Mushroom-related research in recent decades has often studied the effects of beta-glucans, which are a class of polysaccharides characterized by beta-1,3, beta-1,4, or beta-1,6 glycosidic bonds of D-glucose monomers, with branches at the 1-4 or 1-6 positions.  A glycosidic bond is a strong covalent bond between two -OH (hydroxyl) groups from two or more different saccharides (sugars). The term beta-glucan thus refers to a diverse array of different glucose polymers, each with unique physical properties. Beta-glucans have three types of 3D conformational structures when dissolved: a single helix, triple helix, or random coil. Beta-glucans make up much of the cell walls of fungi and bacteria, and are also present in the endosperm of grains such as barley and oats.

Alpha-glucans consist of stored sugars such as glycogen and triglycerides in the body, while cellulose is an insoluble beta-1-4 polysaccharide that is largely indigestible for humans and an example of how all beta-glucans are not the same and why not all beta-glucans are metabolically relevant. The simple way to describe mushroom beta-glucans is as a grouping of dietary fibers, and the definition of a dietary fiber is, at least, simpler than the above concepts: a dietary fiber is a carbohydrate that cannot be completely broken down by the digestive system. One gram of fat contains nine calories, one gram of protein and one gram of carbohydrates both contain four calories, while soluble fibers are fermented by bacteria in the large intestine and provide an estimated two calories per gram. Insoluble fibers pass through the digestive tract undigested and thus have zero calories. Oat and cereal beta-glucans have been a subject of research for many years, and both the FDA and the European Commission have authorized health claims for oat beta-glucan with regards to lowering blood LDL cholesterol. However, the beta-glucans in mushrooms have not been as well-studied and there is, as of yet, no permissions or guidance on making health claims related to mushroom beta-glucans, something that will hopefully change in the near future given that these effects have been widely studied, especially in East Asia, for decades.

Cholesterol-lowering effects have mostly been in research related to beta-glucans found in cereals and grains, the regular consumption of which has been clinically shown to lower LDL cholesterol while not impacting levels of (potentially) beneficial HDL cholesterol. Consumption of 6 grams a day of oat and grain derived beta-glucans has correlated to reduced risks in coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis, but there is as of yet no such clinical research into fungal beta-glucans in humans. However, studies have found that mushroom consumption has a substantial impact on liver-fat, perirenal fat, blood triglycerides and cholesterol levels in rodents. Beta-glucans bind to fat and bile acid, increasing the fecal concentrations of both, and this both reduces fat absorption in the large intestine and triggers bile acid production, which utilizes cholesterol stored in the liver that, in turn, is replaced with cholesterol taken from elsewhere in the body.

Beta-glucans, along with resistant starches, are fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, which generates a class of compounds known as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetate and butyrate, as a byproduct. SCFAs are used as energy sources by the epithelial cells lining the colon, and also play a role in regulating gastrointestinal inflammation, lowering blood pressure, and managing appetite/satiety. SCFAs also help modulate the gut microbiota and prevent the excess growth of bacteria species considered harmful. Butyrate has been shown to be essential to immune homeostasis in the large intestine, to regulate proinflammatory cytokines, and to induce apoptosis in colon cancer cells. Resistant starches and beta-glucans (fiber more generally) are both heavily deficient in contemporary Western diets, as more food is calorie dense and heavily processed, which means the food is digested and absorbed too quickly. This leads to a host of other biological processes that intersect the gastrointestinal, lymphatic and the immune system being interfered with. Among just some of the effects of this are insulin insensitivity, high blood cholesterol levels, colon cancer, and predilection to autoimmune diseases. The absorption of various nutrients that takes place in the large and small intestines is also negatively impacted. These factors likely play a role in the observation that high-consumption of ultra-processed foods under the NOVA classification system correlates to increased risk of colorectal cancer and heart disease.

