Welcome everybody to another episode of the SuperFeast Podcast. I am fresh back from my journey through China. It was incredible. If you haven't already gone to the SuperFeast Instagram and Facebook and looked at the live videos and the long form videos that I have up there, whether it's in Instagram TV or just in video form, I went up and basically went live or, if I didn't have reception, took videos of me walking around the different farms so you can get a little bit closer to the herbs. Make sure you go and do that.

Today I'm going to do an episode I've been wanting to do for a while. I basically want to go over all the most frequently asked questions that we get here at SuperFeast. The intention of this is, one, more than ever, we're getting people who are new to tonic herbs, new to using extract powders, new to medicinal mushrooms and adaptogens. I want to get this recording out there that can answer those questions that sit in the way of possibly a jar or a bag of SuperFeast herbs being another supplement that just sits there and haven't quite bridged ... Just because due to a few little confusions or questions not having bridged that consistent usage.

Then number two is for those of you that have been using SuperFeast for a long time, just to basically get you as aficionados of using these herbs, maybe fill in a couple little gaps or reminders of why we do things in particular ways. Also, what happens is so many of you start weaving these into your lifestyle long term. You want to share, and I want to make sure that you're armed with everything that you need to communicate effectively to friends and loved ones what these herbs are and how to use them. There are those two intentions.

I'm going to do it somewhat rapid fire at times. Just know you can send questions my way anytime via the Instagram direct message. Also, you can call the team and email to the team anytime with little questions. It's not my intent to go all the way deep into a lot of these conversations. A lot of them don't need it. It's going to be pretty rapid fire. I will also communicate as we go along those deeper conversations in which we have plans to have a long form podcast recorded to answer those questions.

Basically, I wanted to share with you the reason why I do podcasts like these, rather than this week doing another podcast just talking about an individual herb and its benefits, which is coming, by the way, I like doing these for this reason. I was talking to someone from Canada who was going to be a first time customer of SuperFeast. I was just back and forth-ing throughout the day while I was in rural China, talking to this person from Canada and helping them choose what they want to be taking, what herbs they should be choosing, the intention, all that kind of stuff.

At the end of it, this is what he wrote: "Thanks, Mason. I've got to say it's pretty cool that you take the time to answer individual questions like this. It definitely speaks to how in-tune you are with your customer base and how passionate you are about spreading health, lifestyle vibes with other people, even those halfway across the globe whom you've never even met. I hope to build a long-term relationship with your products and that I can come back in six months or a year or five years or a decade and have no hesitation ordering and knowing that as this baby of yours that is SuperFeast grows, that you remain loyal to your vision and roots and keep quality and customer service a priority. Be well, dude."

That is pretty much summing up my intention, is that, yes, I want to be here 10 years from now, possibly we've grown, possibly we've expanded. Who knows what's going to happen? But the reason I do podcasts like this is because what's really important to me is the long-term usage, is that you can trust that you can come back in a year or five years or a decade and know that you are going to still be supported with the same intention that we have now and with the same intention that you have.

That's why we don't engage in pretty much just going like, "Adaptogens, you have to have adaptogens. You have to have them in your diet right now. These are adaptogens. Take them," but rather focusing on the fact that what we do is tonic herbalism. Tonic herbalism is something which is effective in the long term. Basically, once you get from the place where you're treating symptoms, you want to be getting into a place where you're attending to your health and basically you start making practitioners and treating symptoms less and less relevant and you're more on the vision side.

We're going to get to that in the section of where to start and how to choose the herbs that you use. But I just wanted to share that with you. That's why I do these kinds of conversations about how to use these things and why, even if you're bought of us six months ago, and the jar is sitting there and you don't really know what to do with it, just give us a call, send us a message. Our interest is in your long-term health. We're going to be there in the long term, just making sure we're walking that path with you.

That's why I get pretty candid about the business. Interacting with the business long term, I like to know who's running it, what the structure is, how the staff like working there, and all that kind of stuff. These are little things why if I want to be here in 10 years with that same vision and roots and quality in customer service, as that gentleman alluded to before, if I want to be doing that, I need to make sure that SuperFeast is going in a direction that is led from the same place from when I started in 2011.

The little things that I want you to know, that's why we haven't accepted investors and why we don't have plans to accept investors, because not that I'm against that style of business but with SuperFeast, and for me SuperFeast being so precious in bringing tonic herbalism into the world and being a trusted source for many people in society to get a hold of their health, it's very important that that exact vision and exact focus that we have on things like quality in customer service and doing things like me going to China and taking you live to the farms, that comes from a very particular place that I can feel and I know, and my team feels and the team knows, and it isn't influenced by external people who are investing in the company, because I don't care what anybody says. A business will change when you start sharing shares of that company. That's not going to happen at SuperFeast. So little things like that.

Now I hope you understand it's little interactions like that with that gentleman that kind of tell you why I share these things with you and why I do podcasts like this. Let's jump in, frequently asked questions.

The first one is, "Okay, cool. I'm really interested in all this stuff. What do you guys actually do?" At times Tonic herbalism isn't at the point yet where it is really well understood. A lot of marketing people who come across my company go, "Man, yeah. I get it, but maybe you should alter the way that you communicate what you do, because tonic herbalism people don't exactly know what it is."

I am empathetic to that and that's why I do communicate to people at times, especially when people are coming across SuperFeast for the first time, like, "Hey, if you have any questions about medicinal mushrooms or adaptogens, hit us up," or why we might have an article communicating adaptogens, or we might talk about medicinal mushroom, because it's really accessible right now for people to start wrapping their heads around what we do at SuperFeast. But, ultimately, it's tonic herbalism. In the very first episode, number one, we do a big welcome to tonic herbalism and what that is. But that's what we do.

Another thing to communicate is we don't just do medicinal mushrooms. We're heavily known for mushrooms. It's an easy thing to say because at the moment everyone's very empathetic and clear about what medicinal mushrooms are. When people receive SuperFeast or when they're asking me what they should be taking, a lot of the time it's like, "Hey, which mushrooms should I get?" or everyone's like, "I'm so excited. I just got all my medicinal mushrooms."

But it's important for us to communicate that mushrooms are one of the categories or type of herb that falls under the banner of tonic herbalism, what we do, but there are also root [inaudible 00:09:39], berries, many other things. Say, in our Jing blend, there is only one mushroom in there. That's Cordycep mushroom. In our Beauty Blend, we don't actually have mushrooms in there, three berries and pearl. That is what we do.

