Mushrooms are not fruits. Although they are often cooked like vegetables, mushrooms are actually a type of fungus. This means they don't belong to the plant kingdom and don't produce fruit like plants do. Unlike plants, mushrooms don't contain chlorophyll and can't turn sunlight into energy. Instead, they obtain their nutrients by absorbing them from their surroundings, such as decaying organic matter. The part of the mushroom that we eat is called the fruiting body, which is responsible for producing spores.
While mushrooms are neither fruits nor vegetables, they are a valuable source of nutrients. They contain ergosterol, a substance similar to cholesterol in animals that can be converted into vitamin D with exposure to ultraviolet light.
