Search Results

If you want to speak with our herbalist and founder, Josh, about supplement quality control, products, ingredients, testing, etc., you've come to the right place. He will call you at the time of the scheduled call and at the number you provided. Please note that we cannot offer medical advice.

Do you have questions about our Cacao? With all of the different types and forms of cacao (bean, nibs, butter, powder, and ceremonial, we understand it can be a bit confusing. We can also answer any questions you might have about things like heavy metals and ethical concerns such as slavery. We are happy to help you sort it all out! Please note we cannot offer medical advice.

Rooted Nutrition is always looking for new, ethically produced, whole food, herbal, and digestive health supplements from independently owned companies. Products that can be traced directly from the farm will be given priority. If you feel your products meet these criteria, then you should definitely book a meeting with us. If your supplements or products do not meet our criteria, you will be notified by email that we will be passing on the opportunity, and the meeting will be canceled. Please note we are not accepting new products that are sold on Amazon, Walmart, or Target.

Welcome to the incredible world of mushrooms. Mushroom supplements are a hot topic right now, but just like everything in the supplement industry, there is a lot of confusion, false advertising, and companies looking to do whatever they can to pad their profit margins. This topic is very large, so you may want to get a snack and settle in. A fantastic mushroom I found while foraging in my hometown, Fomes fomentarius, commonly known as horse hoof fungus. What should you look for in a mushroom supplement? There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a mushroom supplement. Which is better, the fruiting bodies or the mycelium Where is it grown? Is it ethically produced? Should you choose mushroom supplements made from wild-harvested or cultivated mushrooms? What are the mushrooms grown on? Is it properly tested? Should mushroom supplements contain beta-glucans or alpha-glucans? What percentage of polysaccharides should your mushroom supplement contain? How is your mushroom supplement made? Should you use a mushroom extract supplement or a whole mushroom supplement? Which delivery format is best, pills, powders, or liquids? Which mushroom is best for your health goals? Anatomy of a mushroom To understand mushrooms, it’s vital to learn the anatomy because a lot of confusion has been created over it, especially the mycelium. The three main parts are: The mycelium This is the part that you usually do not see. If you flip over a log and see white patches, that is often mycelium. Think of mycelium as you would the roots of a plant. These tiny filaments grow throughout whatever the mushroom is growing on, breaking it down to supply nutrients so the mushroom can produce a fruiting body and spores. The spores The spores are like the pollen of the mushroom world. The fruiting body releases them. The spores then germinate and form mycelia. Then when two compatible mycelia find each other and grow together (the mushroom equivalent of love and marriage), they will sometimes grow a fruiting body. However, not all mushrooms grow fruiting bodies. The fruiting body We commonly think of the fruiting body as mushrooms, which you would buy at the grocery store if you got some mushrooms for dinner. This is the part that grows above ground. Think of it as the flower of the mushroom world. This is where the important compounds and nutrients are found in sufficient quantities. Mushroom Supplement Sourcing As with any other food, where and how they are grown matters greatly, not just for your well-being but the lives of the people producing it and the planet's health; most people have very little idea where and how the mushrooms in their supplements are grown. ​Mushroom supplements, just like any other, must be sourced from clean raw materials. It must be ethically sourced, not just free of contaminants and appropriately tested. You cannot separate quality from ethics. How can something be a good product if someone suffers from producing it, or if that material leads to massive environmental pollution? The truth is that it cannot. China is the largest (by far) grower and supplier of the raw materials used in mushroom supplements. The problem with this is the huge amount of adulterated mushroom powders coming out of there. You can often buy the dried, extracted powder for less than the whole mushrooms. With all the steps needed to make an extract powder, there is no way it could be cheaper than whole, dried mushrooms. What happens is that the powders are cut with rice, cocoa, flour, and only the good lord knows what else. Does that mean you cannot get good-quality mushrooms out of China? No, but it is a huge problem trying to figure out which ones are adulterated and which ones are not due to increasingly sophisticated methods of adulteration. Not all of this should be blamed on Chinese companies; often, the companies buying the ingredients are demanding such a low price that the only way to produce the ingredients at that price is to adulterate them. A little-known issue that arises is that many mushroom supplements claim to use mushrooms grown in the United States, but they are really from China. Let me explain. A common practice is the importation of inoculated logs from China. Logs are inoculated with spores in China and allowed to reach the mycelium stage, then they are frozen and shipped to the United States, and the fruiting bodies are harvested, which is significantly cheaper than growing them from start to finish in the United States. It is completely illegal to label these as grown in the USA, but companies do it anyway. I cannot stress enough the importance of truly knowing who grows or harvests the mushrooms that go into making your mushroom supplement. Another common sourcing issue is chaga. Most chaga supplements use chaga sourced from Siberia. Buying Chaga from Russia means giving the Russian government money while they commit untold atrocities in Ukraine . Until that situation has been fully corrected, we recommend avoiding products made with Russian Chaga. Previously, we had sourced wild mushroom extracts from the US. Mushrooms are very sensitive to environmental pollution. Due to the weakening of US environmental regulations, there will be significantly more pollutants in the environment, which will, at some point in the near future, lead to mushrooms with higher levels of contaminants. For this reason, we recommend choosing wild mushroom extracts produced outside of the US. Wild Versus Cultivated Mushroom Supplements Mushrooms raised indoors in greenhouses do not form the symbiotic relationships with the forest that wild mushrooms do. Exposure to stressors such as pests, competition, and harsh weather creates beneficial compounds and constituents that are either absent or present in only small amounts in mushrooms grown in sterile greenhouses. This is similar to what happens with many plants . We recommend choosing mushroom supplements made from ethically and sustainably wildcrafted mushrooms whenever possible to get the most benefits from them. This means a few things. Care would be taken to ensure that the local mushroom populations are protected and not overharvested. Mushrooms would be carefully harvested to protect the mycelium growing underneath, so the mushrooms will continue to spread and grow. Certain mushrooms, such as agarikon, take a long time to grow. These should not be harvested off the trees; only those that naturally fall to the ground should be harvested. These sustainable harvesting practices can only be verified if the mushrooms used to produce the supplements can be traced back to the places from which they were foraged and the people who harvested them. Should mushroom supplements be grown on wood or grain? If you have ever harvested certain mushrooms in the woods (turkey tail, lion’s mane, reishi, maitake, chaga, etc.), you probably noticed that they always grow on wood. Wood is the food source for these potent mushrooms (except cordyceps, which prefer insects like caterpillars). Some even grow on specific trees like Chaga, which grows on birch, and hemlock reishi, which grows on hemlock trees. Wood contains high levels of lignin, the ideal food for mushrooms. In addition, mushrooms grown on various types of wood can produce different types and amounts of beneficial compounds. For example, Chaga produces high levels of certain compounds, like betulinic acid, because of what it gets from the birch trees. Growing it on grain or other trees will create chaga without those compounds and benefits. Unfortunately, the vast majority of mushroom supplements sold in the United States are produced using mushrooms or mycelium grown on grain. Fully developed mushrooms do not come out when the fungus has only rice to eat. Mushrooms need food with a wide C:N ratio - meaning, they need high carbon materials. The fungus can live on rice, but it won't generate a fully developed mushroom in all its glory, at the best primordia (highly condensed mycelium preparing to produce a mushroom) or undeveloped/undernourished mushrooms.    