Now the other thing we do very practically is we do extract powders of herbs. They are in jars and powders. I, very specifically, chose extract powders over something like a liquid extract. That's because I had the intention for people to use these long term. I needed something that was going to be bioavailable. Therefore, it isn't just the ground out Reishi mushroom or Chaga mushroom, for example, which the body can actually digest and get those medicinal aspects out.

An extract powder, whether it's a dual extract or a single extract, and that depends on the availability of nutrients in a water extract, if we need to do an alcohol extract, we will, if there is no alcohol left in the powders.

The difference between an extract powder and using a liquid extract or a tincture ... So getting a liquid extract of a medicinal mushroom or a herb, I do like and I do enjoy. However, an extract powder falls firmly in that realm of something that can easily be used in your ongoing lifestyle and diet. It's easier to weave into dishes that you're making, tonics that you're making, and it feels more like a food. It feels more like something you would keep in your kitchen not as a medicine. This is what I feel with liquid extracts and tinctures.

Again, I make my own. I like them. However, I feel that they do fall into that category of like dropping a tincture in your mouth. It doesn't have the same intention. It's not as easy to use it ongoingly within the heart and home of the kitchen or the heart and home of your diet and weave it into dishes and drinks like that. Extract powder has very much met this criteria.

Next is: "Where to start? How do I choose the herbs that I need to get the best out of this?" The good news is with what we do in tonic herbs, if you are just starting out and you are wanting the best out of your body, you want to become healthier, the good thing about our range and the tonic herbs is you can't go wrong. Because they work on an organ system, because they work on the nervous system and the endocrine system, regardless, you don't have anything to lose. You're not going to get it wrong, which is always what I like to say.

Now a lot of people will come to us with a symptom. Now if you are treating something in your body, if you're treating an illness, especially if it's severe, we like you to be working with a practitioner, of course. You can do research with that practitioner or, if you're taking it more into your own hands, you can be doing research as to which tonic herbs you can use to turn your body on a foundational level so that long-term healing is possible.

If there's something like that going on, write to us. DM me on Instagram, give us a call, send us an email. We'll be able to hone in on something, because it's a little bit more important for you to choose the right herb if there is something going on like autoimmunity or leaky gut syndrome.

Now symptoms in which aren't in that realm so much are if you have, say, exhaustion. If you have exhaustion, that's something that you want to be really tending to with lifestyle. That's where these herbs fall into. Tonic herbs fall into lifestyle.

One of the things you want to be doing at that point is, say, and it becomes very obvious, Jing. Now the intention of Jing as a blend is generally to give more core energy to the body so you have the foundations, yes, for hip strength, bone strength, but that energy that gets you through the entirety of the day. That's why, for a lot of people, a very obvious place to start is Jing.

Now if you're not exhausted, can you still have Jing? Of course. Because you're getting on the front foot, you want to ensure that you don't get exhausted in the future. But once again, it becomes a little less critical for you if you're not exhausted. It becomes a little less critical for you to like, "Oh, my gosh. I want these other herb. But, oh, my gosh. Jing sounds really good as well because, of course, I want Jing. Of course, I want to be bringing myself longevity."

But Jing is very focused on the kidneys and adrenals. That its core intention. But even if you go over something like Beauty Blend, there are herbs in schizandra / schisandra and the goji that are toning Jing as well. That's where a little bit of this "you can't go wrong" comes into it, especially if you're not working on those core issues or if you don't have any severe symptoms. But let's go a little bit further into that.

Now when you are starting out and you're choosing your herbs, and we've covered if you have symptoms, talk to us or work with your practitioner so you can hone in and you can really have a strategy for what parts of the foundation of the immune system, endocrine system, and the body you need to be working on in order to heal. But what we like to focus on ...

And in the west, a lot of people don't realize is that you can be in a different place. You can be in a different place where it's not all just about problems and issues. You can be in a place of purpose and intention. That is majority of where you're going to sit with your tonic herbal practice over your life. What is my intention? Now that can also translate to what are you really drawn to?

If that's not making sense, what you can really focus in on is with your body and with your health, right now what is it that you value in terms of maybe today and this week? What do you really value in terms of your health and outcomes, if you're maybe really valuing and feeling purposeful with building your immune system? Or that might be something in what do you value over the span of your life? For the next 40 years, what do you really value in terms of being able to build?

That might be something as obscure as uniting the body. I really want to make sure the body's really united and communicating as best as it possibly can from cell to cell, from organ the organ at that point. Medicinal mushrooms come very heavily into the mix.

That's an intention. That's at that point where a practitioner's job is to get us ... Work with us, walk with us clinically, get over symptoms, get particular markers within the body, get them down or up so you're within a range of health. Then stop handing over the reins to you. The really good practitioners hand over the reins and really help you, one, start preventing or curing diseases of the future so they're either less severe or don't come up in any way, which is a very obscure our kind of concept, but one that true healers and practitioners will attempt to hand over to you.

At that same time, that is really when you've taken the reins and you sit in that place of intention and purpose, that's where majority of your tonic herbal practice is going to be coming from, and so with that uniting medicinal mushrooms, okay, great. We know that. There might be something a little bit more specific like bone strength. That's really a value to me. There's osteoporosis in my family, and I really value having nice, strong foundations with my bones.

At that point, you go, "Right. Okay." You might have a really good relationship with the herb Eucommia Bark, or that might be Jing. Jing energy controls. It might be a really valuable thing for you to have Jing rotating through your lifestyle.

Starting combos. The most common starting combo we have is Mason's Mushrooms and Jing. That is because most people are generally exhausted and most people have immune deficiencies and a basic deficiency of adaptogenic herbs and herbs that are generally working on connecting the endocrine system to nervous system, nervous system to liver, et cetera, et cetera. Medicinal mushrooms are those key herbs. That's the most commonplace that people will start. I do like that as a starting combo: Mason's Mushrooms, Jing. Now let's break that down a little bit more.

One of the most ongoingly important things I like for people to be focusing on is having a medicinal mushroom in their diet. That doesn't mean you have to have it every single day, but it's there in rotation. That's why we will see Mason's Mushrooms being a consistent in someone's diet.

