Comment · Sun, October 21, 2018 · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
So is Paul Stamet’s Brand Host Defense Garbage in terms of Lions Mane?
Original post in this thread
toinfinityandbyd · 69 points
Im really considering buying Real Mushroom’s Lions Mane product. I just seen so many threads on this and how Host Defense includes mycelium (root of mushroom) thats turned into grain. I should avoid the latter. Im new to the Nootropics game but Im gonna finish this bottle of Host Defense and grab myself another product. What do you yall think?
What they were answering
reallyserious · 1 points
However, my issue is growing mycelium on rice, not letting it ever grow a fruiting body, then grinding the entire mass of rice and mycelium up and calling it a mushroom. It would be like me advertising and selling you a pine tree, but then delivering a big mass of soil and roots.
I think you have a lot of valid points. At the same time, mycelium will eventually colonize the substrate. The substrate will turn into mycelium. At some point it's not rice anymore. It's mycelium.
So I think the analogy with tree roots and soil isn't a very accurate one. It would work if all the soil would turn into roots, but that is not the case.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
Sure, it's not a perfect analogy. Tree roots do pull nutrients from the soil, which then expand the root mass, though. They are arguably turning the soil into roots in a very basic sense. It's not the exact same as mycelium growing on rice, but it's just an illustrative example for the controversy itself. There are humic and fulvic acids in soil, too. So the argument could be made that soil also has some benefits. This is similar to the argument Stamets is making about the rice having benefits when combined with mycelium. However, I don't want to get too hung up on the analogy. That was meant to give a more relatable example for people to visualize.
Someone already posted this below, but take Stamets' own patent wording for example:
Here is an excerpt from one of Stamets’ patents:
>EXAMPLE 9
\[00123\] The medicinal mushroom mycelium is grown utilizing liquid culture techniques. Whereas growing on rice might have 30-40% conversion of rice to mycelium, liquid vat culture may have essentially complete conversion with >3x more mycelium per unit mass.
30-40% mycelium. Or 60-70% rice.