Over the recent years, we’ve seen increased awareness surrounding the contamination of heavy metals in the world’s food supply.
Every day, we dump more and more toxic chemicals into the environment and the likelihood of those toxins ending up in our soils, into our food supply, and reaching the cells of our body increases every year.
There's a big problem in the worldwide mushroom community today.
Many functional mushroom products sold on the market are contaminated with alarmingly high levels of toxic heavy metals.
This “insider secret” is well known but rarely talked about because suppliers and industry leaders do not want to reveal the truth to their customers.
Mushroom growing is a big business. In 2014 alone, it was estimated that the worldwide market value of medicinal mushrooms was $18.0 billion compared to $6.0 billion in 1999.
The industry has seen massive growth over the last few decades as the popularity of mushrooms as a healthy food source has significantly increased in the West.
Many of these toxic mushroom products in question are grown in China. In fact, for a long time, there’s been considerable concern overall health foods, nutritional supplements, and nutraceutical ingredients that originate from China due to their high levels of soil contamination, industrial pollution, and toxic waterways.
While there may be some truth to these concerns, it’s also important to recognise that there are still many select areas in China that are extremely clean and far from industrial pollution. There is government protected lands and mountains where mushrooms and tonic herbs are free to grow wild in the fresh clean air in their natural habitats.
Not All Mushrooms Are Created Equal
Changbai Mountain, China. One of the clean and pristine areas where Teelixir mushrooms are grown.
China has been cultivating mushrooms for centuries. In fact, it’s been reported that Shiitake mushroom cultivation originated in the 12th century!
Based on that, you could say that the Chinese know what they are doing when it comes to mushroom cultivation. They are the masters. Today, China is responsible for over 85% of the world’s mushroom production.
One of the main reasons superfood mushrooms are so potent is their ability to absorb and concentrate whatever they grow in, this includes the good stuff and the bad stuff.
Because mushrooms are such great detoxifiers of the earth and the human body, if they are not grown in clean soils, they tend to bio-accumulate the heavy metals and other nasties that are living in those contaminated soils. We don’t want to be consuming heavy metal stuffed mushrooms. Nope.
The most effective superfood mushrooms, the ones that stand up to all the reported health claims and benefits come directly from their original growing source, the pristine high mountain ranges, far from any cities or industrial pollution. They are grown in healthy soils with clean waterways.
The Harmful Effects of Heavy Metals
High levels of heavy metals in any food source can be extremely damaging to our health. Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, and Cadmium are some of the worse kinds of heavy metals that we need to avoid if we want to live a long and healthy life.
For example, too much mercury in the body can cause brain and kidney damage, and loss of cognition.
Lead has been linked to bone, heart, and behavioural disorders.
Arsenic is a known carcinogen and effectively blocks the body’s detoxification system.
Cadmium has been linked to heart disease, skin and kidney disorders.
It can be challenging to avoid the toxic build up of heavy metals in our modern world. Even our organic food supply is contaminated because proper heavy metal regulations have not been set in place.
As a consumer, you must stay mindful and exercise due diligence when sourcing all of your food products. Be aware and don’t be afraid to ask the big questions.
How Clean Are Your Mushrooms?
So how do you truly know how clean your mushrooms are?
Despite the many nutritional benefits, the only way to know for sure is to conduct independent heavy metal testing to verify that they are safe for human consumption. This must be done by the company selling mushroom products to you. There is no other way around it.
As a consumer, you deserve the right to know exactly what is in the mushroom products you are consuming. That way you can make the most informed health choices for you and your family.
At Teelixir, we’ve always aspired to provide access to the cleanest and most effective mushroom products available to our customers. That’s why we’ve independently tested and verified our mushrooms to have extremely low levels of heavy metals.
We use the strict heavy metals guideline of the Low Heavy Metals Verified Organisation as a benchmark to test our mushrooms. As we expected, they all passed with flying colours scoring no less than A+++ and A++ all around.
When you purchase your medicinal mushroom products from Teelixir, you can trust that they are the safest and cleanest sources for you and your family to enjoy.
We’re happy to disclose our heavy metal test results with you. You can find them under the 'Lab Results' tab of the certified organic Chaga, Reishi, Cordyceps, and Lion’s Mane mushroom product pages and more.
We are extremely proud at Teelixir to support the Chinese mushroom industry because as the #1 producers, we know China has always grown the highest quality and most effective mushroom products in the world. You just have to know where to find the best, and that’s exactly what we've done for you.
If you are looking to effectively detox heavy metals from your body, check out Teelixir Fulvic Acid supplements. This superstar cleansing product works to gently and safely detoxify the harmful heavy metals swimming around in the body.
