Monitor: As ’shrooms boom, science starts to catch up

Functional mushrooms are expected to grow steadily in both the supplement and functional food and beverage markets over the next three years, according to the recently released Mushroom Market Report from New Hope Network's Nutrition Business Journal.

But mushrooms' reaching their potential hinges largely on science. As mushrooms begin to make inroads in up-and-coming market segments including mental health, cognitive function and sports performance, research that backs up anecdotal evidence and claims will be crucial.

Ellen Smith, a research fellow in the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre at Northumbria University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, is forging the way with a series of clinical trials delving into the cognitive effects of lion’s mane, which has long been used for brain health in East Asia and is getting a lot of love as “nature’s brain food” on TikTok. At Vitafoods Europe in May, Smith revealed some early results of a clinical trial with 43 participants: Those who consumed lion’s mane performed an executive function task more quickly and may have also experienced stress-reduction benefits.

“It has been interesting to see the claims that are being put out there on social media for lion’s mane—things like clearing brain fog, improving memory and concentration,” Smith told NBJ. “We were interested by that—essentially, where does that come from? Is it an anecdotal thing from consumers or is there actually research to back that up? And there isn’t, so I thought it was a really good opportunity to develop this scientific evidence that either does or doesn’t support these claims.”

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Smith’s team is now recruiting 135 Gen Z women for a second clinical trial researching how lion’s mane affects mood and well-being, fatigue and self-esteem. “This is a very important group to consider in the fact that they’ve grown up in this digital world, so they’re constantly exposed to this negative mass media and, obviously, went through the COVID pandemic,” she says. “And there’s lot of evidence emerging now to suggest that demographic group has a higher rate of mental health illness diagnosis and high rates of stress.”

Smith is quick to point out that research on lion’s mane and mushrooms in general is still in its very early days—and more science is critical. “These are all small trials, though they’re definitely starting to increase in size now,” she says. “So, one of my key points is that we need bigger and larger trials, and we need those trials to be more ambitiously designed, which is going to take time. But the take-home point is that, basically, there is promise there.”

See more mushroom market data and insights in the Nutrition Business Journal's new Mushroom Market Report.