Mushrooms grown on grain do not produce as high levels or the diversity of beneficial compounds that mushrooms grown on their preferred food source, wood, do. For example, mushrooms grown on grain will have higher levels of carbohydrates and lower levels of beta-glucans than those grown on wood. Growing mushrooms on rice or tapioca starch can never replicate the effects of growing mushrooms on wood. Always choose mushroom supplements made with mushrooms grown on wood. Wild-grown mushrooms are exposed to stressors, like insects, fungi, and diseases, that greenhouse-grown mushrooms are not. When plants and fungi are exposed to stressors, they produce higher levels of compounds to protect themselves through a process called xenohormesis. This means that wild-grown mushrooms will contain higher levels of a variety of secondary compounds. Since mushrooms in greenhouses tend to have lower amounts of secondary compounds, a lot of companies have tried to convince people that only one compound is important, such as beta-glucans. That is far from the truth, so don’t fall for it. Each mushroom has a broad range of beneficial constituents, not just one. While chronic stress is bad for us, a stressed mushroom makes for a better mushroom supplement. Should mushroom supplements be made from the fruiting body or mycelium? If you were in the forest harvesting mushrooms, you would not harvest the mycelium, as it would be nearly impossible to get more than a tiny amount, and you would destroy the mushroom's ability to reproduce and most likely damage the local ecosystem. The fruiting body, aka mushroom, contains the highest levels of nutrients and compounds found in the mushroom, from beta-glucans and selenium to triterpenes. Mycelium contains some of these compounds but in tiny amounts, not enough to have any effect. It does not have all of the compounds in the fruiting bodies, though. An excellent example of this is chaga (which technically does not have a fruiting body or mycelium because it is a fungal sclerotium, but the fruiting body is the commonly used term). Chaga contains a powerful antioxidant called melanin . This is not present in mycelium products and grain-grown “Chaga.” That is why liquid “Chaga mycelium extracts” are clearish or tan instead of the black color that correctly made chaga extract is. Chaga is symbiotic with the birch trees it grows on and requires certain compounds to form beneficial constituents. It will not get any of those compounds from some grain in a greenhouse. Yet, most mushroom supplements are made with mycelium, not the fruiting body. Many companies and people, including the biggest, most well-known name in mushrooms, claim they are the best way to make a supplement. This means that most products sold as mushroom supplements contain no mushrooms. So, how are mycelium products made? First, a starch is cooked and then sterilized. After that, it is inoculated with the mushroom of choice, at which point the culturing process begins. This is what it looks like before it is ground up: Those bags of partially digested starch are not what should be in a mushroom supplement, but unfortunately, that's what most "mushroom supplements" are made of. That block consists almost entirely of partially broken-down starch (rice, tapioca, etc.) and a small amount of mycelium. It is ground into a powder to be sold as is or encapsulated. Products made this way contain upwards of eighty percent or more starch. Even if a liquid extract is made from this material because such low levels of beneficial compounds are present, it will have little to no benefits. These are starch supplements, not mushroom supplements. Despite the companies ' claims, there is no history of traditional use of products like this, and there are ZERO properly done human clinical trials showing benefits from this type of product. One company touts a study by the Department of Defense as proof that the product has benefits. This was just a petri dish study, showing how applying the mycelium directly to specific pathogens killed or inhibited their growth. Thousands of compounds will do this in a petri dish or test tube, but that is not how things work in the body. Another study this same company likes to tout is an NIH study using their turkey tail mycelium capsules. What they don’t tell you is that partway through, their product was discontinued and replaced with a turkey tail extract because it was not working. These products have the highest profit margin, so you can imagine why companies love to sell them. They cost virtually nothing to make. These companies then sell the fruiting bodies to restaurants and stores. Mycelium products like this are nearly pure profit because this starch is a waste product of the mushroom growing process. It should be used as compost, not sold as a supplement. A second claim these crude mycelium sellers like to make is that there are prescription products in Japan made from mycelium. This is true. However, these products are highly purified and processed to isolate certain compounds. They are not just ground mycelium. They are conflating two very different products to sow confusion and make their products look better than they are. Lastly, they claim that when the mycelium breaks down the starch, they create beneficial compounds not found in the fruiting body. This is true to a point. However, the amounts made are all so tiny that they would not be anywhere near the levels to provide benefits. It is just a marketing claim. In addition, those compounds would be present in the starch, not the mushroom, so it is just another way of saying they are selling starch supplements, not mushroom supplements. One very well-known company even likes to claim its mycelium supplements contain arabinoxylan. Arabinoxylan does not exist in mushrooms but primarily in grasses and grains. This is more evidence that these companies sell grain and starch supplements, not mushroom supplements. Always choose mushroom supplements made from the fruiting body. This is our take on the old Reddi Whip versus Cool Whip, oil, or cream commercials. There is a test you can perform at home to see if your mushroom supplement is full of starch. Open four 500 mg capsules or put one two-gram scoop of a powder into two ounces of water and shake well. Add five drops of Lugol's iodine (5% solution) . If there is a lot of starch, it will turn purple. Mushrooms do not contain this kind of starch, so if it does not turn purple, then you know it is not full of starch. This does not mean it is a great product, but it is a good way to tell if you bought mushrooms or starch. Mushroom Supplement Manufacturing The process of making a mushroom supplement makes all the difference. Many terms are thrown around, such as heated, extracted, dual-extracted, triple-extracted, hot water extract, alcohol extract, tincture, and more, which can make it confusing. Depending on what you are looking to get from your mushroom supplement, different methods will be needed. There is no single preparation that can address all the different needs that people have. Mushroom cell walls are made of a material called chitin. This is similar to the material that lobster and shrimp shells are made of. As you can imagine, this makes them very hard for our bodies to break down. To get the compounds that support a healthy immune system, the chitin must be broken down. It is not enough to heat or grind up the mushrooms. Crude ground mushroom powders will not provide bioavailable beta-glucans because those are trapped inside the chitin. To liberate the beta-glucans, the mushrooms must be put through an extraction process. Different methods must be used to extract different compounds because not all solvents extract the same compounds, and some methods require a lot of heat, which can damage other constituents. The best way to ensure a full spectrum of compounds that support a healthy immune system in amounts that will provide benefits is for a company to produce products that utilize a combination of extraction processes. We call this dual extraction. So, how is a dual extract made? Step one would be an alcohol extraction. This extracts temperature-sensitive compounds such as terpenes and a fatty-acids. Step two would be a hot water extraction. Think of this as a super concentrated version of tea. This method extracts other compounds, such as branched-chain beta-glucans, which require a significant amount of heat and time to be extracted properly. Step three combines these to form a full-spectrum extract, ensuring you receive all the benefits that mushrooms offer. After that, they would be packaged in dark glass bottles to protect them from light, which can damage the extracts. These dual-extracted mushroom supplements are the most potent and effective way to take mushrooms. Some people are looking for mushrooms for their prebiotic (food for your good bacteria) or nutritional benefits (mushrooms are rich in selenium and other nutrients). A dual-extract would have very little of those prebiotics remaining. In this case, a whole fruiting body powder or capsule would be best. These should be gently freeze-dried and milled into a powder. Avoid spray-dried mushroom powders and pills because spray drying involves very high heat, which can damage fragile constituents. It also requires the dried powder to be sprayed onto a carrier, which many companies do not list on the label of their products, and contributes to the weight. A spray-dried powder that claims to have one thousand milligrams of mushroom per serving lists the weight of the carrier and the mushroom together, so you cannot know precisely how much mushroom you are getting. Make sure you choose the right preparation for your health goals. In all cases, avoid mycelium products as they are going to have enough of any of the compounds you are looking. What's the problem with mushroom coffees? What about mushroom coffee products? While these have become super popular, they have several big issues. The first is that they simply don't have enough of and/or the right type of mushroom preparations to be effective. With the way coffee is made, it's not going to extract the beneficial compounds well enough to give you enough of them to be effective, and if you are using a whole mushroom powder for prebiotics and nutrition, getting enough of a high-quality powder would make your coffee taste awful. Mushroom coffees are essentially a marketing gimmick. If you want mushrooms in your coffee, it's best to take a high-quality dual-extracted liquid and add some to it. That way you know you are getting a full dosage and it won't overwhelm the taste of your coffee. While they seem cool, they are not a great combination. Mushroom Supplement Quality control and testing Proper quality control and testing are