New Research | A Korean study proves that eating Reishi mushrooms daily is associated with lower risk of weight gain and better health.

A high-fat diet easily leads to weight gain.

How much does diet affect body weight? Just look at the graph below—it should be pretty clear.

This figure shows the experimental results jointly published in October 2020 by three national academic institutions—Chungbuk National University, Kyungpook National University, and the Institute of Horticulture and Herbaceous Plants—in the journal *Nutrients*.

The left group, on a normal diet, was fed a nutritionally balanced diet. The right group, on a high-fat diet, was fed a diet in which lard replaced soybean oil and part of the cereal starches; fat accounted for 45% of the total calorie intake—4.5 times the proportion in the former group (which was 10%).

At the outset, the two groups of mice had nearly identical body weights and sizes. However, after 12 weeks, the group fed a high-fat diet was almost twice as large as the group fed a normal diet.

The two groups of mice came from the same litter, were of the same age and sex, and shared identical living conditions—except for their diets. Thus, it’s fair to say that it was the difference in diet that led to the two groups of mice having different fates.

The Law of Lingzhi in Modifying Obesity

It’s not hard to understand why a high-fat diet leads to weight gain. What’s more surprising, however, is that three other groups of mice, which also consumed a high-fat diet for 12 weeks, showed rather different results.

The two groups of mice in the top row of this figure are the “normal diet vs. high-fat diet” mice shown at the beginning of the article; the three groups in the bottom row are the high-fat diet mice with “somewhat different outcomes.” Their diets all contained varying amounts of ganoderma extract—between 1% and 5%.

It’s quite evident that the mice in the three groups fed a high-fat diet supplemented with lingzhi showed significantly smaller body sizes compared to those fed only a high-fat diet.

The following statistical chart shows the weight gain of each group of mice over the 12-week period, making the differences among them even more apparent: A high-fat diet (in red) causes a significant increase in mouse body weight, while supplementation with reishi extract (in green, purple, and light blue) helps to curb the extent of weight gain.

Lingzhi does not affect appetite.

You might wonder: Could it be that the addition of reishi extract reduced the appetite of mice on a high-fat diet, thereby indirectly affecting their body weight? The answer is no. The amount of feed consumed daily by mice in each group was virtually identical.

Lingzhi reduces fat accumulation.

Therefore, lingzhi does not affect appetite, but it clearly does influence the way the body processes calories.

In the figure below, the top row shows histological sections of liver tissue from mice in each group after the experiment. The more tiny white areas you see in the middle, the higher the fat content.

The row below shows tissue sections of epididymal fat (representing visceral fat) from mice in each group after the experiment. The ring-like structures are adipocytes; the larger these cells become, the more fat they have accumulated inside.

So, can you spot the pattern yet? A high-fat diet leads to an increase in fat accumulation in the liver and causes the adipocytes in the epididymis to enlarge—essentially meaning that fat storage increases. However, ganoderma extract can help improve this condition: the more ganoderma extract you supplement, the closer the fat levels and cell sizes will be to those of the group on a normal diet.

Lingzhi helps reduce issues related to blood lipids, blood glucose, and insulin resistance.

A high-fat diet can lead to obesity, and obesity in turn can further result in dyslipidemia, elevated blood glucose levels, and excessive insulin secretion (which typically indicates that cells have developed insulin resistance).

Interestingly, the severity of these issues can all be alleviated by the supplementation of reishi extract, and the effect is positively correlated with the dosage of the reishi extract.

Lingzhi promotes metabolism.

Why can ganoderma reduce the health risks triggered by a high-fat diet without changing food intake?

To find the answer, the researchers took fat and liver tissues from the experimental mice mentioned above and analyzed them to see how these cells would differ when supplemented with reishi extract under the same high-fat diet conditions.

The results showed that in adipocytes and hepatocytes “boosted” by Ganoderma lucidum extract, the activity of AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase), an enzyme responsible for energy regulation within cells, significantly increased. Activated AMPK can regulate relevant genes and proteins in the cells, enhancing cellular sensitivity to insulin (reducing insulin resistance), improving the cells’ ability to utilize glucose, and reducing fat synthesis.

Overall, reishi mushroom enhances the body’s metabolism, enabling excess calories consumed through diet to be burned off as much as possible rather than being stored.

What kind of lingzhi is effective?

Although being able to eat is a blessing, nobody wants a weight-gain physique—because it’s not just an aesthetic issue; it also poses serious health risks.

Changing your eating habits and incorporating moderate exercise are certainly great ways to maintain your figure and safeguard your health. But if you really can’t manage that, here’s a lazy person’s ultimate trick: eat reishi mushrooms every single day.

What kind of Lingzhi should you eat? The Lingzhi extract used in the experiment contains the following main ingredients:

It appears to be an extract of Ganoderma lucidum that is rich in both triterpenes and polysaccharides! In other words, only Ganoderma lucidum containing both of these major classes of compounds could possibly produce the effects observed in the aforementioned experiments.

[Source] Hyeon A Lee, et al. Ganoderma lucidum Extract Reduces Insulin Resistance by Enhancing AMPK Activation in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice. Nutrients. 2020 Oct 30;12(11):3338.

★This article is published with the exclusive authorization of the author; all rights are reserved by GanoHerb. ★Without GanoHerb’s authorization, this work may not be reproduced, excerpted, or used in any other way. ★For works that have been authorized for use, please use them within the scope of the authorization and clearly indicate the source: GanoHerb. ★GanoHerb will pursue legal liability against anyone who violates the above statement.