total powerhouse.
It also, you know, is anti-inflammatory and antiviral. And so it has these direct properties as well as that kind of modulating ability and, and the just plethora of, of
antioxidant properties. Awesome. So my morning Chaga Chino is really helping my immune system.
Big time. Yes. I love that. But the thing is, okay, chaga is kind of like the mushroom space is like a wild west
right now. So make sure if you're using, especially chaga, but all functional mushrooms that you're
getting the real thing. What I mean by this is the mycelium is wonderful for like ecological
alternatives and you know, wonderful like environmental benefits from the
mycelium. But when it comes to our bodies and using them as medicine, what is super important
is using the actual mushroom itself, the real mushroom. This is the part that's like above
ground or on the side of trees, the visible part. And this is where the vast majority of research is.
And this is the only part of the mushroom that was accessible to all of our ancestors
and the people that have been using functional mushrooms for literally thousands of years.
So when we talk about the safety because of the long held traditions and the folk uses,
it's been on that real mushroom. Um, so.
Okay. So for those listening, how would you find out besides like it, let's just say if someone doesn't have access to four sigmatic, which if you do, I highly recommend you grab four
sigmatic mushrooms, but just to give someone kind of a guideline into finding out how they would find the pure mushroom like that. What would they do?
Yeah. Yeah. So if you're, if you're buying mushrooms in the marketplace, it will say
the actual word mushroom, or it will say fruiting body because the mushroom is,
is like the fruit. It has the spores, which are like the mushroom seeds, like the apple on the tree.
So we'll say mushroom or fruiting body if it's the real mushroom, or it will say mycelium,
which means you're just getting some of that root system.
Additionally, yeah.
Oh, sorry.
I was just saying, I wasn't asking about the actual mushrooms you buy in the grocery store.
I know a lot of people that put mushroom powders in their like coffee drinks, their smoothies. Um, I have a guy friend that
has a pills capsules that he just showed me today, actually. So how do you know if it's the actual,
like whole real mushroom? I guess we'll just say whole mushroom on there. It has to say,
yeah, it'll say, it'll say the word mushroom or the word mycelium. Oh, okay, okay.
Okay, so that's the difference on the package. The other thing that you can look for is if it says other ingredients,
and the other ingredient is some sort of cereal grain,
like a rice or an oat or a wheat,
that is an indicator that it's been grown in a lab,
that it's likely just the mycelium,
versus these mushrooms in the wild, they grow on trees. Almost all of our functional mushrooms grow on trees.
So that's really interesting because these pills that my friend showed me today, he was like,
I got these mushroom capsules. Are these good? And I was like, I actually don't know. And I
read at the back and it said, what did it say? I have a photo. It said like rice bran or something.
So that was probably not, it's probably not a good source then. Yeah. So we want to be
aware, especially when you're getting, um, mushrooms that have been grown on grain, um,
or even just mycelium if the mushrooms. Yes. If you're just getting mycelium that's been grown
on grain, there's no way to know how much of the final product in your powder or in your
capsule is just that ground up grain versus how much is actually the mycelium. So a lot of times
you could be getting a product that's like, you know, 50% or more of just grain and none of the
actual full mushroom itself. Okay. This is so interesting. And I so love that my friend showed me this today.
I took a picture of the label and I'm looking at it right now and it lists off all these different
mushrooms, King trumpet, cordyceps, turkey tail, reishi, maitake, lion's mane. And then it says
at the very end on my isolated organic oats. So I'm going to tell them to top those. Myceliated.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like you know we can
think of we are what we eat the mushrooms are what they eat and so a lot of their beneficial
compounds are actually coming from um you know what they're grown on and you can add different
nutrients to the grain um but you know especially if you're not getting the full mushroom, then you really
don't know if you're just eating grain or, you know, partial mycelium. And so much of where the
mycelium gets its like immune supporting properties is because the mycelium is one cell wall thick.
