Mushrooms: the latest health trend is centuries old

Published March 2, 2023

Mushrooms. So hot right now.

And apparently, they always have been.

Egyptians ate mushrooms to live longer. The ancient Greeks consumed mushrooms ceremonially for their visionary benefits. Certain Vikings used mushrooms before battle to render themselves “bloodthirsty and invincible.”

The Mexica referred to mushrooms as the “flesh of the gods.” The last Aztec ruler, Montezuma II, is said to have eaten copious amounts when crowned.

Mushrooms have a long medicinal history in Asia as well, one that continues today. But many people have only recently discovered it as a potential health aid.

In the 1950’s, mushroom tourism began to boom in Mexico with María Sabina, a Mazatec shaman. The husband-and-wife team R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson publicized their experiences meeting María Sabina and trying psilocybin mushrooms with her in magazines like Life, and it attracted a psychedelically hungry group of scientists, hippies and rock stars to the village of Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, to meet her.

By 1969, as the counterculture used and advocated for psychedelics, magic mushrooms started becoming illegal worldwide. The U.S. and other countries banned psychotropic mushroom medical research, a ban that remained in place until fairly recently.

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