important for any supplement, including mushrooms. In addition to the basics (heavy metals, fungal and bacterial contamination, pesticide, herbicide, fungicide residues, adulteration, etc.), mushrooms need specialized testing for their constituents. This is where it gets tricky. The most well-known compound in mushrooms is called beta-glucans, which are non-starch soluble polysaccharides. This compound is found in all of the usual mushrooms used as supplements, as well as each having a host of other compounds that give each mushroom a unique profile and a different set of benefits. There are different types of beta-glucans and polysaccharides in many mushrooms, grains, and other foods; some have benefits, and some do not. Many companies will put a percentage of polysaccharides on the label of their mushroom supplements. You will see claims of 40, 60, or even 80% polysaccharides. Well, that sounds amazing; the more, the merrier, right? Wrong! Many polysaccharides have no beneficial properties, so it’s just a very effective marketing tactic. You could have a product with 1% beneficial polysaccharides and 49% with no benefit. An example of this would be alpha-glucans. Alpha-glucans will show up as polysaccharides in a lab test, but they are not found in mushrooms (in any more than a trace amount); instead, they are found in many grains. Nearly all mycelium products will have a good percentage of their polysaccharides as alpha-glucans because of the grains on which they are grown. Alpha-glucans do not provide the same benefit as beta-glucans. Never, ever judge a mushroom supplement's potency, quality, or potential benefits by the amount of polysaccharides listed, as it tells you very little about a product and is not a reliable measurement. It is essential to drill down a little further. There are several types of beta-glucans, but not all of them have the same benefits. Many beta-glucan label claims may not be what they appear. “β-Glucan obtained from bacteria and algae shows a linear structure whereas β-glucan extracted from yeast, mushrooms, oats, and barley exhibits branched structure.” The beta-glucans with a branched structure provide a place where the immune system can “hook on” (definitely not the technical term) and allow the immune system to use them. They are sometimes referred to as beta-glucans 1,3 and 1,6. Beta-glucans with a linear structure have no place for the immune system to “hook on” to, so they do not have the same benefits. That is why it’s essential to know which beta-glucans are present, not just the levels of beta-glucans While there have been some breakthroughs in mushroom beta-glucan and polysaccharide testing, most companies use older tests that are inaccurate, incomplete, or easy to cheat. Unless you have extensive knowledge of mushroom testing methodologies and know how to interpret the test results to see if the right tests were used (which very few people do), it is best not to rely on them. Third-party tested mushroom supplements You should be very careful about relying on third-party test results, as many of them are from labs that use poor testing methods or are often faked. To learn more about the problems with third-party testing, check out our blog . Rooted Nutrition's head of research. How should Mushroom Supplements be labeled? The labeling of mushroom supplements is one of the areas of most confusion. Unfortunately, there are a huge number of mushroom supplements that have labels that lead people to believe that things are in the products that are not actually in them. There are strict labeling requirements surrounding mushrooms; unfortunately, they have not been enforced. Mushroom mycelium grown in acceptable media is regarded as suitable for food use. Any food in which mushroom mycelium is used should be labeled to state that fact. Labeling should not suggest or imply that the food contains mushrooms. For example, a soup in which mushroom mycelium is an ingredient should not be labeled or sold as "mushroom soup" since that name by long consumer understanding and usage is preempted by soup containing real mushrooms. It is abundantly clear, with no wiggle room, from the above that mycelium only, or when the vast majority of the product is mycelium, products should not suggest or imply that they contain mushrooms. Any company selling mycelium supplements should not label them as mushroom supplements. Unfortunately, too many companies ignore these labeling rules and get away with it. It drives me insane! In order to be a mushroom supplement, it must be a majority-fruiting body product. Recently, a special type of petition has been filed with the FDA to hopefully get them to act on this issue. It is long overdue that companies misleading the public are taken to task and penalized for their actions. This product contains no reishi fruiting body, despite the labeling and images on the bottle. Who thinks that companies should be able to do things like this? Using The Right Type of Mushroom Supplement It's important to choose the right type of mushroom preparation to get the effects you are looking for. If you are looking to support a healthy immune system or get the antioxidants, compounds like triterpenoids, etc., you should choose the dual-extracted liquids. If you are looking for the nutritional and prebiotic (food for your good bacteria) benefits, you should choose the whole fruiting-body freeze-dried powders or capsules. Which mushroom supplement should you take? It can be confusing to know which mushroom to take. While each of them contains beta-glucans 1,3 and 1,6, each of their unique profiles of secondary compounds provides other benefits. It is important to match the right mushroom to your health goals. Always talk to your doctor before starting any supplement. Chaga (Inonotus Obliquus) is a wild sclerotium whose properties and intrinsic compounds are synthesized according to the unique nature of its parasitic relationship with living birch trees over time. You can’t have Chaga without it being wild. Any indoor propagated Chaga is merely an inferior lumpy mass having never been subjected to the back-and-forth stressors that are required to strengthen the mycological makeup of sclerotia; thus, it requires an everlasting biological battle between itself and a living birch tree’s immune system; to form what we know as Chaga! It is important to understand that there is fake chaga out there- mainstream brands sell it, and well-respected figures that some would call leaders in the mushroom world are selling it too. But it’s a gimmick; Chaga that does not come from the wild is not Chaga at all. It is materially different; it will not share the benefits that wild Chaga is well known for, and marketing it as such is completely wrong. Chaga contains high levels of antioxidants and terpenes. It also contains a unique compound, betulinic acid, which is formed when chaga converts the betulin found in the birch bark to this beneficial ingredient. If the Chaga is grown on grain or sawdust, it will not be rich in this. It must be grown on living birch trees to produce high levels of this compound. This triterpenoid has a wide array of benefits. It is also rich in other beneficial compounds, such as melanin and initidiol. Chaga is the best mushroom to use if you are looking for antioxidants. You should not use chaga if you are sensitive to oxalates or suffer from kidney stones. Cordyceps (Cordyceps militaris) grows very differently from other mushrooms on this list. It is a parasitic organism that prefers to grow on caterpillars, wasps, and other insects. It infects them and eventually takes over the host, creating a zombie bug. In the past, we were able to source wild-harvested, dual-extracted cordyceps products, but unfortunately, we are no longer able to find a sustainable and ethical wild source of this mushroom. In many areas of the world where it grows wild, it has been overharvested, and we did not want to contribute to and make the problem worse. If you know of a sustainable source for wild cordyceps extract, we would love to know and will give you a nice finder's fee if it works out for us. Please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com and let us know! There are some differences between wild Cordyceps and cultivated Cordyceps, despite companies saying otherwise. Wild Cordyceps is most commonly known as Cordyceps sinensis (although there are a few other Cordyceps species as well), and cultivated Cordyceps is Cordyceps militaris, despite some companies claiming to sell their cultivated Cordyceps as the sinensis variety. It is illegal to label militaris products as Sinensis, but once again, the FDA refuses to enforce the regulations, and companies continue to get away with it. One of the main differences (although there are plenty of others) is that wild Cordyceps have less cordycepin and adenosine than cultivated and more cordycepic acid and mannitol than cultivated. This is most likely due to the difference in what the Cordyceps is grown on and the growing environment being indoors instead of in the wild, exposed to stressors. Cordyceps contains cordycepic acid, cordycepin, and adenosine, which provide some pretty unique benefits, especially for supporting long-lasting energy. Unlike caffeine, cordyceps does not cause jitteriness and is non-habit forming. Cordyceps is the mushroom to choose if you are looking to support adrenal, lung, and kidney health, as well as healthy energy levels. Lion's Mane (Hericum erinaceus) is one of nature's most powerful nootropics thanks to its rich concentration of erinacines and hericenones. It also contains the compound NDPIH and its derivative hericene A. Lion's mane is the best mushroom choice for those looking to support a healthy brain and nerves. Maitake (Grifola frondosa) is one of the most well-known and studied mushrooms. It is rich in sterols and prebiotics. It is also being studied for its effects on the cardiovascular system and metabolic health. Maitake also contains an interesting glycoprotein that is being extensively researched. Maitake