Now most commonly people start with two. If you're just starting out, three is the place that I'd probably go, "Oh, I'd stop there," because you want to make sure that you're really connected to what those herbs are doing in your diet. As you move on a little bit more ... Or maybe you're someone that's really tapped into like, "No, I've got many layers of intention. I'm happy going for eight blends and herbs, but I'm going to be sensible with when I use them." You can have many more, but choose generally where people stop. Three most when you're kicking off, or three generally what you're working with strongly at one time. You've got three blends or individual herbs.

One of those is going to be a medicinal mushroom. In my eyes, that's going to be a recommendation. Mason's Mushrooms, as I said. But just say you're starting with two and you're also like, "Yeah, I really want that immunity," which is going to fall into the category of medicinal mushrooms in general, "but I'm also really focused on stress and sleep."

Now if you have the Mason's Mushrooms, you are still going to be tending to those things. Don't worry. You're going to be tending to bringing stress down in the body in a very multidimensional way with the Mason's Mushrooms. But what I would say, if you have that strong intention where it's like, look, sleep, stress, calming my mind, at that point the combo of Jing and Reishi starts becoming a lot more relevant.

Jing remains one of those first things that you want to be working on generally, most of the time, especially if there's exhaustion and especially if there's excessive stress, because it's going to be working on the kidneys and the adrenals and the stress hormones and really making sure that that foundational part of the body is intact, so that the HPA axis is in place, basically so that your endocrine system and then down the path, your circadian rhythm can get just a bit healthier, so that your body can manage stress and bring itself back into harmony. If that's really a focus, we see Reishi and Jing being a strong focus. At that point you see people will have a Jing in the morning and then a Reishi at night.

Another combo that's quite common is people are like, "Well, I'm not exhausted, but I really like to work on radiance. I want to shine a little bit more. I want qi circulating through my body a little bit more. At that point we might not need to focus on Jing as much, but I still like a Jing herb being in there. How does that happen?" Well, you get the Mason's Mushrooms or Reishi. You've got that mushroom aspect down packed. You're going to be toning Jing through, say, Reishi or turning Jing to an extent with that Mason's Mushrooms, just not as strongly with the intent of the Jing blend.

But then with that radiance and that flow of qi intention, maybe Beauty Blend is that other combo that you bring into the fold. Then at that point it might be Mason's Mushrooms and Beauty Blend or Reishi and Beauty Blend. Or let's say in that mushroom category, you are like, "Yeah, but I'm really focused on the nervous system and the brain." Okay, then maybe that mushroom can be the Lion's Mane mushroom. It's still going to cover a lot of immunological factors. It's still going to cover a lot of gut health factors as we do with the mushrooms, and Beauty Blend. We go for that combo.

That also is a good combo we see coming up a lot. Jing. When someone's really exhausted, they start with that blend and they're like, "But I want to focus on the brain." Great. Well, you've focused on the kidneys. That's a great place to start because the kidneys do govern the brain marrow. Then you're layering in Lion's Mane as your mushroom factor.

They are some examples of where people will start. Just remember there's a "can't go wrong" when you're starting out with these tonic herbs, so just have fun. Just dive in. At the same time we've got an article I will put in the show notes, which just goes over once again what tonic herbs are and how to come at it from a place of intention, or what do I value, therefore, what am I going to cultivate and generate more of, and let that be the driving force of how you choose your herbs.

At the same time email, call, reach out to me on Instagram, and I'll help you with that initial point. Or where do I go next? Because at that point when you've rebuilt your immune system, you've rebuilt your Jing, and you're flying a little bit and you're like, "Right. Well, what do I do next? Where do I want to go? What do I work on?" that's when you really get to have a play around with your intention. Feel free to reach out at that point as well.

Now I want to go through a couple little common "how to use" questions. I'm just going to have a little drink here. I'm traveling through China. It's so good to be getting back on fresh spring water. I'm feeling so hydrated already. My cells were like, "Yes!" How to use. Now the thing with tonic herbs is ... Where do I start? There are so many different questions. I'm going to go over some basics.

First of all, they're not heat-sensitive. You can put them in hot dishes, hot tonics. Second thing is I like them ... I think they're more effective when they're in a hot tonic. Just say you've got Jing and Mason's Mushrooms or Neural Nectar, Lion's Mane, Chaga, Astragalus, any of these kinds of things. My favorite way is going to be putting it in a hot tonic.

Easiest way to do that, in hot water, maybe with a little bit of sweetener, if you want a dash of nut milk. You don't need to. You can just have it straight with hot water and drink it that way. Or you can add it to your coffee or you can make a hot chocolate with it. I'm going to be putting a link in the show notes of some basic recipes of some of our favorite hot tonic elixirs to really get you up on how you can make something like that.

Now side notes, Schizandra and the Beauty Blend, their flavor profile is a little bit different, a little bit more tartness, a little bit more sourness to the Mason's Mushrooms or the Jing. You can put them in with hot chocolates and coffees and these kinds of things, but palate-wise, you're going to have to be a little bit more onto it. It's generally not our preference.

We like seeing Schizandra and Beauty Blend especially in a warm lemon water in the morning or you can add it to a smoothie or you can blend it into a juice or something in that world, just because it's just ... If you've got Schizandra or Beauty Blend, just go try a little bit, put it in your mouth, know what you're working with, because a lot of people have just gone, "Oh, Schizandra. Tonic herbs go with hot chocolates. Great," they whack a big teaspoon in. You'll see when you do it. But don't get me wrong. I do love Schizandra in chocolate. You've just got to have your finger on the pulse.

Yes, I generally think morning is the best time to have these herbs, generally because compliance is key. That's the time you are going to take to create a hot drink for yourself.

Now when you get to that afternoon, oh, I'm starting to get a little bit of a slump here. Normally, people there are going for something that's caffeinated to perk them up. Of course, I'm not the biggest fan of someone having caffeine in the afternoon or after midday.

What I would recommend at that point, if you feel like you are chronically exhausted, chronic exhaustion, it's going to be a Jing deficiency, I would like to see you in the afternoon having something like the Jing blend or an individual Jing herb, which is going to be something like Cordyceps, Eucommia, He Shou Wu, if you have any of those. They are really wonderful to have in the afternoon if you feel like you are exhausted and you need to pull the reserves back into the kidneys so you have the foundations to stand up internally and have the energy to get through the day.

