Are you afraid of mushrooms? You’re not alone. The fear of mushrooms is called mycophobia and many people have it. You may mistakenly believe that all mushrooms are bad for your health. That they encourage candida yeast overgrowth and weaken your immune system. Not true at all. Medicinal mushrooms have not only been shown to support your immune system, they may ever be able to save the world!
What is Mycophobia?
Mycophobia is a persistent irrational fear of mushrooms.
How the Fear of Mushrooms Can Develop
Fear of mushrooms often develops due to pre-programmed conditioning. That is, it develops due to what you’ve been told about mushrooms as a child. Your grandmother may have warned you that toadstools were dangerous and poisonous. She may have pointed out fungi growing in your garden or in the forests and warned you to stay away.
Fungus is often associated with the mould that grows on bread or your shower curtain or perhaps with an allergic reaction you had to an antibiotic, penicillin (which is grown from mould).
Mycophobia can also develop from the preconceived notion that mushrooms are eaten for the purposes of getting high. The thought of unintentionally nibbling on some strange mushroom and then having an uncontrolled psychedelic experience can be quite scary.
Those with chronic candida infection often avoid eating mushrooms because there is a mistaken belief that mushrooms cause candida. In fact, medicinal mushrooms support your immune system and can keep an overgrowth of candida at bay.
Treat Mycophobia with Medicinal Mushrooms
Whatever the reason for your fear of mushrooms, overcoming it is your ticket to enjoying better health than you’ve known in years. The next time you’re in the supermarket, visit the produce section and take a look at the mushrooms there.
You don’t have to touch one if you don’t want to but just look at them. They’re not all strange and scary-looking. Button mushrooms, for example, are kind of cute. If you’re feeling really adventurous, pick up a carton of mushrooms and add them to a stir-fry. Mushrooms have a rich, savory flavor that add dimension to any dish.
Once you get used to the idea of eating mushrooms, you may want to learn more about their health benefits. Medicinal mushrooms like Reishi, Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Maitake, Shiitake and Trametes have been shown to boost your immune system and prevent the development of disease.
Medicinal mushrooms are loaded with antioxidants as well as vitamins and minerals your body needs to function at its best. Medicinal mushrooms are called functional foods because the serve a purpose beyond simple nutrition. Not only do they have the potential to treat individual health problems, they may be able to better the planet as a whole.
Paul Stamets Thinks Mushrooms Can Save the World
World-renowned mycologist, Paul Stamets explains that mushrooms not only have a place on your plate but they just might help save the world. Think this claim is too extreme? It has been proven that humans are more closely-related to fungi than to any other plant or animal kingdom. We carry and respond to the same pathogens so the best antibiotics to treat these pathogens come from fungi.
Mushrooms were the first organisms to come to land, arriving approximately 1.3 billions years ago. They created mineralized soil by using their oxalic acids to break up the rocks around them. This is how flowering plants were able to develop and grow. Even now, mushrooms continue to transfer nutrients to plants via the rich soil they created billions of years ago.
Mushrooms are tenacious, bursting through asphalt and continuing to grow even in what would be considered less-than-ideal conditions. They don’t need light and instead thrive on radiation. They’ve been shown to act as natural insecticide and environmental cleaner that improves any ecosystem it is introduced to.
An experiment conducted on an oil spill showed that oil treated with mushrooms not only cleaned up the spill but created its own ecosystem. The mushrooms absorbed the oil, grew more mushrooms, spored, attracted insects, which grew into larvae, which attracted birds, which created an oasis of life.
Their rich antioxidant content has been shown to be an effective remedy against major viruses including flu and even antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”.
With mushrooms, even oil dependency could be a thing of the past. They’ve even been shown to be a viable, sustainable, and renewable energy source!
There’s no need to be afraid of mushrooms. Taken medicinally, they can provide the immune system support you need to prevent and heal disease naturally. Used on the planet, they may be the most effective and economical way to climb out of the climate crisis and save the world.