is the best mushroom choice for those concerned with supporting a healthy gut and metabolic system. Reishi (Ganoderma) has long been referred to as Lingzhi (The mushroom of immortality) in Chinese medicine. This mushroom's fruiting bodies contain unique compounds known as triterpenoids, which have a wide array of benefits. Triterpenoids may support a healthy cardiovascular system and healthy joints. One class of these triterpenoids, ganoderic acids, helps to support a healthy liver. It is very important to understand that triterpenoids are very bitter. This bitter taste stimulates certain digestive secretions, which provide some of the benefits. Unfortunately, most reishi mushroom supplements are made with mycelium and contain little to none of these beneficial compounds. If you have a reishi mycelium capsule at home, I encourage you to open it up and taste it; it will taste sweet, not bitter, because it does not have more than a trace amount of these beneficial compounds. Real reishi mushroom supplements taste very bitter because of the triterpenoids. Reishi is the best mushroom for those looking to support overall health and looking for a daily tonic to enhance overall health and vitality, as well as support healthy liver function. Turkey tail (Coriolus veriscolor) is the most well-studied mushroom by far. It contains two very important compounds PSK (polysaccharide K) and PSP (a unique protein-bound polysaccharide). These compounds support a healthy immune system and have been extensively studied. Turkey Tail is the best mushroom for those looking to support a healthy immune system. Avoid purchasing mushroom supplements with more than five species of mushrooms in them. While this may look good on the label, it means that there will almost never be enough of any one mushroom to get benefits. This is a classic example of the all too common practice in the supplement industry called fairy dusting . How to take mushroom supplements As with any supplement, the key to getting benefits is to take it daily and at the correct dosage. Consistency is the most important. Mushrooms are not something you can take once in a while and expect benefits. The longer you take them, the more benefits you can feel. Mushroom extracts are best taken in a dual-extracted, liquid form. We recommend taking four ml per day of the concentrated extracts and, if possible, splitting the dosage up throughout the day. They should be taken on an empty stomach, forty-five minutes before or two hours after eating. Don’t forget to shake them well! It is best taken directly in the mouth or mixed with a bit of warm, not hot or boiling, water. Whole mushroom capsules can be taken with or without food. Whole mushroom powders can be taken with or without food, and mixed with a food or beverage of your choice. Finding a good mushroom supplement company Finding companies that met all of our criteria for a good mushroom supplement was not easy. After a lot of searching and disappointment, we found some incredible companies. These companies produce their own supplements from wild-harvesting and farming through bottling. It is very rare to find companies that do this, but those are the kind we love. Vertically integrated companies like these form the backbone of our Farm-To-Bottle Project . Wild remedies Tasmanian Mushroom Extracts Wild Remedies produces incredible mushroom extracts from wild mushrooms harvested in the beautiful and pristine Tasmanian region of Australia. They harvest the mushrooms themselves and then make dual-extracts with them. They are careful to sustainably harvest the mushrooms to avoid the environmental issues that come from overharvesting. Their mushroom elixirs are made with premium spirits and natural spring water from the Tasmanian southern ranges.  After years of research and experimentation, they finally developed an empirically based method for extracting and preserving the bioactive compounds naturally produced in each mushroom. Ninth Path Mushroom Supplements Ninth Path Mushrooms organically grows its mushrooms in Australia. They produce dual-extracts and whole fruiting body mushroom powders and capsules, to help meet the different reasons that people use mushrooms, from supporting a healthy immune to prebiotics. Their whole mushroom powders and capsules are gently freeze-dried to preserve the full nutritional benefits. They do everything in-house, from growing the mushrooms to making the extracts and whole mushroom capsules and powders. This provides 100% traceability, from farm-to-bottle . They grow the mushrooms on hardwood with a small amount of organic soybeans. We also have a few other exciting mushroom companies and products coming soon! Finding the most incredible mushroom supplements was a vast undertaking, but we are thrilled to have found these amazing mushroom products. , Mushroom Supplement Questions and Support We know this is a lot of information, so if you have questions about our mushroom supplements, email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will be happy to provide you with the information you need.

Beef organ supplements have exploded in popularity, and for a good reason. Organs are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, but most people don’t eat them. With ever-increasing nutrient deficiencies in the general population, organ meats can be crucial in reversing them.  With that popularity came a whole bunch of companies just looking to make a quick buck and capitalize on a popular trend. Unfortunately, most of these companies don’t think much about ethics, quality control, manufacturing, or sourcing and just care about making a quick buck. Many beneficial nutrients and compounds in organs are very fragile and need special processing to protect them from being damaged or destroyed. Many companies that have popped up selling organ supplements don’t have anything to do with the process, just slapping their name on a bottle made by a random white labeler. White labeling is when a large manufacturer makes the same product for many companies, just putting different labels on the bottle. This is how most private-label store products, such as pasta or vitamins, are made. This is not how you want your beef organ or other whole food supplements made. Beef Organ Supplements Beef organ supplements can be a fantastic way to add good nutrition to your diet, but only if they are made right. What to look for in beef organ supplements First up is ethics. The vast majority of beef organ supplements and collagen peptide powders are made from ingredients sourced from South America.   Cattle ranching in South America is a leading cause of rainforest deforestation (about eighty percent) , and   slave labor is often used . In addition, Native peoples are often killed and pushed off their land, and often killed, to clear more space for cattle ranching . Avoid beef organ supplements and collagen powders from South America. Check out our blog  to learn more about it. Due to the mixing of organs and parts from different farms and the lack of traceability, it is nearly impossible to guarantee that an organ or collagen supplement from South America is ethically produced. Plenty of companies, like JBS, who supply the raw materials, claim to produce ethical versions, but their   actual actions are quite different from the marketing . One of the best things you can do for the environment and native peoples is to boycott all beef products, from meat at the grocery store to supplements, from South America. Next up is animal welfare because  how the animals are raised and treated matters greatly for the planet, the health and well-being of the animals, and your health.  They should be genuinely regeneratively raised, grass-fed, pastured, and free-range. Unfortunately, because of a lack of proper regulations, companies use these terms without actually following the spirit of what those things should mean.  Regenerative beef organ supplements When most people think of grass-fed, they imagine cattle leisurely walking across huge open fields, munching various grasses and plants, and having a pretty relaxing time. In an ideal world, that would be how all grass-fed cattle are raised. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world.  In the US, all cattle start on grass and are either grass-finished or grain-finished in feed lots. As demand for grass-fed beef has increased, many companies have found a way to produce truly grass-finished beef by confining the cattle to feedlots and feeding them alfalfa pellets instead of grazing on fresh grass. While this may be allowable under the current rules and regulations, it very much defeats the spirit of grass-fed.  Another issue that arises is that a lot of grass-fed beef is produced in a very destructive way. It is poor practice to just let a whole bunch of cattle out in the same area repeatedly. This causes overgrazing, which can lead to a deterioration of the land and increased pollution from runoff.  Ideally, cattle should be regeneratively raised, using rotational grazing, in order to allow the land time to regrow. It creates grassland with deeper roots and soil with more nutrients because their manure adds so much to the soil. It helps to improve the environment by storing large amounts of carbon in the soil, improving the water table, reducing runoff, and improving the local water cycle. Real regenerative agriculture does not spray pesticides onto the grass, allowing the microbes and healthy soil to keep the grasses healthy. It also makes for healthier animals as they get sick far less often, meaning fewer antibiotics and fewer medications are needed. The animals also get to spend their time outside enjoying the fresh and sunshine, rather than being confined to feed lots. It also creates food with much higher levels of nutrients, which is better for us. It's a win-win overall.  Our friends at White Oak Pastures   are a great example of how all farming should be done. Of course, with the increasing demand for regeneratively raised meat and ingredients, there are many companies claiming to sell regenerative products that do not. This has become an enormous problem in New Zealand , especially.  