Vitamins in Chaga

If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re curious about chaga, a little mushroom from the far north that has been taking the health food community by storm. Users of chaga claim it can do everything from fight disease, combat cancer, and suppress HIV to reverse aging and aid intestinal health. And while many of the benefits of chaga are well-documented, you may be wondering how, exactly, chaga can be so healthy and nutritious.

The answer is because chaga is chock full of vitamins and minerals, enough so that it has been labeled a legitimate superfood. With chaga, you can throw away many of your nutritional supplements because you will no longer need them. Read on to learn about the rich vitamin content of chaga.

Vitamins in Chaga

Vitamins are an important staple of the human diet, providing benefits to your brain, skin, teeth, bones, and much more. Vitamin deficiencies will harm your overall health and can potentially be fatal. Vitamin C deficiency, for example, leads to scurvy, a disease that results in rotting gums, red blood cell damage, and death if untreated. Because of this, you need to ensure that you eat a balanced diet that includes all vitamins necessary for survival.

Vitamins are distinguished from other types of nutrients by two factors. One, they must be necessary for the body to function. In addition to this, they must be manufactured by the body itself. Despite being manufactured by the body, humans need external supplements in order to maintain full health; the body can only create vitamins in limited amounts and/or under certain conditions. If your diet is deficient in a particular vitamin, you need to either change your diet or use vitamin supplements.

Chaga is exceptionally rich in vitamins, most notably vitamin B complex and vitamin D. Vitamin B complex refers to the full assortment of B vitamins, of which there are eight, unlike with other vitamins where there is only one type (i.e. there is only one vitamin C). B vitamins play the broad role of aiding cell metabolism, which is the process by which cells absorb nutrients that they need to stay alive. Good cell metabolism keeps your tissues and organs healthy and strong.

The eight B vitamins that are found in chaga are thiamine (vitamin B₁), riboflavin (vitamin B₂), niacin (vitamin B₃), pantothenic acid (vitamin B₅), pyridoxine (vitamin B₆), biotin (vitamin B₇), folate (vitamin B₉), and cobalamins (vitamin B₁₂). Together, they aid cell metabolism in various parts of the body, from the skin to vital organs. Deficiency in any one of these vitamins can lead to unwanted side effects, from diarrhea and acne to dementia and death.

Vitamin B complex is typically acquired from eating meat, in particular turkey, liver, and tuna. They are difficult to find in plant products, meaning that vegans and vegetarians should strongly consider chaga for their vitamin B needs. Chaga is superior to taking supplements due to the fact that the body is not optimized to take in vitamins from supplements, and doing so carries the risk of overdosing and exposing yourself to toxic side effects. It’s always better to get nutrients from food and drink.

Another important vitamin found in chaga is vitamin D. Vitamin D strengthens bones and teeth, and a vitamin D deficiency can lead to broken bones, lost teeth, and worse. Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to cancer. While vitamin D is commonly acquired through exposure to sunlight, as sunshine causes the skin to manufacture it, modern life often requires people to spend much of their day indoors, limiting their exposure to the sun. People who live in areas with constant cloud cover and/or rain/snow also typically suffer from low vitamin D.

Vitamin D is not naturally found in many foods, but many manufacturers will often “fortify” foods with the vitamin. For example, milk is a common source of vitamin D. Chaga is one of the few foods in the world that contains large amounts of natural vitamin D, requiring no artificial tampering or fortification. This makes it a great option for those who are looking to reduce their consumption of non-organic, processed food.

Chaga also contains considerable amounts of other vitamins, including vitamin A and vitamin C. This makes it a well-rounded addition to your diet, containing vital nutrients that your body needs to function. Few if any foods can match the sheer vitamin content of chaga, in both the breadth of vitamins it contains and the sheer amounts of them.

Conclusion

Vitamins are absolutely necessary for your body to function. Vitamin deficiencies can lead to chronic health problems, illness, or death. However, for reasons of health and wellness, you should strive to consume vitamins via changes in your diet instead of using supplements. Supplements, while an important tool in maintaining your body, are an inefficient way of consuming vitamins, which are best taken in through food and drink.

When it comes to vitamins, few foods offer the value and depth that chaga provides. In particular, chaga’s wealth of vitamin B complex and vitamin D make it one of the best ways to obtain both. This is on top of chaga’s other nutritional content, such as its famed antioxidants as well as other minerals and nutrients. If you want to be the healthiest that you can be, chaga is an important tool in your arsenal.