So this hyphal network, and so in nature, it's constantly exposed to tons of different invaders that it has to protect itself against.
So it's really strong, right? It's protecting its own immune system. We can use it to have
the same effect in our body because we share 40% of our DNA with mushrooms. However, when we
are sourcing our mushrooms in a sterile lab environment, even if there's one potential invader, the whole batch is considered contaminated and it's thrown out.
Right. So completely different. Yeah, it's like night and day.
So we really want to look for, you know, I believe as an herbalist using the mushroom in the way it's been used for thousands
of years, where we have the tradition and the story and the folklore to back it up.
And what that means is using the actual real mushroom. And ideally that has been grown on,
grown on wood or actually wild harvested, which means it's picked out in nature
from the trees that it's growing on.
Oh, this is really interesting and great information for people listening. What do
you think about the little tinctures? I've seen things online that are, they come in,
you know, little tincture drops kind of situation. Are those okay?
Yeah. It's so funny. I have one here. Oh yeah. Oh, I love that brand. Yeah. Alex is awesome. Mushroom revival.
Yeah. So the other thing, so once you're like, okay, this is a real mushroom. I know it's been
grown on wood or it's been wild harvested is how it's extracted, right? How it gets from
the mushroom into your bottle or your pill or your capsule and extraction is critical with functional mushrooms.
One reason is main reason is because the mushrooms are functional mushrooms contain a compound in
their cell wall called chitin. And it's the same compound found in crustaceans. So think of like
a shrimp or a lobster shell. Really tough, right? Yeah. So our bodies don't
naturally contain chitinase, which is the enzyme to break open that chitin. And so chitin, I think
of it like a door that is binding up all of the amazing medicinal compounds in the mushroom.
And unless the door has been broken open, our bodies can't access any of that goodness that's hidden
within the mushroom. And so we're seeing words like raw and fermented and micronized and all
this other stuff that doesn't confirm that the mushroom is actually, that any of it is actually
usable by your body. Like one of my biggest pet peeves, people taking a chaga powder for months,
like, yeah, it didn't do anything. And I'm like, well, was it extracted? And they're like, oh,
I don't know. I'm like, you were just like having fiber, right? Your body was just passing through
this and there was a gold mine inside waiting for your body to access it. Yeah. So extraction is key.
There's two traditional ways to extract. One is through alcohol. So that's
where the tincture comes into play. And the other is through long hot water. So we call that a
decoction, like think of a brew, right? Where the heat is exposed to the water for several hours.
And one is not better than the other. They're both great ways to extract and break open that
chitin. They're just going to pull out different compounds, right? So when you make a water extract,
you're going to pull out water soluble compounds, which in a lot of our mushrooms are those
polysaccharides, those beta glucans that support the immune system. So you got like a tea of
mushrooms, you're probably going to have it be more beneficial to your immune system. If you get a tincture, it's going to pull out
more oil soluble or alcohol soluble compounds like mushroom oils, triterpenes that all have
different effects, but, you know, to make it really simple are more primarily more adaptogenic or support the stress response.
So it's kind of like choose the method, um, based on what compounds you want. Yeah. But yeah,
I'm all about tinctures teas, like do it all. And then the gold standard is double extraction,
which means both have been done. Um, and that's what we do at Four Sigmatic. So it's like we
tincture, we do the hot water extract, we dehydrate both, turn it back into a powder.
So it's like using the whole animal. If you eat meat, right? Like getting as much out of it as
possible. Oh, that's great. Well, that's really good to know. So for someone listening that wants
to use mushrooms to help calm, maybe calm anxiety or calm them down before they go to
sleep at night. What kind of mushrooms would you recommend for that specifically?
