Research, Not Rhetoric: How I Read Mushroom Studies and Wellness Claims

By Matthew Eaton
Chief Beverage Officer & Founder

When I first discovered functional mushrooms during my health journey, I approached them the way most people do – as a curious consumer.

If you read my earlier post about why we built Sēkwl, you know that discovery started during a very personal chapter of my life. And, based on what my master’s taught me about asking better questions, I shared how education reshaped the way I evaluate claims and systems.

This post is where those two paths meet. Because once you combine lived experience with academic rigor, you stop asking, “Does this work?” And start asking, “Why it works” and “Where is the evidence?”

How Research Is Often Misused in Wellness
If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably seen a lot of the excitement about functional mushrooms lately - and for good reason. They contain many bioactive compounds and are being studied around the world.

There are many articles that seem to promise incredible functional results, but context and fine print are critical, and so it is important to review studies (and review many of them). That's not to say that they are wrong, but nuance often disappears in summary articles. Details matter, and at least here at Sēkwl, our goal is to gain your trust, not erode it by overpromising.

“Doing your own research” is really important, but it’s important to know how to evaluate a study. This is something I’ve only learned how to do effectively in the last few years myself. It requires being both curious and critical at the same time.

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

How I Read a Study
Grad school didn’t teach me about mushrooms. It taught me how to read and be critical.

When I approach a study now, I like to keep it simple and ask a few questions first:  

• What is this study actually trying to measure?
• Who, specifically, was studied, and how many people were included? Over what duration?
• What methods were used? What was the dose?
• How was the supplement prepared and administered?
• What limitations were acknowledged?
  

All of this information provides important context. Sometimes you’ll see experts citing that the evidence ranges from promising to preliminary, depending on the context.

That distinction matters. Emerging does not mean definitive. And promising does not mean universal. Correlation does not mean causation. Details matter… a lot!

I like to take a 3-step approach to reading a study:

1. Scan: look at the title, abstract, and conclusion. This helps you orient yourself to the study.
2. Substance: Look at the methods and results. This helps you find the actual result.
3. Perspective: Read the discussion and conclusion again - and think about what questions you have about it.

What Research Can (and Can’t) Tell Us About Functional Mushrooms
Functional mushrooms are fascinating, and the research exploring them is exciting. Now, I’m going to apologize in advance because I’m going to geek out on how exciting functional mushrooms research is. Trust me, there’s so much here that is interesting and exciting!

Right now, Tthere are emerging studies that examineing immune modulation, stress response pathways, neurological markers, inflammation, and gut health. Turkey Tail has been studied in specific medical contexts. Lion’s Mane is being explored for neurological support. Reishi and Cordyceps have long histories in traditional medicine. For me, these emerging studies are so exciting to see. But remember, context matters.

Many studies are small in scale, are not human trials, or have methods that lead to questionable validity. This doesn’t invalidate the research, it just adds perspective., Aand it probably does means you probably don’t want to point to it as a gold standard. At least not yet.

Large clinical trials are needed to really prove the efficacy of functional mushrooms. These trials are expensive and take time. Our current system presents challenges to moving forward, too, because medication is developed and patented by large pharmaceutical companies, so there is simply no incentive to research natural products that people could grow on their own. 

Mushrooms don’t make it easy either. … tThey are very complex life forms thatare are highly nuanced and difficult to study, even in laboratory environments. 

Industry reports also highlight how mushroom ingredients are rapidly entering food and beverage innovation. But those same reports often note challenges with standardization and with distinguishing between species.

There is a really interesting ongoingon-going debate within the mushroom industry about how challenging claims are to make, and how frustrating growers are with the product market. One of the biggest challenges is that mushrooms grow in the wild and on farms. Farms may grow mushrooms on fallen trees and logs, or they may grow them in plastic bags. Some mushroom products are ground mushrooms, some are extracts to make the good stuff more bio-available. But it is important to understand that not all extracts are the same.  Some are just from mycelium, some are just fruiting bodiesbody, and some are both (full spectrum). How you grow, and the specific growing conditions, substrate, duration, even light and temperature, all contribute to potency. So even extracts made through the exact same processes but that use different mushrooms will likely have different potenciespotency. All of this shows how much context matters. 

As long as you buy from reputable brands, you likely are getting the good beta-glucansbeta glucans, hericenones, erinacenes, betulinic acid, cordycepin (and many, many more) in your extract. I just sharedshare all of this to raise awareness of our industry and for awareness about our industry, and to highlight why it is so important to ask questions. Testing is very limited and expensive, and claims are not standardized as a result.

At Sēkwl, we looked at many different extracts and asked lots of questions before we landed on a supplier. We continue to review mushroom extracts because the industry is moving fast to try to keep up with this challenge. We’ve become a member ofjoined the American Mushroom Institute and have joined roundtables on functional mushrooms in an effort to stay in the loop on the latest research, so we are always as true to you as possible. 

The Importance of Asking Better Questions

If there’s one idea that threads through my health journey and my education, it’s this: Better systems begin with better education.

To me, it’s about representing this accurately, and being honest about what we say on our package and in our marketing. 

I believe in functional mushrooms from my own personal health journey, and from what I have read. But I will never sit here and tell you that they are a cure-all, or that they will treat anything for certain - not because I don’t think they can, but because the research isn’t there. 

If you want to talk about mushrooms sometime, don’t be shy! We’re always learning, too. 

Matthew 🍄❤️