Those three Jing herbs, I was just talking about them: Eucommia, Cordyceps, and He Shou Wu. They are in the Jing blend. Whether you've got the individual or the blend, have something like that, if you feel that you are not in that place where you have Jing deficiency and where you're exhausted. In that sense, it's going to be more of a little bit of a mental exhaustion thing. It's just that you need that little bit of vitality. You need to breathe a little bit of life in your body.

That's going to be focusing more on the treasure of qi. If you're at that point, I like to see the afternoon tonic being something that is more of a qi focus. Does that mean it's bad to have a Jing blend? No, it doesn't. I'm just trying to refine and get you experimenting with these different energies in your body.

At that point, a qi herb is going to be the Mason's Mushrooms is a wonderful blend of herbs that work on the qi and the vitality, basically taking the chemicals in the blood in your body and helping move them around, helping them permeate the capillaries, so you have that, "Oh, yeah. All right. Come on. I'm dancing now," and you can get through that day.

Another primary one is Astragalus or Astragalus Root. That's the same herb. Astragalus, Astragalus. It's just one of those things that people communicate it in different ways. They have different ways, but I like to say it both ways. That is a primary qi herb, wonderful one to have during those afternoons.

Another beautiful blend that will really give you that get up and go in the afternoon is the Beauty Blend. That's because Schizandra and the longan, heavily qi-based, heavily energetic-based, vitality-based, and will get you going through that day.

Now at night time, one of the most common questions we get is: what can I take for a nice deep sleep? If you are one of these people that were focused on bringing through really deep sleep and also really focused on working on stress, working on mental stress and bringing that down in the body, you might have been someone that got Reishi.

Reishi is primarily used for us at night. It doesn't mean it's not good in the morning. It doesn't mean you can't have a dose in the morning and a dose at night. But we find it most effective to have in the evening, maybe just in a little bit of hot water and drink it down. Maybe in a chamomile tea, which we heavily like at the same time. Reishi at night is a really wonderful way to get you in your body, get you out of a head space, calm your nervous system, and it really does this beautifully with a nice deep sleep, especially with a calminitive like chamomile, if you're having a tea like that.

A lot of people ask, "Can I have Mason's Mushrooms at night?" or, "Can I have Jing at night?" The short answer, yes with an "if". Long answer, no with a "but", if I may Reverend Lovejoy you there. Yes, you can, especially if you've been taking these herbs for a long time and you've had the effects really wash through your body in that sense where you don't feel, like when you take Mason's Mushrooms or you take Jing, that you get a big rush of energy, which happens for some people in the beginning, especially actually with both Mason's Mushrooms and with Jing. People will feel like, "My gosh, I'm charging with energy here."

Now that is going to mean you have started mobilizing fluid flow and qi flow through particular organ lines. If there's been a deficiency, you're going to be really feeling that. Some people go, "Are these things stimulants?" They're absolutely not stimulants. That can just be the feeling when you get on to something like this and you start really breathing life back into organ function. It can feel like it is a stimulant.

After a week or two weeks or a month, that is going to go away. Not to the extent that you won't feel it and you won't feel good, it'll just be ... And this is where you want to be getting, where it's a little bit more of a subtle, "Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm just putting the fuel back in for me to be the best person possible."

Now if you're at that point, you go for it at night, Mason's Mushrooms, Jing. For a lot of people, even a qi tonic, like Astragalus. I like having that at night. It really helps me get into a deep sleep state. But it's just good to experiment. Reishi, absolutely. Go for it.

Sometimes even then, people need to work for a couple of weeks or a couple of months to really allow Reishi to do its thing on the heart physical organ, on the etheric, heart organ, on the shin, to bring it back into balance. If you are feeling a little bit agitated, keep on going. Maybe lower the dose, but just keep on going, get back into balance, and then feel free to be taking these herbs at night.

Now let's get into dosage. When you start out, we generally say start with quarter to half a teaspoon. Then generally work up from there over a week or a couple of weeks to a rough teaspoon dosage. Now if you're a little bit more sensitive, a half teaspoon dosage, especially with the herb that's quite potent, like Reishi mushroom.

It's quite potent, which I now know why because I just visited the farm and saw the area of the Dabie Mountains and felt what's pouring into the reishi there. Also, a little bit more bitter due to the way that we grow them, more medicine. Maybe it'll be half teaspoon of Reishi. But generally it's going to be a good teaspoon of Mason's Mushrooms or Beauty Blend or Lion's Mane or Neural Nectar that you're going to eventually sit in.

Remember that eventually you are also going to get to the point where your instincts kick in, in the same way that when you wake up in the morning do I feel like a chai? Do I feel like a coffee? Do I feel like a tea? Or what kind of food do I feel like today? That's a very visceral, obvious feeling that we have. It will get there with your herbs at the same time in terms of do I feel like a little bit? Do I feel like a lot? Do I feel like having this herb? Maybe not. That does come with long-term usage.

Now what I just described there, starting with quarter to half a teaspoon, maybe getting up to a teaspoon, that's a maintenance dose. Now when people first get onto these herbs, or at some point in the long-term usage, a lot of people will feel like ... I get this question like, "How much can I take of Jing?" or, "How much can I take of Mason's Mushrooms? Because far out, I'm loving it. I just want to have two or three every day. Is this too much?" It's a really good question. That's a good thing to ask.

Again, the short answer is, no, there's not too much. But what you are doing is you are doing more of a megadose. When you are really ... Your body will be feeling, "Wow! I'm being topped up here. I've been deficient, and these herbs are helping me overcome that deficiency within, say, my adrenal glands, adaptability within my endocrine system and my nervous system. I can come back and be optimal." Your body may go, "Give me that Jing, damn it."

At that point, especially if you're exhausted, get up to a good two teaspoons, a heap teaspoons if you want one in the morning, one in the afternoon, really get that deficiency sorted, get those symptoms out of the way on a constitutional level. Same with the Mason's Mushrooms. People are like, "Oh, my gosh. I feel like this is a primordial food I've been missing for so long. I'm just craving it. I'm thinking about it." Go with that. Really feel like why am I feeling that I trust it? Go through your megadose.

That's what I did in the beginning. I trusted it. I was doing tablespoons of Chaga and Reishi every day, and then later He Shou Wu. Then, at some point, I want you to let go of the concept that you have to be taking megadoses or these huge doses for it to be effective. At some point you will top the body and the cells and the receptors, et cetera, back up through these herbs. Then you want to shift to a maintenance dose.

