There are an abundance of functional mushroom products hitting the shelves these days, and some of them are actually using either a combination of mycelium and fruiting bodies or just the mycelium itself. We're big believers that the fruiting bodies are where most of the goodness lies. Mycelium is the vegetative part of the fungus which grows in a labyrinthine mass underground. This mass doesn’t have nearly the high levels of potent compounds that are found within the fruiting bodies, and when it is cultivated in a controlled environment and harvested for functional mushroom wellness products, mycelium is often injected into grains (rice, oats, sorghum etc.). What you end up with is not only a less potent presentation of the fungus, but all the starch of the substrate too. This results in far less of the mycological superheroes, such as beta glucans and triterpenoids, which are responsible for most of the antioxidant, neuroprotective and health-promoting properties of the mushrooms. Where these are found in the greatest density is, you guessed it, the fruiting bodies of the mushrooms themselves.