Reishi mushroom, our queen of mushrooms. Uh, we call her your partner in chill,
incredibly adaptogenic, um, has over a hundred of the immune supporting polysaccharides,
these beta glucans, 120 triterpenes, which support our
stress response. Yeah. Amazing kind of oil compound that you get in a mushroom tincture
called ganodermic acid. So really profound ability to support our stress response,
allow us to really unwind and get a good night's sleep. So wonderful in the afternoon, um, evening,
or even, you know, throughout the day, if you're feeling kind of like jittery and anxious,
you just need something to really calm your spirit. It helps. And I love forcing Maddie
has that reishi hot chocolate. I love that stuff. I try to drink that before bed or maybe like a
couple hours before to kind of help bring me down and relax me.
And it just tastes like, tastes like Swiss Miss hot chocolate almost.
It's so good.
But it's healthy.
But it's healthy.
It's not only cacao, which now we know is an adaptogen.
We use two grams of coconut sugar in that.
So it's like really sweet.
But coconut sugar is, you know, as a whole, like whole food form of, of sugar with lots of beneficial minerals as well. And two grams is like one 10th of a banana. Yeah. It's negligible.
Yeah. Versus like the classic hot chocolate on the shelf is like, Oh God, probably like 20,
30. Oh yeah. At least 20, 30 grams of sugar and it's white cane sugar probably, or before bed.
And then you're supposed to sleep. I'm like nightmare. Yeah. But that, all right. Yeah.
Our mushroom cacao is so, so good. I'm glad you love it. So good. Now I'm craving it. I'm gonna
have to go make one after this. Good plan. I will too. Yes. Love that. Um, and so what about energy?
If someone's looking to get more energy, what would you recommend? Yeah, there's a wonderful, really wild mushroom called cordyceps,
which is, you know, you can take it before workout, but I almost recommend taking it
after workout because it's so potent that you can start to rely on it. Like you'll work out so much stronger, more efficiently.
You will, it has the anti-fatigue effect, so you won't be exhausted as quickly. You'll be able to
have a greater sense of endurance. Yeah, wonderful functional mushroom that grows up in the Himalayas
above 14,000 feet altitude. So yeah, it was originally used by Sherpas, mountain climbers who would need that stamina,
the support with their lung health, also supports the immune system.
But really without any sort of stimulation, we're so used to like turning towards caffeine
or stimulant to give us that energy.
What's so unique about cordyceps is there's none of that direct stimulation happening.
So you get this energy by an increase in oxygenation, increase in VO2 max,
increase in blood flow, and allowing your body to create more long-term sustained physical energy
without any sort of crash or downfall once that energy has been expended.
Wow. And you mentioned lung health and immunity. So it sounds like a great thing to be taking right
now too. I'm like, if there was one magic mushroom we could take right now, you're like, wait,
actually I got one. Yeah. Cordyceps is, is mainstream media. Won't pick that up. Right. There's actually a really cool
article in this Russian newspaper a few months ago about Chaga. And it was like, scientists
discover potential, like, I'm like going to be, I can't even say this on the air, but the article
was like separate. I'm not saying this, the article saying like yeah you know discover this like potential
cure whatever would not cure but I give for COVID okay I'm like I can't even talk about it when it's
like so illegal for me to say which is also whack but there was an article that came about a chaga
for supporting you know COVID and um it's amazing it's like Russian scientists didn't discover this
we've been using this for 8,000 years. Like we
just have forgotten and we don't have the knowledge in the West really is lacking. So
well, we forget. Yeah. We forget how young we are as a nation. You know, we're babies in the
grand scheme of things. And I feel like sometimes we forget that traditional medicine has been around for a long
time for a reason. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And there's, you know, there's benefits to both. We
just have to remember that the vast majority of our, um, you know, Western or pharmaceuticals
come from isolated compounds found in our plants or our mushrooms. Um, and they come with a lot of side effects. Yeah, absolutely. And I think,
you know, if we can use our current medications to keep, you know, stabilize us to a point that
we can actually start working on the underlying root causes of things, that's our goal, right?
