I go to Totnes market every Friday or Saturday to buy mushrooms. Yesterday, I found out why.

I love mushrooms. Every week, I buy mushrooms when at home. Occasionally, I buy shitake mushrooms (Japanese) or a packet of exotic mushrooms.

As a rule, I prepare two kinds of meals – Indian (matar mushroom) or Mediterranean dishes using lightly cooked mushrooms.

In the fruit and veg stall in the market for the past three or four decades, I buy two or three packets of white button or brown button mushrooms, two large packets of spinach and two packets of wild rocket. Grains, nuts, other veg plus the mushrooms, spinach and wild rocket last through the week.

Let me make this point quickly. I have never taken magic mushrooms. I know Dharma friends who go time to time to nearby Dartmoor to pick magic mushrooms.

Mushrooms are a fungi producing spores with the wind carrying them. Mushrooms grow out of the soil or wood.

I googled the benefit of eating mushrooms. I had no idea how nutritious mushrooms are. We could class them as a superfood. Scientific research has listed benefits.

Here are eight primary health benefits of mushrooms:
1. Plant source of vitamin D. Mushrooms are one of the few non-animal sources of vitamin D. You can place mushrooms in direct sunlight for 15 minutes to increase vitamin D level. 
2. Rich in vitamin B to help produce red blood cells for oxygen to travel more easily through the body.
3. Contain immune modulating nutrients. A soluble fibre called beta-glucan activates parts of your immune system.
4. Contains nutrients and plant compounds to reduce cells sticking to blood vessel walls.
5. Supports a healthy gut to maintain our immune defences.
6. High in nutrition and low in calories.
7. Rich in selenium for immune system and a healthy thyroid.
8. An antioxidant. Supports well-being and neurological processes.

Eat well. Enjoy.