Cocktails, Libido & the Brain
Fungi Fridays - October 7th, 2022 - Issue #51
Fungi Friday fam, welcome back!
Hard to believe we’re already into the fourth quarter of the calendar year… 2022 flew! Not a whole lot to report on the update front, ended up shutting the operation down last weekend while we prep to move the trailer. Plan is to get it moved in the next week or two and once ready, we do still have one more batch of spawn in reserve. Doesn’t pay to store it, as it’ll spoil by next year, so going to take one more shot this late growing season.
On to the weekly articles!
How Mushrooms Can Elevate Cocktails
As an ex-bartender, feature one this week was a fun one! Fancy a Mushroom Martini? What about a Mushroom Manhattan? The spore-bearing fungus could soon be gracing your next cocktail. While some may see this as an unlikely ingredient, mushrooms are actually trending amongst mixologists — be it a gamey maitake, woodsy morel, smoky trumpet, or fruity chanterelle, it has the power to elevate any cocktail.
Most fungi tend to have a springy texture with a sweet and earthy aroma. They are best recognized for their umami richness that bursts with a robust savory and mildly salty profile and depending on the variety, they can also have a woodsy, nutty, or meaty flavor — which can be an especially intriguing aspect when crafting cocktails.
Savory cocktails like the dirty martini or spicy michelada have long been part of the bartender's repertoire, but still, as Wine Enthusiast explains, the recent appeal of these salty and zesty beverages mirrors a culinary trend towards umami-laden dishes. Experimenting with these ingredients and techniques can impart an unexpected dimension of flavor thanks to additions like mole bitters, hoppy beer syrups, or sourdough tinctures. And while I know sober October just kicked off, I can hardly wait til November to give one of these delicious sounding mushroom cocktails a try!
Can mushrooms help enhance your sex life? The latest libido-boosting trend.
Our second feature this week is an article from WomensHealth, and it describes the intriguing relationship between mushrooms and sex . And while these two don't seem like obvious bedfellows - the pair are the latest libido-boosting trend to make some noise.
As we’ve covered before, mushrooms are well-known source of B vitamins, selenium, zinc, and copper as well as being rich in fibre and protein. In addition to their wide range of health benefits, researchers are now beginning to explore the mechanisms behind medicinal mushrooms that may they help bring the body into a state of harmony and balance. Adaptogenic mushrooms increase resilience to stress and each have a host of other health benefits, including the ability to regulate mood, improve sleep, sharpen focus, increase energy levels and boost immunity. But what about the even sexier stuff...?
If you're focused on sexual pleasure, then there's one in particular mushroom that you need to know: cordyceps. “This mushroom has been used for thousands of years by Tibetans, Nepalese, Chinese and many other cultures as a potent natural aphrodisiac,” explains Dr Naomi Newman-Beinart, a nutritionist and specialist in health psychology, who works with Link Nutrition. “Tibetan farmers first noticed the effects of cordyceps on libido when their yaks, while grazing on the fungus in the Himalayan mountains, began to display notable signs of increased energy, vitality and virility. They tried boiling it as a tea for themselves and never looked back.”
And since then, there is a growing body of evidence that shows cordyceps supplementation improves sex drive in women. For example, one study in China demonstrated an 86% increase in female libido. Other studies show similar and significant improvements in sexual desire and function. Research has found it to increase testosterone, while a review concluded that it could enhance libido and sexual performance. The article closes out with the best way to harness these benefits, so if that’s something of interest, I recommend checking out the whole thing. Let’s get onto the last feature of the day though.
Psychedelics may flatten your brain’s landscape, but in a good way
To close out this week’s edition of Fungi Friday features, we jump back into the relationship between psychedelics and the brain. Contrary to myths that psychoactive drugs fry your brain, new research published on October 3 in Nature Communications has found that some hallucinogens may enable more dynamic mental function.
Scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine reviewed recordings from fMRI scans that suggest these substances essentially flatten the landscape of your brain, making it easier to jump between tasks. You read that correctly — Adults in the study group actually required less mental energy to shift between different modes of activity after using LSD or psilocybin (the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms).
“LSD and psilocybin activate serotonin receptors on brain cells in a way that reduces the energy needed for the brain to switch between different activity states.”
The research was led by senior author Dr. Amy Kuceyeski and doctoral student Parker Singleton, with the help of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Imperial College of London. The scientists are interested in finding therapeutic use for the substances, and may have established a new way to evaluate the effects of psychoactive drugs on a broad scale. In the study, researchers tracked the effects of LSD and psilocybin on brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings of the brain activity of volunteers. Each volunteer underwent two scanning sessions. One session included a dose of LSD or psilocybin, the other a placebo.
Data from the recordings revealed that participants could transition between activity states more easily, allowing “for more facile state transitions and more temporally diverse brain activity.” The authors added, “more broadly, we demonstrate that receptor-informed network control theory can model the impact of neuropharmacological manipulation on brain activity dynamics.” Personally, I think this is just another step in the right direction towards removing these substances off of the schedule 1 classification. Studies like this make it harder and harder to claim that there is no medical use for them.
Want even more? Here are some other interesting, mushroom focused reads of the week:
Q3 startup roundup: Mushroom-powered proteins and a new wave of fertilizers
A complex network of fungi links orchids in the rainforest canopy
How To Replace Plastic With Avocados, Algae, Mushrooms And Sugarcane | World Wide Waste (Video)
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