Hello everyone. I'm Monica Reinagle and this is the Nutrition Diva

podcast. Thanks for joining me today.

Meg writes, I recently got a free sample of four Sigmatic mushroom coffee from an online grocer.

Surprisingly enough, I enjoyed the flavor, but it's awfully pricey. But if it does even half of what they say it does for you, it might be worth it. Do any of these claims actually hold water?

Well, that's a great question.

Four-Sigmatic is a Finnish company that blends various medicinal mushroom extracts

with coffee, cocoa, tea, or various herbs to produce a variety of beverages that will supposedly increase

your productivity, energy, immunity, and beauty. That sounds good to me, but can drinking mushroom beverages really make you more productive,

resilient, relaxed, or good looking?

This particular product line features four different medicinal mushrooms that purport to produce a whole range of benefits.

Rayshi mushrooms, for example, are supposed to relieve stress and help you sleep, as well as boost immune function.

Cortiseps are thought to increase energy levels and athletic performance.

Lion's Main is supposed to sharpen your memory and your concentration.

And Chaga is a potent antioxidant,

although most mushrooms have relatively high antioxidant activity.

These mushrooms including increases in immune function and anti-cancer activity,

reduced blood pressure and cholesterol, enhanced cognitive function, reduced anxiety,

and so on.

But, and this is a pretty big but, most of this research has been carried out either

in test tubes or lab rats. In the relatively few controlled trials involving humans, the benefits have been modest or in many cases

undetectable. Many of these human research studies were quite small or involved subjects

who were suffering from specific diseases, so it's not always

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