Science & Process
The Health Lovers Standard
Not all mushrooms are created equal.
Discover our standards and methods on sourcing, extraction and potency - verified, not assumed.
1. +35% Beta-Glucans - Standardised for What Matters
Our promise: uncompromising quality and exceptional experience.
Most mushroom supplements list "total polysaccharides" - a broad number that includes beta-glucans, but also starch, which occurs naturally in the grain many budget products are grown on. A high polysaccharide number can mean very little if most of it isn't beta-glucan.
We test specifically for beta-glucans, using a dedicated beta-glucan-specific assay rather than the broader, less meaningful polysaccharide measure - because it's the number that actually reflects potency. Every extract is standardised to +35% beta-glucans per serving, roughly 3x the beta-glucan content of some leading mushroom extracts, concentrated through a 16:1 extraction ratio - 16kg of raw fruiting body reduced down to every 1kg of extract we use
2. 100% organic
We spent 18 months in R&D meticulously sourcing the most ethical organic farms and accredited laboratories to create the cleanest organic functional mushroom supplements. Every ingredient is carefully selected to support both your health and the planet.
All Health Lovers products are proudly certified organic under BDA UK and EU regulations, ensuring our mushroom supplements in the UK meet the highest standards of purity and sustainability.
Grown wild. Made clean.
3. Fruiting bodies only; pure extracts, maximum efficiency
Not all mushroom supplements come from the same part of the mushroom. Many budget products are grown on grain and harvested as "mycelium" - the root-like structure, still attached to the starchy grain it grew on - rather than the fruiting body, which is the actual mushroom and where the concentration of beneficial compounds like beta-glucans is highest.
The difference matters because mycelium-on-grain products can legally list "mushroom" on the label while delivering a fraction of the active compound content, diluted with leftover starch. We use only fruiting bodies, dual-extracted to draw out their full compound profile - nothing grown on grain, nothing counted as "mushroom" that technically isn't the mushroom itself.
The result is highly potent, bioavailable extracts, standardised to deliver over 35% beta-glucans, the key compounds behind the benefits of adaptogenic mushrooms.
4. Transparency, traceability & third-party testing
Every batch of every Health Lovers extract is independently tested by Eurofins, one of the world's largest and most accredited testing laboratories, for beta-glucan content, purity and contaminant screening. We don't self-report potency - a third party measures it, batch by batch, and the result either matches what's on the label or the batch doesn't ship.
We're certified organic under both BDA UK and EU regulations and our mushrooms are vegan, halal and kosher - all extracted in the highest quality standard BRCGS facilities.
"The Longevity vitamin": Ergothioneine; a rare, powerful mushroom compound
Functional mushrooms contain a compound found almost nowhere else in the human diet. Ergothioneine is a naturally occurring, sulfur-containing antioxidant - and unlike the vitamins and minerals most people are familiar with, the human body has no pathway to produce it. It has to come from what you eat, and mushrooms are by far the richest source available.
What makes ergothioneine unusual isn't just its rarity. The body carries a dedicated transporter protein, OCTN1, whose specific role is to absorb ergothioneine from the digestive tract and distribute it to tissues where oxidative stress does the most damage over time - the liver, kidneys, eyes and red blood cells. A transporter this specific is rare in nutritional science, and it's part of why biochemist Bruce Ames proposed ergothioneine as a "longevity vitamin" in his 2018 research on long-term cellular health.
It's this kind of detail that shapes how we source and extract our mushrooms. Compounds like ergothioneine, much like beta-glucans, are easy for a low-effort extraction method to miss entirely. Our process is built to draw out the full range of what these mushrooms actually contain - not just the parts that are easiest to isolate.
35% polysaccharides
35% beta-glucans
Concentrated 16:1 ratio
Why Mushrooms? Why Now?
Mushrooms aren’t a trend. They’re nature’s oldest adaptogens, and they actually work.
Functional mushrooms have traditionally been used for over 2000 years for their incredible healing properties and ability to help rebalance the nervous system.
Today with innovative and precise extraction processes, we're able to pair science with tradition to create truly exceptional concentrated extracts.
The results are pure and potent mushroom extracts that are highly bioavailable and effective - to properly support everyday modern living.