Large suppliers in New Zealand are putting too many animals into too small of a space, which leads to overgrazing and lots of runoff into the water supply. Instead of changing to properly done regenerative and rotational grazing, they are spraying the pastures with lots of pesticides and importing tons of nitrates, which are spread on the fields, to try and speed up the growth of the grasses. This, however, is causing tons of run-off in their water supply, which is creating huge amounts of water pollution . This is not regenerative agriculture, but unfortunately, ingredients produced this way are being sold with claims of regenerative agriculture on the packaging. Real regenerative agriculture improves the water quality around. It is also where a huge amount of the raw materials that go into a lot of big brands of beef organ supplements come from. It is frustrating to see so many desiccated organ supplement brands with regenerative agriculture claims in their marketing and on their products that use these materials that are anything but regenerative. Real regenerative agriculture leaves the land and the environment better than before. It does not make things worse. It’s important to choose organ supplements made from truly regenerative farming. It’s also important to look for beef organs from countries with strict government monitoring for diseases such as BSE (mad cow disease). Beef Organ Supplements Manufacturing The next important step in creating great beef organ supplements is the manufacturing of the raw materials. What happens to the fresh organs matters a great deal in ensuring you get the best product. Most desiccated organ supplements are made with high-heat drying methods, such as spray drying, which can damage the fragile compounds and nutrients in them. The best method for drying beef organ supplements is freeze-drying. However, not all freeze-drying methods are created equal. If the freeze-drying process is done too quickly, which is cheaper for companies, it can degrade the raw material. When freeze-drying beef organs, it’s important to use a slower, gentler freeze-drying method. Ideally, this process should take place over forty-eight hours. After the organs are dried, they must be milled into a powder.  Traditional milling creates a lot of heat and friction, which can damage the important bioactives in the organs. Cryo-milling, which is a cold process, is the method that should be used. This method is much more expensive, so most companies use traditional milling methods. Since most companies don’t make their own raw materials or organ supplements, they usually don’t even know what kind of milling is used.  Once the organs are milled into a powder, they should be put into a container and sold as is or encapsulated. A good organ supplement should contain no fillers, binders, or excipients. Filling capsules without them is more time-consuming and costly, but it creates a better finished product. We recommend choosing beef organ supplements in beef gelatin capsules rather than vegetable cellulose capsules because they protect the organs better from stomach acid and provide gelatin, which is great for gut health, hair, skin, nails, joints, etc. In addition, many vegetable cellulose capsules contain unwanted ingredients, which are often not listed on the label.  It’s best to choose beef organ supplements in capsule or powder form. Other formats, such as tablets and gummies, require lots of processing methods that can be damaging to important compounds and nutrients and add lots of unwanted additives to the product. Look for powders that are just the pure organs, without added sweeteners, flavorings, and filler s. Just say no to gummy vitamins ! Beef organ supplement testing Beef organ supplements should be tested at several points during the manufacturing process for various contaminants, including bacteria, fungi, heavy metals, pesticides, and more. Lots of companies advertise as being third-party tested, but it's really important to know that this is more of a marketing gimmick than a real measure of quality. Check out our blog  to learn more about this. It can be nearly impossible to know if companies do all of these things correctly unless they do all of it themselves, including getting the fresh organs directly from the farmers, then making the raw material and bottling the product. Look for companies that do all of these steps themselves. Unfortunately, most companies get raw materials from a middleman and have a contract manufacturer slap their name on the label. That is the exact opposite of what you want.  How to take beef organ supplements Most beef organ capsules can be taken with or without a meal. Some like. beef pancreas should be taken with the first bite of a meal. Beef organ powders can be mixed into cold food and beverages like smoothies or applesauce. They are a very concentrated source of nutrition, so it is best to start slowly and gradually increase the dosage. If you have questions about when or how to take your beef organ supplements, feel free to click the chat bubble on the bottom right, and we will be happy to help! It's always a real person, no chatbots. The best beef organ supplements It was not easy finding a company that met all of the criteria we were looking for. Many companies had great stories, especially some of the biggest, most well-advertised ones, but they did not make or produce any part of the product, having outsourced the whole process. We wanted a company that did everything themselves so we could verify every step involved in producing the product. We wanted beef organ supplements that had a   farm-to-bottle  approach. If farm-to-table is ideal for our food, we should strive to apply it to our supplements as well.  NXGEN Wholefoods Beef organ supplements Thankfully, after a lot of time and research, we found a beef organ supplement company that’s doing everything right, NXGEN Wholefoods . NXGEN Wholefoods provides organic, regeneratively farmed, grass fed, grass finished beef organs and glands, sourced from Australian farms. They are the only company globally with more than fifty years of meat industry experience and qualifications to harvest and collect the perfect quality glands and organs. They have the most extensive range of beef organs and glands to choose from, and they are leaders in glandular therapy. Their organs and glandulars are sourced from the ancient and untouched soils and land of Lake Eyre in South Australia, where the ranches are as large as the state of Texas. The cattle thrive on native grasses and roam freely for thousands of miles in an area where no cropping occurs. There’s no glyphosate spraying or pesticide drift from neighboring properties. Far too many companies get organs from cattle that graze on pastures that were heavily sprayed with pesticides. It’s bad for the environment, the cattle, the people spraying it, and your health. Proper management of pastures makes that completely unnecessary, but unfortunately, too many companies put profits above all else. The cattle are not given mRNA vaccines, Bovaer, synthetic feed additives, hormones, or antibiotics. The cattle are not given hormones or antibiotics. The farms they source organs from are the cleanest source of organs and glands, providing the benefits of unique, natural peptides, vitamins, and minerals. The farmers use the exact farming methods that you think of when you imagine regenerative farming, not the greenwashed fake versions that are all too common now.  Check out the video below to learn more. NXGEN Wholefoods is vertically integrated, meaning they have full control of all parts of the sourcing and manufacture from farm to capsule. They buy restaurant-grade organs and glands and inspect them firsthand; they own and operate the freeze-drying technology, using a slow forty-eight hour method. They use cryogenic milling, so all of their desiccated organs and glandulars are safe from the heat and friction that comes from traditional milling methods. Their products are non-defatted, which means they retain the fats, which contain important compounds not found elsewhere. Many companies defat their organs, which is a harsh process that removes a lot of important bioactives. Always buy beef organ supplements that are non-defatted, so you get the full range of benefits these nourishing foods have to offer. The final process of encapsulation and packing is done in their state-of-the-art factory in NSW, Australia. They manufacture small batches for freshness and each capsule is equivalent to eating the raw organ and gland without the mess, but with the convenience of knowing food safety and food quality is the best. Third-party testing is done for pathogens. Heavy metals are tested randomly by the Australian Government at abattoirs and farms to protect the reputation of the Australian Beef Industry.  There has been no positive test for heavy metals at the abattoirs or farms that NXGEN Wholefoods sources from. They have two brands to select from: the NXGEN Wholefoods range , which provides single organs and glands in an easy-to-take capsule or powder with the strongest amount of peptides and nutrients of one specific organ or gland, as well as the Cow and Bull brand , which provides blends of organs and glands that work in synergy to support specific body systems. The Cow and Bull blends  provide a cost-effective way to experience and enjoy the benefits of several organs and glands in one capsule. We are so proud to partner with NXGEN Wholefoods , which is setting the standard for which all beef organ supplement companies should strive for. Beef organ supplements questions and support For more information on beef organs, check out our Nose-To-Tail Center , where you can learn all about the benefits of organ meats. If you have questions about organ meats and beef organ supplements, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will be happy to help!