Just reminding you for that megadose for that healing point. Maybe you're not healing. Maybe it's not even symptoms. Maybe it's something like you feel like your intention's strong about starting to make a constitutional shift in your body, starting to make a shift of how the epigenetic signal will go for you and how your genes are going to express over your life. You might've been doing megadosing for that intention through something like Lion's Mane working on the nervous system and the brain.

Eventually, remember, you don't have to do that megadose long term. Eventually, you will shift back into a maintenance dose from that half teaspoon to a teaspoon, because long-term usage is the intention and the key. That's not sustainable when you are doing megadoses generally, and I mean generally, over a year or a decade's span. I hope that's clear.

Sleep at night. I get this question so often. I just covered it then. "What's the best herbs to be taking at night for a deep sleep? Can I take Jing at night?" I did just cover those. Reishi is the one you want to be having at night. Jing at night, can you? Yeah, it is good at night. Just make sure that you are not in the middle of that recalibration process.

"Can you take mushrooms if you have an auto immune issue?" I get this one a lot. Now short answer is yes. However, I want you to be working with a practitioner. I'm also going to be talking with a good friend of mine this week. I'm going to start inviting him onto the podcast to address specific herbs and basically doing a podcast monograph or a deep look into an individual herb like reishi mushroom.

I am going to share from my experience medicinal mushrooms, adaptogenic herbs, and autoimmune conditions of various types. I'm bringing him in. We've been talking about this for many years, and we're going to be looking at immune pathways and how a herb like reishi and medicinal mushrooms in general work in an autoimmune condition.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend unless you really know your body. I've done incredible amount of research just going and guzzling medicinal mushrooms, but at the same time I would be speaking to your practitioner or doing my research. I'm going to be giving you next week a lot of resources for you to go and do that research.

"Can children take the herbs?" Absolutely. Now let me maybe start with pregnancy. We get that question a lot. "I'm pregnant. What herbs can I be taking? Can I take all of the herbs?" Now we, generally, on a very public forum will stick to recommending the two most time-tested herbs that have the most literature written about them in an ancient documented sense: Reishi mushroom and Eucommia. High safety ratings when it comes to pregnancy. They're the two that I recommend. Reishi for general immunity, also keeping stress out, and generally keeping the body adaptive. Eucommia Bark for bringing the Jing herbs into the body, into their life, because exhaustion does come about.

People go, "Oh, my gosh. Can I take the Jing?" Yeah, you can take the Jing. I'm more comfortable with people taking Eucommia Bark, women taking Eucommia Bark during pregnancy. That is one of the primary Jing herbs. It's a yang herb, primary yang herb. It also tones yin. If there is exhaustion, that's what I'd focus on. Clinically, it's used to tone the uterus and really lock in, ground in the pregnancy.

It's also a wonderful immunological herb. When you bring Jing into the body, at that point, greater foundations for immunity are possible. It's an incredible herb for surface immunity. Between Reishi and Eucommia, I really liked that combo.

I have had women take every single one of my herbs and my blends. I would say go for it if you are feeling it, with the exception of Neural Nectar because it does have mucuna in there and ginkgo. Ginkgo is still a tonic, but on the edge of being a tonic. That's probably the one that I'd say don't go for the Neural Nectar during pregnancy. But everything else, I mean even with the Deer Antler, I've had so many moms go, "I feel like I need that herb."

Now, clinically, they use it when there's an underdeveloping fetus. On the other side of that, a lot of areas that use deer antler velvet will use it to create a really strong foundations of the body in order to grow that fetus and also to really encourage strong growth. Now I'm not going to come out and say but that's my recommendation, but if you are feeling it, talk to us because there is an appropriate usage.

If you haven't been cleansing and detoxing your body heavily prior to pregnancy, I wouldn't be introducing a whole lot of herbs that are going to mobilize possibly a lot of toxicity. Now although that risk is very low with tonic herbalism, you still obviously want to be very tender at that time. Definitely talk to us, but at the same time feel safe. I hope I've communicated that effectively. All right, again, now postpartum, I should cover that. I didn't even talk about whether kids can take these. Let me go rewind and go back to that point.

Postpartum, I want to say after ... We get the question so often, "Can you take these herbs when breastfeeding?" Yes, go for it. Again, Neural Nectar would be the one. I actually don't agree with the fact that mucuna is a poor herb to be having during that breastfeeding time. There was some data that came out that showed it inhibited prolactin, which is the hormone that helps produce breast milk. There is also a lot of data that flies in the face of that, I feel, poorly interpreted piece of data. But at the same time, I would say, just to stay safe, be off the Neural Nectar. If you are working on the brain and the nervous system during that postpartum and breastfeeding stage, stick to Lion's Mane as the herb that you go for, and Jing herbs, because, as I said before, they have the foundations for the brain marrow. That's that Jing, the kidneys.

Now postpartum, Jing, you need to get on Jing herbs. You need to start walking in the energy of the body that was lost or depleted during that childbearing year and pregnancy. Jing herbs are my favorite to do that. I also am a big fan of having little stints of using deer antler velvet postpartum to really lock that in.

The other side I want to be getting women onto is Schizandra. It is constitutionally toning the astringent nature of the body so we can regulate the fluids that we're holding and releasing and really focus on holding sexual fluids and toning the body and replenishing sexual fluids. Schizandra is a wonderful herb for that. Jing herbs and Schizandra is definitely on that postpartum protocol with the medicinal mushroom in there, like Reishi, nice general one, but feel free to get on the Mason's Mushrooms at the same time. All right, just going to quench.

Children, when should you start introducing herbs? Now when you do start introducing herbs into children, they don't need much, but when they start showing an interest in eating food, when they start becoming a little bit more comfortable with eating food, at that point we feel comfortable with getting a little dab of powder and just popping that in the mouth.

That's what we did with [Aya 00:42:11] at about six or seven months, when she started showing an interest in food and she started sucking on a jackfruit at that age and started munching down food. We just put a dip of Reishi and give her that. Now Reishi is definitely the safest and it is definitely, if you're creating a Reishi baby, that's the one you want to focus on.

