



Life comes at you fast—one day, you're happily sitting at the kid's table inhaling mashed potatoes without a care in the world, and the next you find yourself thinking, "He's making some valid points," during the first half of A Christmas Carol ("Bah humbug," indeed!). In adulthood, the entire holiday season is basically like being stuck inside Trader Joe's on the day they release their seasonal products—exciting and even magical, but also chaotic and potentially expensive. But coping doesn’t have to involve a flask, a fight, or taking flight; if you’re looking for healthy ways to temper stress over the next few weeks, you might want to stuff your stocking—or stock your stuffing—with reishi, lion’s mane, and cordyceps.
These three mushrooms have been used for thousands of years in Eastern medicine. They're adaptogenic, which means they help your body naturally moderate stress sans RX. Each of the three has its own stress-fighting superpowers, too.
Reishi mushrooms, for example, contain bioactives that can help combat stress by improving your sleep quality, lessening fatigue and irritability, and lowering your blood pressure. Lion's mane—affectionately known as the pom pom mushroom because it, well, looks exactly like a pom pom—has been shown to help alleviate depression and anxiety, improve sleep quality, boost cognition, and reduce inflammation (often caused by stress!). The third shroom, cordyceps, is also known for its anti-inflammatory benefits, and it contains compounds that provide a (likely much-needed) boost of energy, too.
Incorporating these shrooms into your routine this holiday season can help you cope with all shopping and baking and gathering and oh sh*t, I forgot about this scene in Love Actually and now I'm stuck watching it next to my grandmother that comes along with this, the most wonderful time of year—so you can actually enjoy its wonder. Shop our favorite stress-relieving mushroom products below to help save your sanity this season.
Clinical herbalist and licensed nutritionist Lindsay Kluge’s passion for nature led her to a lifetime of healing with herbs. The US Herbal Educator at Pukka swears by this mushroom broth, which can be laced into your dishes as suggested above or sipped solo.
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Chef Anne Thornton, founder of Plant Reset and co-host of a recent mycelium-themed dinner at Los Angeles’s NeueHouse, offers a vegan mushroom escargot. “I love to serve this with a fresh baguette or Spanish glass bread—pan de cristal—but it’s also delicious on sourdough, ciabatta, or any non-sweet bread,” Thornton says. “This dish can also be served with pasta as a main course or on mashed potatoes for the gluten-free crowd. It’s just all-around delicious!”
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Ayurvedic enthusiast and Houston-based chef Mayank Istwal is making a name for himself at his buzzy fine dining Indian concept, Musaafer, where he incorporates medicinal ingredients and Indian superfoods into all of his dishes. His mushroom ceviche, simplified below for the home cook, is one of the restaurant's most-ordered items and makes for an excellent vegan side that is hearty, flavorful, grounding, and packed with nutrients.
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