Beef liver is very popular right now, and for good reason. It is one of the most nutrient-dense foods, and that’s important since most people are not getting the vitamins and minerals they need. Beef Liver Supplement Benefits Beef liver is packed with nutrients. An ounce of beef liver contains: Vitamins: Vitamin A: 1408 mcg (156% DV) Vitamin B6: 0.3 mg (24% DV) Vitamin B12: 17 mcg (700% DV) Riboflavin (B2): 1 mg (60% DV) Niacin (B3): 4 mg (23% DV) Folate (B9): 82 mcg (21% DV) Choline: 94 mg (17% DV) Vitamin C: 0.4 mg (0.4% DV) Vitamin D: 0.3 mcg (2% DV) Vitamin E: 0.1 mg (1% DV) Vitamin K (as mk-4): 1 mcg (1% DV) Minerals: Iron: 1 mg (17% DV) Copper: 3 mg (307% DV) Potassium: 89 mg (2% DV) Phosphorus: 110 mg (16% DV) Selenium: 11 mcg (20% DV) Zinc: 1 mg (10% DV) Very few foods contain that much nutrition in just one ounce. Just one ounce a day is a great addition to your diet that can help make it much easier to meet your nutritional needs.  Vitamin A and Beef Liver Many people are afraid of eating liver because they have been told they can overdose on vitamin A.  Much of this belief started because some explorers in the Arctic ate polar bear liver and got sick. It was assumed that because liver is high in vitamin A, it is what made them ill. In reality, it is because Polar Bear livers are super high in cadmium. The explorers got cadmium poisoning, not vitamin A toxicity. You should not eat the livers of carnivorous mammals, only herbivores. The best are grass-fed beef, lamb, mutton, bison, buffalo, elk, and venison.  In theory, you could overdose on liver, but you would have to consistently eat very large amounts of it over a long period.  There are many reports in medical literature of people getting vitamin A poisoning from supplements or excess vitamin A in supplements, causing problems during pregnancy. If you read the full studies and literature, it is from synthetic and isolated vitamins. We could not find any reports, studies, or case reports showing an overdose of vitamin A from liver or other whole food sources. Many people take synthetic vitamin A supplements in dosages far exceeding amounts you would ever find in a normal amount of liver, which can be problematic. Please be aware that there are a lot of vitamin A supplements that claim to be natural, from fish liver oil, when that is not at all what they are. Ingesting excess vitamin A without copper can cause problems, but liver contains copper, so there is no worry about that issue when consuming liver. Here is one example of a case of vitamin A toxicity: “An 18 year old woman who had been taking vitamin A for an unspecified skin disorder in a dose of 100,000 to 200,000 IU daily for approximately 16 months developed muscular stiffness and fatigue which was particularly worsened by exercise. She subsequently noted bone pain, headache, poor appetite, nosebleeds, dry skin and generalized pruritus. ” One ounce of beef liver contains about 3500 to 5000 iu (1060 to 1500 mcg) of vitamin A (it varies from batch to batch like all nutrients in food do). This means to get to the amount of vitamin A making that woman sick one would need to eat about twenty to forty ounces of beef liver a day. No one in their right mind would eat that much beef liver every day, and we certainly would not recommend eating that much. You can get too much of any food or nutrients. Vitamin A toxicity risk really comes from synthetic and isolated vitamin A supplements or people doing crazy things. Some people have had their skin temporarily turn orange from eating too many carrots or orange vegetables. Fun fact: this happened to me as a baby when I ate too many carrots in a short period. This is caused by excess beta-carotene consumption, not vitamin A. This also clears up when those people take a break from eating those vegetables. This has nothing to do with liver, as liver contains vitamin A, as retinoids, not beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A.  Does Beef Liver Have Toxins? One of the most common misconceptions that we hear about beef liver is that you should not eat it because the liver stores toxins. That’s simply not true. The liver filters out toxins but does not store them.  “The liver removes harmful substances from our body often by breaking them down to smaller byproducts. These byproducts leave the liver through bile or blood – byproducts in bile are removed from the body through feces while those in the blood are filtered out by the kidneys and removed through the urine.” Toxins that are not excreted are stored in adipose tissue.   So when you buy beef liver, it is not full of toxins, no matter what the internet says. Beef liver is not full of toxins. Where can you buy beef liver? Knowing the source of your beef liver is very important. As with other foods, we recommend connecting with a local farmer. Look for liver that is grass-fed and grass-finished, as well as regeneratively farmed. Here is a great map  to find a farmer near you.  If you can’t find it locally, here are some places that will ship it right to your house: White oak pastures North Star Bison Thousand Hills How to eat beef liver There are several ways to get beef liver in your diet. Cook with it. If you soak liver overnight in milk before cooking, it will reduce the mineral taste. Cut it into small pieces, freeze it, and then swallow it like a vitamin. We only recommend doing this if you know the farm it is coming from and that they have good practices to avoid foodborne pathogens. Don’t eat it raw and don’t do this with regular liver from the grocery store. Always freeze liver before doing this.  Take a beef liver supplement. Beef Liver Pate Recipe Beef liver Pate is one of the simplest and easiest ways to enjoy beef liver. Yields: About 1 cup Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes Ingredients: 1 pound beef liver, sliced 1/2 cup butter, divided 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 cup heavy cream Salt and pepper to taste Instructions: Soak the liver: Place the liver slices in a bowl and cover with milk. Let soak for at least 30 minutes to help remove any strong flavors. Soaking overnight reduces the minerally taste significantly.  Sauté the aromatics: In a large skillet, melt 1/4 cup of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Cook the liver: Remove the onion and garlic from the pan and set aside. Add the remaining butter to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Add the liver slices and cook for 2-3 minutes per side or until browned but still slightly pink inside. Blend the ingredients: Transfer the liver, onion, garlic, and any pan juices to a food processor or blender. Add the heavy cream, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth. Chill and serve: Transfer the pâté to a container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow it to firm up. Serve with crackers, toast, or crudités. Tips: For a smoother pâté, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve after blending. Try adding herbs like thyme or rosemary to the pâté to add more flavor. Pâté can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Other great ways to enjoy liver include: Classic beef liver and onions Meatballs with beef liver Make meatballs with 80-90 percent beef and 10-20% beef liver. Force Of Nature Meats sells a great premade ground beef blend with liver  in it. We know eating beef liver isn’t for everyone, and if that’s you, then a beef liver supplement is a great way to get the great nutrition of beef liver without having to cook it.    Beef Liver Pills As with buying beef liver, it’s very important to know the source of your beef liver supplement and how it was made. There are a ton of companies selling beef liver supplements right now, and most of them have nothing to do with the manufacturing process except having their name slapped on the label. You want a company that does the whole process themselves, from farm to bottle. What to look for in a beef liver Capsule First up is ethics. The vast majority of beef liver supplements are made from ingredients sourced from South America.   Cattle ranching in South America is a leading cause of rainforest deforestation (about eighty percent) , and   slave labor is often used . In addition,   Native peoples are often killed and pushed off their land, and often killed, to clear more space for cattle ranching . It’s to avoid beef liver supplements from South America. Check out our   blog  to learn more about it. Due to the mixing of beef liver different farms and the lack of traceability, it is nearly impossible to guarantee that an a beef liver  supplement from South America is ethically produced. Plenty of companies, like JBS, who supply the raw materials, claim to produce ethical versions, but their   actual actions are quite different from the marketing . One of the best things you can do for the environment and native peoples is to boycott all beef products, from meat at the grocery store to supplements, from South America. Next up is animal welfare because how the animals are raised and treated matters greatly for the planet, the health and well-being of the animals, and your health.  They should be genuinely regeneratively raised, grass-fed, pastured, and free-range. Unfortunately, because of a lack of proper regulations, companies use these terms without actually following the spirit of what those things should mean.  Regenerative Beef Liver Supplements When most people think of grass-fed, they imagine cattle leisurely walking across huge open fields, munching various grasses and plants, and having a pretty relaxing time. That would be how all grass-fed cattle are raised in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world.  In the US, all cattle start on grass and are either grass-finished or grain-finished in feed lots. As demand for grass-fed beef has increased, many companies have found a way to produce truly grass-finished beef by confining the cattle to feedlots and feeding them alfalfa pellets instead of grazing on fresh grass. While this may be allowable under the current rules and regulations, it very much defeats the spirit of grass-fed. In addition, a lot of alfalfa is grown in drought-prone areas and requires massive amounts of water to grow. Another issue that arises is that a lot of grass-fed beef is produced in a very destructive way. It is poor practice to just let a whole bunch of cattle out in the same area repeatedly. This causes overgrazing, which can lead to a deterioration of the land and increased pollution from runoff.  