THE SEARCH FOR IMMORTALITY In 1969 Japanese researchers were looking around the world, trying to identify populations of people that lived long healthy lives. The researchers wanted to study and find the reasons. They looked at diet, genetics, climate, to find what allowed those people to live without disease, and have long productive lives. They found an area in South America where the native people on average were living to be more than one hundred years old. These natives were not frail in their senior years, but agile in their physical abilities. And they were disease free. They did not suffer from diabetes, or congestive heart failure, nor did they have arthritis, or lung problems, or cancers. The researchers looked at their environment, their food, the water they drank and the air that they breathed, and their emotional belief systems. What they found was unexpected.

SECRETS OF THE LAND These were people of the land. A simple people which used the natural resources to build their houses, raise animals, and harvest natural foods from the rain forest. The answer was that they did one important thing, consistently throughout their lives. Hidden under the canopy of trees embedded within the plants which blanketed the rich soil grew a marvelously great tasting mushroom. The natives, week by week, month by month would harvest this very special mushroom, and bring it home. These incorporated into their diet, on a regular basis, provided the magical quality of remaining healthy into old age. Since these first research discoveries, a tremendous amount of studies have been done to understand how the food chemistry of mushrooms, influences the bodies systems, improving our physical quality of life, as well as our overall lifespan.

WHAT SCIENCE DISCOVERED It was discovered that there were around two thousand different species of mushrooms which provided health benefits to the user. This class was called medicinal mushrooms. In the last fifty years this class of mushroom chemistry has been extensively studied. Over ten thousand, PhD peer reviewed studies, have successfully been completed. The results are impressive. One culinary medicinal mushroom is the Japanese Maitake. It has a deep rich flavor, and its shape is like a blooming flower, with its pedals rising out of a common center stem. Many mushrooms are very hard to grow, but Japanese scientists have perfected the cultivation of this specialized mushroom.

HOW THEY COMMUNICATE Medicinal mushrooms contain food chemistry called Beta-glucans. Essentially, glucose sugar, joined together, side by side, extending out in all directions creating a very large molecule. Because of their shape these molecules can plug into our bodies cellular receptor sites, and communicate directly with our DNA. These mushrooms sugar molecules (beta-glucans), cause our DNA to produce brand new proteins, with many benefits to the functions of our bodies systems. The first major benefit, is to strengthen and modulate our body’s immune system. Our immune systems are run like a balancing act. We need to have strict ratios of our innate immune system to our adaptive system. Just like having a balance with our armed service. We must have ships to patrol the seas, an air force to attack from the air, and foot soldiers to control the ground.

BLOOD SUGAR REGULATION The maitake balances our white blood cell types and amounts, optimizing our immune response, so we remain healthy, as our immune cell The beta glucan sugar molecules, because of their extensive shape, contain a lot of chemical information. These sugar molecules are designed to plug into many types of cellular receptors, and impart their knowledge to our cell’s DNA. One of the great benefits of Maitake, is to help our bodies regulate our blood sugar levels. Glucose which is in high concentration in our blood, may not be getting into our cells because of insulin desensitization.

BLOOD SUGAR The beta-glucans cause our cells to open special gates on its cell surface, and let the sugar flow into the cell. The Maitake’s beta-glucans, through communication with our cells, signals to them to open alternative pathways, and allows the blood sugar to enter the cells, to be used by the mitochondria, to produce energy for our bodies.

SAFETY Maitake is a whole food and has no toxic effects to our bodies. They, in fact contain twenty percent protein, fifteen percent dietary fiber, thirty percent carbohydrates, all the essential nucleic and amino acids, and essential vitamins. They have feed mice these mushrooms as their only food source for years, and found no negative side effects.