Children don't need Jing really. Now after one, after about one year, a one-year-old kid, you can start introducing other tonic herbs as they start consuming more of the meals and drinks that you have, not with a caffeine in it, of course. But the tonics that you have that already have herbs in there, you can start introducing the kids. You'll start introducing these herbs into their meals by mushing them into their meals or whatever they're eating.

They don't need Jing. Now that doesn't mean that Jing herbs are necessarily bad for kids, but at the same time they just don't eat it. They're so dripping and so full of it. What they need is immunity and qi. Reishi mushrooms, a wonderful immunological herb for kids. I'd focus on that. Mason's Mushrooms after one, very comfortable. I was very comfortable giving that to little baby Aya.

I also really focused on Astragalus. Now Astragalus is one that Taoist doctors and healers have been focusing on giving children for a very long time, because it's so protective, so immunological, so focused on surface immunity. That's what children are lacking and trying to develop in their immune system is that protective layer and that protective force. Obviously, we want children to be giving their immune systems a workout. We don't want to be shielding from the earth, from external factors. Using tonic herbs to just help tone their ability to develop their own nice, strong immune system is a good way to do it. Astragalus, definitely a favorite of mine, used to treat the hundred diseases of childhood, as they say in Taoist literature. That is my focus. Where am I now? I'm going to get to a couple of other questions.

Now samples. Do we have samples? Our sample size is the 50 grams. That's the one. If you want to have a little go at tonic herbs and medicinal mushrooms, get a 50-gram jar and try and throw that down. We definitely recommend, if you're like, "Right. I'm going to get on the Jing," or, "I'm going to get on the mushies," I definitely recommend you go for at least 100 grams so that you can get something like 77 serves out of that, if you're going about a half teaspoon. At that point, you're going to have enough to really start accumulating those benefits and get a feel of what they do, 100 grams being that minimum.

Then we start going, we're looking at 50 grams and 100 grams possibly being that starting point, 50 grams being the sample. It's still in the sexy ultraviolet Miron glass jar, as is the 100 grams. They look amazing. They're ultra protective. It's very sophisticated glass that we are using there that we sourced especially from the Netherlands.

Do not throw them out. I've said this on a podcast before. Every time you throw one of those jars out, a mushroom fairy dies. Nobody wants a mushroom fairy die. It's not like in Hook, the movie, where Robin Williams as Peter Pan is just told by Julia Roberts, Tinkerbell, that you can just clap harder and you bring a fairy back to life. No. Don't throw out the jars. The mushroom fairy is dead for good if you do.

Now, of course, I'm joking, just in case some of you ... Because a lot of us here believe in fairies. But those jars are very precious. What I want you to do is either ... If you have a 50-gram or 100-gram, you either hold onto those jars. The next time you stock up, you might be like, "Well, I'm comfortable I'm going to be taking Mason's Mushrooms or Jing or Reishi for a while," start getting, say, a 250-gram bag or bigger, if it's available to you.

I know it's not realistic for some, but basically when I was starting out, I wanted to be able to get access to bulk herbs as just a lay person. I was just on tonic herbs, and so I wanted bulk bags. I generally couldn't find it. That's why at SuperFeast, I still have 250-gram jars, up to a kilo. You can get a kilo of herbs just for yourself. What the practice is there is you keep your jars and you top it up with your big bags.

Now how do you store those? You want to make sure you are storing your herbs in a place where they're going to stay cool, that's a dark place, especially if you've got big bags, where no moisture is going to get in. Ideally, a nice dark place. Now if you live somewhere that is quite humid, or you've got to watch it if you use a wet spoon in your bag or in your jar, the powders are going to be more prone to hardening up.

If you've got, say, a 250-gram bag or a kilo, and you know where you are, it gets a little bit humid, feel free to keep it in the fridge, even if you have 50-gram jars and 100-gram jars and you know it's really stinking humid, if you're in far north Queensland, or even to an extent, here sometimes in Byron Bay where we are. It's going to be a bit more of a slow process. But if you know the jars are going to be hanging out there and not being used, because that's the thing, that's when it could possibly happen that it hardens up, when it's humid, and they're not being used. Feel free to put them in the fridge. That's going to keep them nice and fresh. Even if you put them in the freezer, it's not going to deplete how well they work. Feel free to do that.

Now if you are in a place where you are only able to get 50-gram jars and 100-gram jars, and you start accumulating jars, what you want to be doing at that point is you want to be delabeling your jars once you're done. Before you delabel it, when you empty a jar and you buy a bunch of others, pour in your hot tonic into the jar. Use your jar as the last vessel you use in order to have that home, because that'll have those little particles and dust of herbs, and you don't want those going to waste. Just pour your hot tonic in and either use the jar as a vessel or pour it back into the blender. That way there's absolutely no powder wasted.

Now if you're not buying bulk bags and you're not filling that jar back up, you want to maybe soak that jar, delabel it, and keep that Miron jar for storing your fresh herbs, your spices. They look amazing. You present a very beautiful aesthetic to your kitchen using those ultraviolet glass jars. Because it is ultraviolet glass, it really helps protect from light and from oxidation because it keeps all the light that depletes and oxygenates herbs and spices. That's why I use them, that's why I like people to reuse them, upcycle them within their kitchen.

I hope that's clear, everybody. We do not throw away Miron glass jars. I had several that I finished when I was traveling through China, and I brought three of them back. I did not dare throw them out. Never would I dare throw them out. I just hope that you have a nice big collection there, guys, of Miron glass jars.

Now to finish off here, I'm just going to go through and see if there are any questions, because I have gone live here at the same time. Anna Grace, "As a newbie, very interested to learn more about medicinal mushrooms." Beautiful. I hope I've communicated, one, it's great for us to communicate about the medicinal mushrooms and the tonic herbs. I like doing a lot of that.

But I hope I've communicated a lot of the practicalities that's going to lead this to being something that you can actually use long term, because that's something that's often missed out when people are offering tonic herbs and medicinal mushrooms, just as much effort going into how do we consistently use, consistently use, consistently use, how do we make it easy, easy, easy to integrate into our lifestyle, just so there's no speed bumps.

With the medicinal mushrooms and learning more about them, I'm going to put a bunch of articles in the show notes of the podcast. But right now what you can do is go over to superfeast.com.au, go to the blog, and then hit the tab 'Articles'. Now there within 'Articles', you're going to find an article called The Top Five Reasons Why Medicinal Mushrooms are Trending Right Now. There's also a recent mushroom article about the top benefits. We go through all the eight top medicinal mushrooms, the ones that we use in Mason's Mushrooms, and lay down exactly what they're doing in the body, and a bunch of other articles there. You can get in there and really have a good dig around, a good look. If you can't find them, give us a call, email, write to me on Instagram.