Ideally, cattle should be regeneratively raised, using rotational grazing, to allow the land time to recover. It creates grassland with deeper roots and soil with more nutrients because their manure adds so much to the soil. It helps to improve the environment by storing large amounts of carbon in the soil, improving the water table, reducing runoff, and improving the local water cycle. Real regenerative agriculture does not spray pesticides onto the grass, allowing the microbes and healthy soil to keep the grasses healthy. It also makes for healthier animals as they get sick far less often, meaning fewer antibiotics and fewer medications are needed. The animals also get to spend their time outside enjoying the fresh and sunshine, rather than being confined to feed lots. It also creates food with much higher levels of nutrients, which is better for us. It's a win-win overall.  Our friends at   White Oak Pastures   are a great example of how all farming should be done. All farms should strive to follow their model. Of course, with the increasing demand for regeneratively raised meat and ingredients, there are many companies claiming to sell regenerative products that do not. This has become an enormous problem in New Zealand, especially.  Large suppliers in New Zealand are putting too many animals into too small of a space, which leads to overgrazing and lots of runoff into the water supply. Instead of changing to properly done regenerative and rotational grazing, they are spraying the pastures with lots of pesticides and importing tons of nitrates, which are spread on the fields, to speed up the grasses' growth. However, this is causing tons of run-off in   their water supply, which is creating huge amounts of water pollution . This is not regenerative agriculture, but unfortunately, ingredients produced this way are being sold with claims of regenerative agriculture on the packaging. Real regenerative agriculture improves the water quality around. It is also where a huge amount of the raw materials that go into a lot of big brands of beef organ supplements come from. It is frustrating to see so many desiccated organ supplement brands with regenerative agriculture claims in their marketing and on their products that use these materials that are anything but regenerative. Real regenerative agriculture leaves the land and the environment better than before. It does not make things worse. It’s important to choose organ supplements made from truly regenerative farming. It’s also important to look for beef organs from countries with strict government monitoring for diseases such as BSE (mad cow disease). Beef liver pill manufacturing The next important step in creating great beef liver supplements is the manufacturing of the raw materials. What happens to the fresh organs matters a great deal in ensuring you get the best product. Most desiccated liver supplements are made with high-heat drying methods, such as spray drying, which can damage the fragile compounds and nutrients in them. The best method for drying beef liver supplements is freeze-drying. However, not all freeze-drying methods are created equal. If the freeze-drying process is done too quickly, which is cheaper for companies, it can degrade the raw material. When freeze-drying beef liver, it’s important to use a slower, gentler freeze-drying method. Ideally, this process should take place over forty-eight hours. After the liver is dried, it must be milled into a powder. Traditional milling creates a lot of heat and friction, which can damage the important bioactives in liver. Cryo-milling, which is a cold process, is the method that should be used. This method is much more expensive, so most companies use traditional milling methods. Since most companies don’t make their own raw materials or liver supplements, they usually don’t know what type of milling is used.  Once the liver is milled into a powder, it should be put into a container and sold as is or encapsulated. A good beef liver supplement should contain no fillers, binders, or excipients. Filling capsules without them is more time-consuming and costly, but it creates a better finished product. We recommend choosing beef liver supplements in beef gelatin capsules rather than vegetable cellulose capsules because they protect the organs better from stomach acid and provide gelatin, which is great for gut health, hair, skin, nails, joints, etc. In addition, many vegetable cellulose capsules contain unwanted ingredients, often not listed on the label.  It’s best to choose beef liver supplements in capsule or powder form. Other formats, such as tablets and gummies, require lots of processing methods that can damage important compounds and nutrients and add lots of unwanted additives to the product. Look for powders that are just the pure organs, without added sweeteners, flavorings, and fillers. Beef Liver Pill Testing Beef liver supplements should be tested at several points during manufacturing for various contaminants, including bacteria, fungi, heavy metals, pesticides, and more. Lots of companies advertise as being third-party tested, but it's really important to know that this is more of a marketing gimmick than a real measure of quality. Check out our blog to learn more about this. It can be nearly impossible to know if companies do all of these things correctly unless they do all of it themselves, including getting the fresh organs directly from the farmers, then making the raw material and bottling the product. Look for companies that do all of these steps themselves. Unfortunately, most companies get raw materials from a middleman and have a contract manufacturer slap their name on the label. That is the exact opposite of what you want.  How to take beef liver supplements Capsules: Take six capsules (500 mg) in the morning with a large glass of water with breakfast. It is best not to take liver too late in the day because it can be too energizing and affect sleep. Powder: Take ½ a teaspoon in the morning with breakfast. It can be mixed into a food or beverage of your choice.  Beef liver supplements should be stored in a cool, dry place away from moisture and sunlight. The Best Beef Liver Pills Finding a beef liver company that met all the criteria we were looking for was not easy. Many companies had great stories, especially some of the biggest, most well-advertised ones, but they did not make or produce any part of the product, having outsourced the whole process. We wanted a company that did everything themselves so we could verify every step involved in producing the product. We wanted beef liver supplements that had a   farm-to-bottle  approach. If farm-to-table is ideal for our food, we should also strive to apply it to our supplements. Knowing exactly where your beef liver pills come from and who made them is essential. NXGEN Wholefoods Beef Liver Supplements Thankfully, after much time and research, we found a beef liver supplement company that’s doing everything right,   NXGEN Wholefoods . NXGEN Wholefoods   provides organic, regeneratively farmed, grass-fed, grass-finished beef liver ( pills and powder ) and lamb liver sourced from Australian farms. They are the only company globally with over fifty years of meat industry experience and qualifications to harvest and collect the perfect quality liver. They have the most extensive range of beef organs and glands to choose from and are leaders in glandular therapy. Their beef and lamb liver are sourced from the ancient and untouched soils and land of Lake Eyre in South Australia, where the ranches are as large as Texas. The cattle thrive on native grasses and roam freely for thousands of miles in an area where no cropping occurs. There’s no glyphosate spraying or pesticide drift from neighboring properties. Far too many companies get liver from cattle that graze on pastures that were heavily sprayed with pesticides. It isn’t good for the environment, the cattle, the people spraying it, and your health. Proper management of pastures makes that completely unnecessary, but unfortunately, too many companies put profits above all else. The cattle are not given mRNA vaccines, Bovaer, synthetic feed additives, hormones, or antibiotics. The farms they source the liver from are incredibly clean and provide the benefits of unique, natural peptides, vitamins, and minerals. The farmers use the exact farming methods you think of when you imagine regenerative farming, not the greenwashed fake versions that are all too common now.  Check out the video below to learn more. This is the kind of farm that your beef liver pills should come from. NXGEN Wholefoods  is vertically integrated, meaning they have full control of all parts of the sourcing and manufacture from farm to capsule. They buy restaurant-grade organs and glands and inspect them firsthand; they own and operate the freeze-drying technology, using a slow forty-eight hour method. They use cryogenic milling, so it is safe from the heat and friction of traditional milling methods. Their products are non-defatted, which means they retain the fats, which contain important compounds not found elsewhere. Many companies remove the fat from their organs, because it makes them cheaper to produce, but it is a harsh process that removes a lot of important bioactives. Always buy beef organ supplements that are non-defatted, so you get the full range of benefits these nourishing foods have to offer. The final process of encapsulation and packing is done in their state-of-the-art factory in NSW, Australia. They manufacture small batches for freshness, and each capsule is equivalent to eating the raw organ and gland without the mess, but with the convenience of knowing that food safety and food quality are the best. Third-party testing is done for pathogens. Heavy metals are tested randomly by the Australian Government at abattoirs and farms to protect the reputation of the Australian Beef Industry.  There has been no positive test for heavy metals at the abattoirs or farms that NXGEN Wholefoods sources from. We are so proud to partner with   NXGEN Wholefoods , which is setting the standard for what all beef liver supplement companies should strive for. Beef Liver Supplement Questions and Support For more information on beef liver supplements, check out our   Nose-To-Tail Center , where you can learn all about the benefits of organ meats. If you have questions about beef liver and beef liver supplements, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com , and we will be happy to answer them!

