Medicinal mushrooms; the forgotten miracle food with industry expert Jeff Chilton
We talk all things mushrooms with ethno-micologist Jeff Chilton, the forgotten food, edible non-psychedelic mushrooms are packed with nutrition, antioxidants, immune-boosting, cancer fighting compounds that according to Jeff (and me!) should be a part of our daily diet. To be honest, there wasn't a big focus on medicinal mushrooms in med school, so I jumped at the opportunity to pick the brain of a guy with over 50 years of experience in the mushroom industry.
Referenced in the Show
Jeff’s Bio
Jeff’s Bio Jeff Chilton, raised in Pacific Northwest, studied Ethno-mycology at the University of Washington in the late sixties. In 1973 he started work on a commercial mushroom farm in Olympia, Washington. During the next 10 years he became the production manager, responsible for the cultivation of over 2 million pounds of agaricus mushrooms per year. He was also involved in the research and development of shiitake, oyster and enoki mushrooms which resulted in the earliest US fresh shiitake sales in 1978. In the late seventies he was a co-founder of Mycomedia, which held 4 mushroom conferences in the Pacific Northwest. These educational conferences brought together educators and experts in mushroom identification, ethno-mycology, and mushroom cultivation. During this period Jeff co- authored the highly acclaimed book, The Mushroom Cultivator, which was published in 1983. In the 1980’s he operated a mushroom spawn business and in 1989 he started Nammex, a business that introduced medicinal mushrooms to the US nutritional supplement industry. He traveled extensively in China during the 1990’s, attending conferences and visiting research facilities and mushroom farms. In 1997 he organized the first organic certification workshop for mushroom production in China. A founding member of the World Society for Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products in 1994 and a Member of the International Society for Mushroom Science, Mr Chilton’s company was the first to offer a complete line of Certified Organic mushroom extracts to the US nutritional supplement industry. Nammex extracts are used by many supplement and food companies and are noted for their high quality based on scientific analysis of the active compounds.