"Is there a medicinal mushroom powder for aiding depression?" This is one of those instances, something like depression, tonic herbs and SuperFeast, I'm not going around going we've got treatment for things. These herbs are here to support the foundations of the body, help the foundations of the body heal itself. Not in a treatment sense. I wouldn't be saying, "Yeah, I've got the business for depression. It's this, this, and this." What I would like to see you doing, obviously, is working with a practitioner. You can talk to them about herb, et cetera.

What I would like to see you on in general, just to support the body, is Jing to make sure the body's got the foundations to get a nice array of hormones, sex hormones, keep stress hormones down, and get the rhythm of the endocrine system really healthy. Jing would be where I'd be starting on. If you're feeling really depleted, if you're in a place where, whether it's depression or anxiety or the mind's going nuts and the body's really down and really depleted, you might even want to go purely for a yin herb like He Shou Wu. Jing is a really well rounded yin-yang balanced kidney, adrenal tonic.

It's splitting hairs going for each of them, but sometimes I do just intuitively feel that He Shou Wu might be one worth focusing on because it's so getting into the juice of the tissue, ensuring that it gets nice and mineralized and nice and toned. Either the Jing or He Shou Wu, I'd be focusing on. Then I'd be heavily focusing on Reishi mushroom. It's that other end of the spectrum if there's stress, anything going on with the mind, not as a treatment but as a general support.

I'd like to see Reishi coming into the fold. You can do a Jing in the morning, Reishi at night, and use those dosage recommendations that I've given. I'd use Reishi, yes, before bed. It's also a really wonderful herb to be using in tandem with a nighttime sitting practice or meditation. I hope that answered your question. Work with your GP, and it's good like that.

That's one thing I'd like everyone to be really setting the standard for as practitioners, as customers of practitioners. Get someone that's adaptable and not fossilized in their treatment and that they are actually willing to work with you, and other approaches that you'd like to take for your health.

Another question here. "Interested in finding out if medicinal mushrooms can insist with high blood pressure and diabetes for a friend." Again, not treatment-based. But if I was personally supporting the body, someone's working with a practitioner, and if I was just looking at a lifestyle or diet-related repertoire of herbs to be using, I'd be working specifically with Eucommia Bark for high blood pressure and for diabetes, Chaga mushroom. They're the two that I like to give to support the body when it's going through these conditions. Also, Reishi mushroom, I'd highly recommend for both the blood pressure-related constitutional elements, not for treatment, and for diabetes.

"My intention is for good health and energy. Want to feel happy more, not sad." Such a beautiful intention. I mean there's so much fun that you can have with that one. I love it. I hope a lot that we've covered really speaks to that.

"I love my Jing. I get kids to school, then come home, sit outside in the sun, and slowly sit my time before I start the day." It didn't happen to be a question, but I like that because what you can see is that ritual of whether it's a coffee, whether it's a tea, whether it's hot water with lemon, often that hot drink ritual, we sit down and we take some time to slowly sit our tonic at the start of the day, or sit and have a conversation with a friend, or et cetera, et cetera. It's just ensconced into the way we do things as humans. That's another way to really make it very effective, is this that sit down and have your tonic in a nice, calm space with your feet on the earth.

I'm just going to go through and see if there's some other questions. "Would Reishi be the best for immunity?" If you have been working with someone that's been doing some studies on your immune markers, if there's specific immune deficiencies, we can match you with specific medicinal mushrooms. Of course, not as a practitioner, not as something that I'd say, "Oh, these mushroom's going to lift up that marker," and there are practitioners that do that and have the qualifications to do that, but I can just be like, "I can generally recommend a herb for you then in general health."

But Reishi is an absolute incredible mushroom for immunity. Just where I was in Yunnan province, where I went wild foraging with a guy, Mr. [Han 00:55:46], he was 50-something, he was a local herbalist. If anyone had immune deficiency, he would go out and harvest reishi. He thought it was the best for it. Generally, I'd say the Mason's Mushrooms. If general immunity is your intention, I'd say the Mason's Mushrooms. If, generally, white blood cell count is down and you want to support the body, then I would say Reishi mushrooms specifically. But Mason's Mushrooms, general immunity for the whole family. Yum.

"Reishi with tea. Good idea?" Yeah, because then you're stacking it. You're already drinking a tea. Bang! Whack your herbs in there. Maybe you've got a really cold constitution, you're really cold all the time, and so you're having a ginger tea. Get your herbs into that ginger tea. Why not stack it up?

"Does each mushroom need to be taken individually, or can they be mixed?" Great question. Example, Chaga and Reishi. It's a great question. You can mix them. Go for it. I alluded to the fact before, Michelle, that Schizandra and Beauty Blend. You want to be very aware of the palate of those when mixing it with other herbs. But, generally, go for it. Mix Chaga and Reishi, if you have Chaga, and Mason's Mushrooms. Even though there's Chaga in the Mason's Mushrooms, you really feel like you want to have a double dose of that Chaga, absolutely go for it.

"Do you know if the protein in mushrooms would stop ketosis?" It's getting to the point where it's proven that mushrooms will keep you in ketosis. I would just avoid maybe the Beauty Blend during a ketogenic process or water fasting. But, no, there is nothing, no sugars or proteins that's, at this point, showing that it will throw you out of ketosis. But I'll try and bring some more data for you guys in and around that.

"My daughter has autism. What would you recommend for the plethora of conditions associated with gut health? Already on a clean diet, helped her detox, the chemical shit storm, adrenal, central nervous system. Then what would be your suggestion if on limited budget?" Okay, great question. That is always a good one to bring up is the limited budget.

With autism, I would be very clear, again, from the start that these herbs are ... From our perspective, we're not coming from a position of treatment, but supporting the underlying condition's foundations of the body. I would be focusing on, if it's a limited budget and you're just going to get one thing, Mason's Mushrooms. Mason's Mushrooms is, by far, my favorite when it comes to all around gut health, all around gut support, all around nervous system support, and just basic, general love, general love for the immune system.