Rooted Nutrition: Specializing in ethical farm-to-table, whole-food supplements, maca, cacao, herbs, probiotics, beef organs, and more to make the world better! Welcome To Rooted Nutrition WHOLE FOOD SUPPLEMENTS Bringing the farm-to-table movement to supplements. We believe in the power of whole-food nutrition to transform lives. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality whole-food supplements, backed by our expertise and passion for helping people thrive. We believe that ethically produced farm-to-bottle whole food supplements are the best way to help people and the planet. Ethically Driven Ethics are infused into everything we do. Making the ethical choice will always come before profits, with no exceptions. Ethical Sourcing We focus on products that improve the lives of the people who produced them and help protect the planet. Expertise Our Founder and Herbalist has over twenty years experience in every aspect of the dietary supplement industry. Truth In Advertising We refuse to sell supplements labeled as whole food that are not actually whole food. This despicable practice is all too common. Just Say No To Nestle We are proud to not sell products from companies owned by massive corporations, like Nestle, which owns a lot of supplement companies. Traceability While most companies tell you very little about the true origins of their supplements, our Farm-To-Bottle Project provides an unmatched level of transparency. Regenerative Agriculture We partner with companies helping convert farmland to a regenerative model. This helps to sequester carbon, conserve water, restore grasslands, and improve animal welfare. Family Owned We are a 100% family-owned company. This means we do not have to please investors and can focus on more important things than just making larger profits. Fair Pay For Work We believe that farmers and laborers should be paid fairly for their labor and products they produce. We believe everyone deserves to live a life of dignity that fair pay provides. BEEF ORGAN SUPPLEMENTS Read More How To Spot Fake Whole Food Supplements Far too many supplements claim to be whole food when they are anything but. Learn how to tell the difference between real and fake whole food supplements. Learn More Farm To Bottle Project Learn why it's so important to know exactly where your supplements come from. Learn More Shop Shop finest whole food supplements, herbs, probiotics, beef organs, cacao, maca, and more! SHOP Blog Get the inside scoop on the supplement industry. BLOG Knowledge Gardens Take a deep dive into gut health, pregnancy, maca, cacao, collagen, beef organs, and more! KNOWLEDGE GARDENS

404 Error This Page Can’t Be Located. Oops! This page cannot be found. Try searching for what you were looking for: Go to Homepage

Which Maca should I take? This question comes up frequently, so we made this easy guide to help you choose the right Maca product and get the best results. WHICH MACA SHOULD I TAKE? FIND OUT HERE! WHICH MACA SHOULD I TAKE? Knowing which maca to use makes all the difference. Our guide makes it easy to choose the right maca for you. WHICH MACA SHOULD I TAKE? There are many different forms of maca. Taking the right one, can be the difference between success and failure. These are general recommendations; there will always be exceptions. It's always a good idea to talk to your doctor or healthcare practitioner before starting any dietary supplement. If you need help choosing the right maca for you, scroll down and schedule a free call or email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com. We'll be happy to help you get on the path to better health! These recommendations are not medical advice and are not meant to replace any advice or treatment plan from your doctor or healthcare practitioner. DOSAGE AND TIME Maca is deeply nourishing and supportive of your body. This means it takes time to receive the full benefits. While you may feel some effects sooner, it takes about three months to feel its full effects. Taking it for just a week or even a month will most likely not yield the benefits you are looking for. It's very important to take the full dosage of maca each day. Skipping many days or only taking a small amount will not yield the desired results. While the dosages we use may seem higher than other brands, this is because we know the importance of getting enough of the beneficial compounds to have a therapeutic effect. The vast majority of maca products and the dosage they recommend do not supply therapeutic amounts of macamides and other important compounds. Don't sell your health short, take the right dose for the right amount of time and experience the full benefits that this incredible plant has to offer! WHAT TO USE Adrenal Health - Activated Yellow Athletic Performance - Atomised Black Bone Health - Atomised Red Brain Health - Atomised Black Energy and Fatigue - Atomised Black Female Hormonal Support - Maca for Women - Powder or Capsules For additional support - Atomised Red Healthy Female Libido - Maca for Women - Powder or Capsules For additional support - Atomised Red Immune Support - Atomised Red Joint and Muscle Support - Atomised Black Male Hormonal Support - Maca for Men - Powder or Capsules For additional support - Atomised Black Healthy Male Libido - Maca for Men - Powder or Capsules For additional support - Atomised Black Mental Health - Atomised Red Nervous System Support - Structural- Atomised Black Nervous System Support - Calming - Atomised Red Prostate Health - Atomised Red Stress Support - Atomised Red Thyroid Health - Activated Yellow For additional support - Atomised Red Navigating the world of Maca can be confusing. We are here to answer all your questions about different Maca types, dosages, potential side effects, and more. Book a per... Maca Questions, Guidance And Support 15 min Book It If you have questions about which maca might be right for you, it's easy to schedule a free call with our herbalist and get some answers! Ethical Maca Shop Quick View Seleno Health Activated Peruvian Yellow Maca Nibs - 300 grams Regular Price $42.95 Sale Price $24.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Activated Peruvian Maca - 500 grams Price $45.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Activated Chocolate Maca - 500 grams Price $45.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca for Men - 300 grams Price $45.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca for Men - 150 caps Price $57.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca for Women - 300 grams Price $45.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca for Women - 150 caps Price $57.95 Add to Cart Cold Shipping Required Quick View Seleno Health Postpartum Pack Price $115.90 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Concentrated Black Maca Extract - 65 grams Price $64.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Concentrated Red Maca Extract - 65 grams Price $64.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health MCB Oil - 15 ml Price $109.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca Men's Performance Pack - Powder Regular Price $110.90 Sale Price $104.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca Men's Performance Pack - 150 caps Regular Price $124.90 Sale Price $114.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Women's Maca Wellness Pack - Powder Regular Price $110.90 Sale Price $104.95 Add to Cart Quick View Seleno Health Maca Women's Wellness Stack Regular Price $124.90 Sale Price $114.95 Add to Cart Take Me To The Maca Center