So it's not like shaming, um, my partner, he's a physician assistant. And so we're like, hold that East West
side of things together. And he's like, I need to prescribe someone, you know, an antidepressant so
that they're okay for the next week. And then once, you know, they have that mindset, then we
can start bringing vitamin D on board and magnesium and, you know, working on the diet. So it's like,
don't wrong yourself, no matter where you're at in the phase, but just magnesium and, you know, working on the diet. So it's like, don't wrong
yourself no matter where you're at in the phase, but just know that, you know, it's time for us to
remember that we can also support our, our roots. Right. And the way that we can do that is, is now
no matter where you're at to ensure that you're healthy and in five, 10, 20 years, not to just
support an immediate symptom. Yeah, that's really important.
And I completely agree with you. I don't think, I mean, I don't think the point is not to shame
or to say that we don't need medication. We would absolutely not be here without some of the
medication that we have, but I do agree. It's about that balance, right. Of getting to the
root symptoms, the root cause, and finding ways that
we can remedy it with the least amount of side effects. And also just finding what works best
for people, you know, and some people just need medication, and that's okay. Totally, totally.
And they need herbs and nutrition, right? We're all eating. So it's like, yes, how can we just
maximize the nutrient profile of what we're putting in our body every day already?
And then let's see, maybe you don't need what you thought you needed before.
Once your body has what it needs and is no longer deficient and, you know, certain minerals or vitamins or whatever that that produces the symptoms that make us think we need some sort of pill.
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm curious
with these functional mushrooms, I know we hear a lot about this in the news lately,
because there's been a lot of studies coming out about psilocybin and its effects on anxiety and
depression. Is there also that connection with these functional mushrooms? Yeah, there's so
much exciting research coming out in the world of
psychedelics. And I really feel like it's like the sixties, but done right. Um, where we're
slowly with research, monitoring the process of going through these different journeys
and the ability to really rewire our brains in a lot of ways.
So functional mushrooms don't have any sort of psychoactive component to them. You know,
while we have that kind of nerve growth factor stimulation with our lion's mane and
immune abilities, there's no sort of psychosis happening with the functional varieties,
which is why they're legal everywhere in the world. And I think hopefully always will be.
But I think it's opening this whole fungal kingdom and the world and the potential of
what mushrooms can offer to our bodies on a mental, physical, spiritual level is starting to,
we're starting to open to these possibilities. And yeah, we're seeing decriminalization and
different city after different city. And, you know, already we have ketamine-assisted
psychotherapy, which is the first fully federally legal form of
psychedelic therapy.
And so we're on the path to inviting, I think, the psilocybin medicine into our consciousness.
And I feel like it couldn't come at a better time.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more, especially bringing this back to what I said in the beginning
is our need and our desire to get back to nature. And I see this as another,
as a stepping stone, helping us get more in tune and in connection with nature again.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, the fun, the fungi will do that whether you are aware of it or not.
They're, they're connectors. They're like dancing through our systems when we take them and bridging things.
And yeah, I think that connection is key. That's their medicine. That's what they're offering us.
And yeah, what a brilliant time to be more connected to ourselves and our communities
and our planet when it feels like the whole world is, you know, more disconnected than ever.
So with adaptogens, is there ever a point where our body can get used to them and then they don't work as effectively anymore? Yeah. So this is one of the criteria of what makes a mushroom or a
plant an adaptogen is that they're non-habit forming. And so what that means is we don't
build a tolerance. It's not as if the more we take, the more we need. And because
of that, they're actually known as tonics. So the way that they've been used for thousands of years
is taken every single day to really build and nourish the system from this root-based place.
So they're meant to be taken long-term, daily, to really build and support the system. That said,
they can be so almost have magical effects. They're so wonderful and adapt with our bodies
and support our stress response that it is important to not use them as a mask. Like,
oh, I don't have to fix my nutrition or exercise or get good sleep. I'm just going to pump myself
up with a lot of adaptogens. And while you won't become, you know, like addicted or reliant on them, again, don't
use them as a mask for the underlying issues, right?