Firstly, I highly discourage pitching mushrooms with a science-heavy explanation like I have written for beta-glucans_emdash_unless your goal is to actively ensure that consumers don’t purchase your product. Fresh mushrooms aside, this kind of breakdown is too much to process even for content marketing for supplements. If simplicity was simple, it wouldn’t be such a sublime art severely lacking in the world. Simplicity is in fact, the height of complexity, and it is impossible to simplify something well and consistently with only a vague understanding of what is being simplified to start with. The problem of (responsibly) marketing health benefits of mushrooms is very important to the industry and comes with a correspondingly high hurdle.

Americans like to say KISS_emdash_Keep It Simple Stupid, which is a crude and almost abrasive way of saying that making things too complex causes problems. In the case of marketing, everyone has a character limit (making Twitter a great tool to train for marketing in one sense). For supermarket products that character limit tops out at what an average consumer can absorb in five seconds; most consumers will pick a product based on a brand name, logo or packaging design. Supermarket displays and promotions will have a larger impact than anything a grower can directly control in terms of their packaging and marketing materials. Even so much as writing “A rich source of beta-glucans” on a box is going to drive average consumers away, because the vast majority of consumers don’t know what the heck that means. “Great source of dietary fiber” is an example of simplifying it, but that simplification fails on a number of levels. The example doesn’t connect to immunostimulatory effects, and “dietary fiber” is a marketing term that many associate with appeals to elderly consumers with bowel issues, and  evokes an image of chalky, unappetizing health foods. This may in turn make the product less appealing to younger and middle-aged consumers. Simplification is nothing less than a very demanding and creative form of translation, one where most of the target lexicon doesn’t exist in the language being translated into.

Setting aside packaging (because the topic is much too convoluted, given the various regulations and cultural differences), content marketing is increasingly important. Content marketing creates leads, and helps initiate curious but unfamiliar consumers with exotic mushrooms, which in turn, can create new loyal customers (and word of mouth in their networks of friends and family). What’s important in these appeals is to create a feeling, that of a trendy, healthy lifestyle that ties into a new food culture and intersects with diverse values such as interconnectedness, environmental sustainability, and, in many cases, locality. One of the best tactics is to direct readers of content to a term without spoon-feeding them the results of a scientific paper. In a content marketing piece, I would feel free to use the term beta-glucans, but try to do so in passing, and just enough to intrigue the reader into doing further research.

There is a place to feel sentimental and attached to your writing, but work-related content and promotion and can and should be picked apart. The reaction of readers and the trajectory of leads in the weeks or months after a content piece are the main signals every company promoting itself digitally has to follow. However, no marketer has a pulse for all the different trends and sub-groups of modern societies, and while data can offer a lot of insight on what to do and where to do it, at the end of the day, no one can see the future. Therefore, there will be times when you get something wrong, when something flops, when something has to be retracted even. The question is not whether mistakes will be made, but whether anyone will learn from them. The worst thing to do is try to be all things for all consumers in which case a company stands for nothing.

Content marketing is going to change from year to year, and even season to season. Each operation will find elements, little touches, that work for them, while eliminating types of promotions and content that doesn’t work. Maybe captioned pictures and dates and locations for when the grower will be selling mushrooms is sufficient  while blog articles and info pieces are completely useless. The only constant is that there isn’t a one-track formula to marketing exotic mushrooms or their health benefits, and many times the best marketing formula won’t have anything to do with the health angle at all.

The example I have prepared is just that, an example, and not a particularly strong one at that; indeed, writing it was a good exercise in actually experiencing the difficulties of content marketing on this subject. I would take an example like what I wrote, if I was using it for an actual business promotion, and use it as a pulse piece. See the reaction, make memos on the criticism, note if it led to any leads or increased web traffic, then reflect to see what I could have done better. There’s a lot in the example piece that is still probably too complex, and it’s wordier than ideal for the kind of quick-read health tip formula it tries to mimic from popular diet and lifestyle websites. Everyone has certain talents, and the same goes for writers; some people are much more naturally gifted at easy-to-read, succinct blog-style writing, while I am very much more at home with professional and academic writing.