Cutting-Edge Millie Gram Goes Nuts with Mystical Ancient Mushrooms

(Gerry Furth-Sides) You might say that foresty mushrooms are having a new “moment in the sun.” This new incarnation arrives as a lush, healthy snack food and spread.  

Millie Gram answers the current search for a new portable form of basic, functional, healthy foods with mushroom-nut butters and pastes. It is not by chance that the paste also happens to taste as satisfying, if not more, as any candy bar out there because of its natural sweetness and flavors.

Millie Gram is currently launching exclusively in LA.   The name comes from the milligram amount of mushrooms used for the nut butters. The butters and spreads are gluten-free, non-GMO and vegetarian, The 8 oz  jars and convenient  1.12 oz portable tubes are a perfect portable, easy snack and energy pick-me-up. Currently Millie Grams are available in LA at 14 Gelson’s stores and online. Check //www.milliegram.com to learn more.

The winning combination butter combined with nuts in a Matcha base. It can be squeezed out of a small tube or from a bottle as a spread or straight. Millie Gram in this way makes good their claim “to have found a delicious way to ‘snackify’ mushrooms.”

I love it.  It continues the evolutionary spin of mushrooms, made famous by French chefs as a key haute cuisine ingredient, in Japan as a favorite accompiament to dishes as luxurious as Wagyu steak, and around the world in dishes  as homey as a green bean cassarole. 

Millie Gram also continues a fascination which mushrooms have exerted over humans since the dawn of civilization.  In ancient Egypt, mushrooms were so highly prized they were served exclusively to Pharohs.  Romans considered mushrooms as the “food of the gods.” So they saved mushrooms for esteemed warriors.

A nut butter is simply made by grinding nuts into a tasty, healthy paste. The high fat content makes it spread as easily as dairy butter, though unrelated.  Cashew  as a popular choice is a key ingredient in Millie Gram‘s Matcha Cashew Spread with Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Maitake and Shitake. 

And with the consistency of peanut butter,  Millie Gram‘s Power Nut Butter’s Matcha Cashew Spread can be eaten a variety of ways.  Like peanut butter, I love it straight out of its little tub. A tablespoon or two becomes a powerful, singular portable snack. We also love it on apple slices, or on a cracker or toast for breakfast. 

 Millie Gram’s combination of ultra healthy ingredients solves  the problem of mushrooms traditionally associated with the off-putting taste of medicinal properties.   Chaga, for example, has the taste and texture of tree bark. 

Edible mushrooms are not only nutritious but low in calories, making a great complement to the nut butters. They are rich in protein and fiber, and a good source of B vitamins as well as minerals such as potassium, copper and selenium.   

Mushrooms also contain unusually high amounts of the antioxidants ergothioneine and glutathione, according to a 2017 study conducted at Pennsylvania State University published in the journal Food Chemistry. Antioxidants are known for protecting cells from damage associated with diseases such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

And, mushrooms do indeed have at least one astonishing “magical” property, one that they share with humans but not plants.  They are able to convert ultraviolet light from the sun into vitamin D.   This makes mushrooms one of the rare dietary sources of this essential vitamin other than a few types of fatty fish and fortified dairy products.

Cordyceps, only one of the several mushrooms in each type of nut butters,  easily proves the health benefits.   Cordyceps have been shown  to improve measures of exercise performance in older and younger amateur athletes.   Research suggests that it also has:

• anti-aging properties;
• potential to treat cancer, as well as some cancer treatment side effects 
• capability of lowering blood sugar levels; diabetes treatment benefits
• heart health benefits by helping prevent arrhythmias and lowering levels of triglycerides and “bad” LDL cholesterol
• anti-inflammatory properties, officially recognized in China

Matcha Tea improves health because it:

• is high in antioxidants because it is rich in catechins, a class of plant compounds in tea that act as natural antioxidants
• acts to protect the liver
• boosts brain function
• may yelp prevent and help fight cancer because is high in a catechin called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), believed to have cancer-fighting effects on the body 
• helps prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes by encouraging weight loss

Everyone agrees that mushrooms are delicious, nutritious and exotic.  However, according to the Los Angeles Mycological Society (LAMS), “The fact is that there are many excellent, easily identifiable edible wild mushrooms. There are also deadly poisonous species that every collector should be familiar with. However, there are no simple rules that can reliably tell you which mushrooms are poisonous and which are edible…. and the best way to learn these characteristics is to go collecting with experts who can teach them to you.   

Better yet, eat them in Millie Gram.