They're one really powerful piece of the puzzle, but continue to know that holistic health
is holistic, you know?
And so what that means is we have to support our bodies in all these other ways through movement and through proper food and clean sources of water and good sleep and
adaptions. Hopefully if they're not already can be another really effective piece of,
of your health puzzle. I love the way that you put that. So I ask everyone this question, what are your personal health non-negotiables?
That can be anything from, um, no matter what, no matter how busy you are, you always drink a
smoothie in the morning or, um, like one of them for me. And I say this every time. So my listeners
are probably sick of hearing this, but like one of my non-negotiables, no matter what is I go for a walk outside every single day just to get sunlight, to get fresh air, to get exercise. And it, and the
non-negotiable means no matter how busy your day is, you just make sure you prioritize this for
yourself and your health. Yeah. The thing that's coming up really strong is water. We've kind of
been dancing around this topic of water. And I think water is
one of the most overlooked pieces of our, our health. And so clean water, not drinking empty
water. So a lot of us will, you know, the water's coming through our tap or full of
all sorts of things, including, yeah, yeah, including, you know, things that kill
dangerous things in our water, but that also can kill a lot of important microbes and bacteria in
our guts. And so we talk about, you know, the danger of taking antibiotics all the time to
kill everything in our microbiome while we really have to think about what's in our water. And so
not only should we clean and purify our water, we have to be sure that we're not then just drinking
empty water. We see like dehydration all the time. And it's like, yeah, we're purifying our water
to the point that there aren't minerals and critical factors for our body to actually uptake the hydration. And so, yeah, I think big non-negotiable is
clean water that, you know, my process right now, since I used to live in a state park where I could
get spring water, like that was the gold standard. I wish we could all drink spring water all the
time. But now living in Los Angeles, I use my Berkey filter, which is I highly recommend it.
And then I remineralize it with different rocks that leach minerals to to bring kind of that life force back into the water.
And, you know, just like we all eat food all the time, we need we need water to keep us sustained and nourished and hydrated and feeling vital. And I think paying attention to
where our water is coming from and what's in it is so, so important and not talked about enough.
Yeah, this is a, this is a very, very important topic. And I encourage anyone listening to go to
EWG's website and look up your area and your water specifically. They have a lot of reports there
and you will probably be pretty shocked about the things that are in your water.
Not to mention pharmaceuticals, pesticide runoff.
There's a lot of stuff that's in our water.
I actually have a Berkey as well, but I'm very curious to know about these rocks.
Do you put these in your Berkey in the bottom?
Yeah, I put them in the Berkey.
You can use lots of different rocks.
The one that I've been experimenting with are called Maifan stones, M-A-I-F-A-N stones.
And they are porous, so they leach different beneficial minerals back into the water.
But, you know, if we want to get really heady, then you can, I put like rose quartz in there
and, you know, all sorts of different stones, which are just collections of minerals.
You know, if we actually break it down, it doesn't even have to be that like woo-woo.
It's like, no, it's kind of what our crystals or our rocks are made of.
So, yeah, I put those back in.
And there's also a cool website called Find a Spring.
And you can find springs near wherever you are.
Like even in L.A., there's springs like up in Topanga and people will chart where they found them on the map.
And then you can go and try to like tap your own spring and harvest your own spring water, which could be a fun activity.
Really cool. I'm going to add that in the show notes.
So if anyone is interested and wants to check that out.
So for everyone listening, where can they find you?
Yeah.
So my social is Danielle Ryan Broida and my website is Danielle Ryan wellness.
And then day to day, I'm all over four sigmatic.
So you can find us at four sigmatic on all social channels and at four sigmatic.com.
Amazing. Thank you so much.
Today was great. Yeah. Thank you. Such a pleasure. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. If you liked this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let
me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris
McCone. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie, spelled with a J.
Love you guys so much.
See you next week. that I try to like it doesn't like me at least I know
I am
like I
won't be
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