Bacteria?parasites?sickness?death?

Mushrooms are no more dirty than any fruit or vegetable you eat, unless you're the sort of person who would eat a rotten apple.

Fungi are the primary decomposer of plant materials on land. Mushrooms are their reproductive bodies, in every way comparable to fruit. All of the cultivated mushrooms are saprobes. If you'd rather eat plants, consider that they get much of their nutrients from fungi.

There are parasitic fungi, but very few of them produce things you'd want to eat. Lobster Mushrooms (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are the best known from this group. It should be noted that these are parasitic on other mushrooms.

But the most highly regarded mushrooms are neither saprophytic or parasitic. They are mycorrhizal, meaning they form a mutualistic symibiosis with a higher plant, usually a tree. Fungi are much better at absorbing nutrients from the soil than plants are, and provide the tree with them. In return, the tree provides sugars from photosynthesis. Without their mycorrhizal fungi, trees grow very poorly or die, and are incapable of reproduction.

When planting seedlings to reforest an area, the US Forest Service makes sure the seedlings are innoculated with appropriate mycorrizal fungi for the trees being planted. This results in a much higher rate of success.

Perhaps your feelings of distaste are prompted by thinking about animal parasites and saprobes. Bacteria are the primary decomposers of animal matter, and the results are certainly a lot less appetizing than what one sees when you find a rotting tree trunk.

I wash the mushrooms I eat, but I also wash the fruits and vegetables I eat, both for the same reason. Dirt can be a bit hard on the teeth, and I want to avoid ingesting any potentially harmful bacteria or whatever they were growing in.

Hope that helps.

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