If you’re thinking about introducing functional mushroom supplements into your overall wellness routine, you want to know exactly what it is you’re putting in your body. It’s your temple—the centre of it all— so if you’re about to let something in, chances are you’re looking for the good stuff, and only the good stuff. The truth is, not all supplements are made the same, with some nutraceutical mushroom capsules skimping on the healthy, full fruiting bodies of mushrooms in favour of cheap fillers and substitutes. If you pick the wrong supplement, you’re liable to miss out on the full benefits of fungi, and how they can optimize your body and mind.

From harvesting the benefits of the full mushroom, to boosting your body with healthy beta glucans, to getting an unbiased seal of approval from a trusted third party, these are just a few of the ways Optimi is making sure we use the most nutrient-dense, supercharged functional fungi the Mushroom Kingdom has to offer.

Fruiting Bodies means Real Mushrooms

Nutraceutical companies have debated for some time on whether it’s better to extract nutrients from the fruiting body—think that familiar, toadstool-shaped spore — or the mycelium—the thin, vegetative filaments often found beneath the soil. We say, why not use both?

Whether you’re talking Chaga, Lion’s Mane, or Turkey Tail, the full fruiting bodies of each of these mushrooms goes into our products—that’s the cap, gill, and stem. Countless vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are found all throughout the fruiting body, so why wouldn’t you want to put the full mushroom to use? No part of the mushroom goes to waste in our supplements, giving every millimetre of the fruiting body its chance to shine.

Some mushrooms are built a little differently. The energy-boosting, stamina-enhancing nutrients of Cordyceps mushrooms, for instance, reside within their mycelium. While used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, and becoming more in-demand around the globe more recently , Cordyceps has become somewhat scarce and pricey. Some supplement makers have cut corners on this by filling their product with ground-down starches and grains, with the ratio of mushroom to filler significantly slanted towards the latter. At Optimi, we only source the raw, undiluted Cordyceps mycelium so people can fully benefit from this powerful superfood. Whether we’re working with the fruiting body or the mycelium, we fully unlock the potential of our functional mushrooms by putting them through an extensive, eight-hour, eight-step hot water treatment. During this process, nothing from the original mushroom is lost or discarded. The heat treatment just optimizes the material to ensure proper digestion and absorption of their beneficial active compounds. 100 per cent real mushrooms, grounded to rise for maximum efficiency.

The Beta Glucan Difference

Along with other valuable nutrients found inside the fruiting bodies of mushrooms, functional fungi are also rich in beta glucans. Essentially, beta glucan is a form of soluble fibre found inside foods like mushrooms, and absorbing these kinds of compounds can greatly stimulate and enhance our immune systems. These active compounds are actually what give functional mushrooms that superfood status, but while beta glucans are found throughout the fruiting body—from cap to stem—there’s more to getting the full benefits of beta glucans than just eating fresh Reishi and calling it a day.

Like with other nutrients, Optimi’s hot water extraction process unlocks beta glucans from the cellular structure of our functional mushrooms, making the compounds more easily absorbable. Without this thorough cellular breakdown, the beta glucans would pass through your system undigested, meaning you wouldn’t hang onto the full benefits of this superfood.

We’re continuing to learn more about the benefits of beta glucans, but so far studies have shown they help reduce cholesterol , promote heart health, ward off fatigue by boosting the immune system , and more. The best part? Beta glucan levels are guaranteed in Optimi’s functional mushroom supplements.

Third Party Tested for Potency and Safety

Supplements should be safe, pure and effective. Sometimes they aren’t.

Some companies offer a low-quality product that favours filler over fungi. But adding inessential starches and grains no only reduces purity and potency, but it ultimately detracts from the overall impact of functional mushrooms. Optimi, however, is all about quality control. We believe testing for contaminants, harmful microbes, and purity is our way of saying “we’ve got your back.”

Optimi’s line of supplements and powders contain 100 per cent real mushrooms, and we go the extra step by using Certified Organic and Non-GMO mushrooms. From Turkey Tail to Cordyceps, our mushrooms are sourced from the best independent suppliers around the globe. Optimi is also in the midst of building a state-of-the-art functional mushroom facility in Princeton, BC. By growing our own functional mushrooms on-site, we’re making sure that quality control comes from the ground up.

Either way they come down the chain, our ingredients and supplements are fully tested pre-and-post production by a third party for quality and potency. That’s how we ensure we’re producing the healthiest, high-quality fruiting body formulations to help you reach your optimum potential.

From their anti-aging properties, to their immunity boosting abilities, functional mushrooms have been proven to possess some remarkable properties. Optimi believes our multi-step safety check and potency testing produces the best possible powders that that fully optimize these mushrooms’ myriad health benefits for you.

Undiluted functional mushroom supplements with integrity

Optimi mushroom supplements are packed with the real thing—no added starch, grains, or fillers to dilute the true power of functional fungi, just mushrooms, cultivated and extracted with integrity. Grounded to rise, and ready to optimize.

Whether it’s a single-strain capsule or a multi-mushroom formula, Optimi supplements are the next step in your wellness routine, with our easily accessible products supercharged to boost memory (Lion’s Mane), longevity (Reishi), immunity (Turkey Tail), performance (Cordyceps), and defences (Chaga). Made using only the most high-quality, nutrient-dense mushrooms around, it’s just a matter of finding the right superfood supplement for you.

You can find out more about Optimi’s strain-specific capsules over here.

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/tibetan-caterpillar-fungus-trouble/573607/
2. https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/69/6/299/1815168
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147957118301000