Oysters are Dirty!

A series of food poisoning incidents in the Philippines lately made it to the six o'clock news. Fish kills from the north to the south of Luzon made consumers hesitant to buy and eat milk fish from Batangas and Pangasinan. Thus, it is better to know which food is safe and which isn't. Better to be informed which food is clean and which is dirty.

Just as I was craving for some fresh oyster, Yahoo! posted this article. Perfect. So, would this article change my mind? Definitely not. I love oysters that nobody can stop me from eating them unless there is red tide or I am pregnant.

There is no warning against red tide and I am definitely not pregnant as of the moment. So, it's safe.

But eating oysters have benefits, too. According to experts (again! Experts have something to say on almost every thing.), eating oysters may help in the prevention of prostate cancers. And for some, oysters are great aphrodisiacs.

Here's the Yahoo! article I was telling you earlier.

The dirt: Oysters' power as an aphrodisiac is overblown, but their power as a diarrheic when slurped raw is not. They can contain the norovirus (a pathogen notorious for nixing ocean cruises), Campylobacter, and Vibrio vulnificus. University of Arizona researchers who studied oysters from so-called certified-safe beds discovered that 9 percent were contaminated withSalmonella bacteria. Still hungry? "We found E. coli in 100 percent of Gulf Coast locations, and in high amounts," says Lynn Joens, Ph.D., the study author.

At the supermarket: Buy from the same beds that a chef stakes his reputation on. Sandy Ingber, executive chef and seafood buyer for Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York City, buys Blue Point, Chincoteague, Glidden Point, Narragansett Bay, Pemaquid, and Wellfleet oysters in the winter months. During summer, he buys Coromandel oysters from New Zealand. The reason for the seasonal shift: More than three-quarters of outbreaks involving raw oysters occur in the Northern Hemisphere's warm-water months.

At home: Very simple: Eat only thoroughly cooked oysters. If you must slurp, do so only after following the buying advice above.

FIX IT WITH FOOD: Did you know that oysters can help protect against prostate cancer? They make our list of 40 Foods with Superpowers—foods that, even in moderation, can improve your health.

BE INFORMED. READ.

xoxo,

C