Mushrooms and a Vegetarian

Mushrooms and a Vegetarian

I was having a dinner in a Chinese restaurant. The vegetarian food was good, and had lots of mushrooms in dishes. We also had mushroom in the soup. The mushrooms were tender and tasty. Suddenly someone raised the doubt whether mushrooms can be considered strictly as a vegetarian food. Someone clarified that mushrooms were plants and they are vegetarian. An interesting discussion followed. I was surprised by this discussion, kept quiet and decided to find what really Mushrooms were, when I reached home.

I wanted to know whether Mushrooms were plants or animals. For me, If they were plants then Mushroom is a vegetarian food. If they were animals then they were non-vegetarian.

I was so amused to know Mushrooms were neither vegetarian food nor non vegetarian food! Mushrooms are not considered as plants or animals by scientists. They do not have Chlorophyll (the green thing in plants) to convert energy in to Protein, by photo Synthesis. So they are not plants.

Neither do they have the digestive system of animals for converting the organic matter into Protein and nutrients like animals. So they are neither plants nor animals. They are a sort of different category by themselves. They belong to the category of Fungi.

There are nearly 2000 categories of Mushrooms. Only about 60 of them are commercially grown and used for human consumption. They are very rich in Protein and can be a good provider for Protein which is needed for our living, whether we are vegetarian or non vegetarian.

Some Mushrooms like Death cap Mushrooms can be very poisonous and one should not take mushrooms from the wild and consume unless it is well known to be edible.

Mushrooms are highly nutritious. They have a lot of Protein, Minerals, and Vitamins. They have rare of medicinal properties. Mushrooms extracts are said to be used in more than 100 medicinal drugs, for cancer, hepatitis, Aids, Algiers disease and high cholesterol.

Do not store Mushrooms in open in your fridge. They can easily absorb the odour of other foods in the fridge.

Mushrooms can be used like any other soft vegetables by vegetarian. Mushrooms can be used to prepare curry, soup and stuffing in Pizzas, paranthas and salads. Of course it is being used in most of non vegetarian and vegetarian foods by Chinese.

I have become a fan of Mushrooms.

 

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Dear Honeybee,

Thanks for your contribution. It is nice to know that Mushrooms after all a primitive,less evolved plant types.

Regards.

suryakala.

 

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Hi,

No worries, enjoy your Mushrooms, as Honeybee has confirmed Mushrooms do indeed belong to plant kingdom ( Though primitive!).

Thanks for your visit.

 

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Dear

Thanks for your feedback. A few more ILites also have confirmed that Mushrooms are vegetarian.

Anyway, Mushrooms are soft tender, tasty, adaptable, and nutritious! They may be Xgetarian!!. Let us enjoy!!!:thumbsup

 

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Dear Pallavi,

Don't think..think..think..

Honeybee says: " But..my understanding is.. mushrooms can be categorised under plant kingdom because fungi do find a place there along with ferns.They are primitive,less evolved plant types that lack xylem and phloem in addition to chlorophyll".

So enjoy Mushroom-the vegetable!