Now if I was going to be doing two herbs, two specific herbs, I'd be going for Lion's Mane. That's a beautiful nerve for the nervous system, beautiful herb for the gut, and beautiful herb for the brain. That would be a focus for me.

If then I was going to be getting a second, I'd be focusing on Reishi mushroom. It's going to get deep into the immune system and help the body deal with any fungal issues that are going on. It's also going to be supporting the kidneys to an extent, not as heavily as the Jing, but again, assuming your daughter isn't so old, Jing herbs are good.

Kids, before, say, 14 respond really quickly to a herb such as Reishi mushroom that has slight kidney, adrenal toning capacity. You're not going to need to focus on it so much. That combo, Reishi and Lion's Mane, was what I'd be personally focusing on.

"Is it okay to put your mushies in heat-treated? Will it be affected?" No. It's not heat-affected. They're not heat-sensitive. Absolutely go for it.

Hey, when it comes to tonic herbs, when it comes to long-term usage ... So there's a little something, you might know it. There's a marketing term called "sell the sizzle, not the steak". There's a lot of people here that's going to be more relevant for you to say make that a portobello steak. We can go with that analogy. "Sell the sizzle, not the portobello steak" for some of you.

Now the reason I bring it up is because with your long-term usage of these tonic herbs, you want to be making sure that the sizzle and the steak are being tended to. Now what does that mean? It means that when we are cooking our portobello steak, why do we put time into putting spices on there, making it smell good, making it taste good, making it look good long term when it comes to our diet?

It's because we want to engage our senses. We want to put pride and joy into the food that we're eating. We want the sizzle in that experience. That's why everyone goes into the house when you cook an onion. Somebody goes, "Oh, my gosh. What are you cooking? It smells so good." "I'm just sizzling onions." Because all of a sudden, you're engaged and your palate's engaged and your saliva is flowing and you're ready to digest.

It's the same with tonic herbalism. You want to ensure that you are using these herbs in recipes that are really selling you the sizzle, that lon-term usage. You want to be Trojan horsing them into things like beautiful hot chocolates or chais, or if you're a mom, putting those medicinal mushrooms in something like ... I've worked with moms who have children who have autism. They're like, "The only way I was able to get it into them was through spaghetti bolognese." Go for it.

Now that's the long-term usage. That sizzle at the other same time is your long-term intention. The steak is the usage of the herb. Great. We know the herb, like Reishi, is great. Shen tonic is an immune tonic. It's good for the gut. Great. That's the bulk of what it actually does.

But you need to consistently be selling the sizzle to yourself, which is that long-term. Long term. What do I want to be? Nice, long, healthy life myself. Don't let yourself be sold by a company so much with the marketing campaign that they have a strategy to sell you sizzle and not the steak, but for yourself. Keep on getting in touch with the sizzle of why you're putting these herbs into your body.

I just wanted to touch on that. I hope that made sense, because that just poured out to me. That made a lot of sense in my head. Thank you, Lloyd, for also contributing there and saying that, yes, it was fine with heat. I've got a couple more question. We're going to tie this one up.

"What should I get to add to my smoothie for overall health?" If you've got an overall health intention, I would be starting in two places. I've mentioned it before, Jing is a really good place to get the foundations of the body back and rocking from the kidneys and adrenals. Jing as a blend. Overall health, matching up with that, we're going to need a mushroom in there. The Mason's Mushrooms is where I'd start.

"Can you speak to Reishi as anti-androgenic DHT blocker?" [Rose Willow 01:02:58], I'm going to be bringing this up next week. We release on Tuesday our Reishi special. We're going to be going through that conversation. I've already spoken with my naturopathic friend of going through that as a conversation.

Please tune in between 9:00 and 10:00, probably around 9:30 actually, on Friday. We're going to be recording that episode live. That's going to be on Instagram and Facebook. You can tune into that. Otherwise, we'll be releasing next Tuesday and we will cover that conversation. A couple more questions.

"Is Lion's Mane a stimulant for the brain or for the body? If someone is sensitive to stimulants, could it overstimulate?" Now if you're looking at nootropic, like a herb ... And nootropic is a herb which is classified as a cerebral stimulant. It brings blood flow to the brain.

However, Lion's Mane in that nootropic world is one of the ones which will feel laced like a stimulant. Now if you get something like the Neural Nectar, that blend that we have for the brain for nootropics, no. They're not stimulants, but they are encouraging and helping tone the capacity for the body to circulate blood through the brain. At times it can feel, especially because there's ginkgo biloba leaf in there, especially because there's white peony in there, and mucuna bringing neurotransmitter electromagnetic action to the brain. It can feel quite stimulating at times.

Now I've had that with people that have been taking nootropic pharmaceuticals, and I would just recommended that that is another question I get, like these smart drugs. "Am I able to swap over from a smart drug, a pharmaceutical smart drug, that stimulates the mind and the blood flow in the brain over that and start using herbs?" Yes. I would do that ASAP and get off those pharmaceutical smart drugs. These are smart herbs. Lion's Mane's a smart mushroom? No. Not a stimulant.

If you are going for something like the Neural Nectar, just start with a low dose, because you've got to get used to that circulation going in there. Thank you again, Lloyd, for saying not a stimulant. Thank you for calling me a legend. You are also a legend.

"Autoimmune disease, thyroid underactive. What could help?" I will be talking about autoimmune diseases in next week's podcast, when we talk about Reishi and medicinal mushrooms. We'll be blowing it out and looking at immune pathways.

However, I would start with Jing herbs. If anything going on, especially an underactive thyroid, especially those hypothyroidism, you want to be supporting the adrenals and the foundations, so hopefully the body can bring some balance back to itself.

If you are really feeling sensitive, pure yin herb, He Shou Wu, for the adrenals and the kidneys. Start there if you're feeling not so sensitive to Jing blend in general. You can't go wrong between them. Then, yes, Lloyd agreeing that the ginkgo gives a bit of a rush. That it does.

Thank you, everybody, for contributing. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Be sure to leave a comment. I've got lots of notes in the show notes for you to be going and having some fun with. I will see you next week.

Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Now time to take that information, round it into your lifestyle so you can amplify your health to the next level.

You can really help amplify the health of this podcast by going onto iTunes and subscribing and leaving us a review. It really helps us spread this information around tonic herb, around sovereign health further out there to the community, so we can help more people experience the best out of this life. Thanks, guys. I'll speak to you next time.