March 29, 2010
Eating Raw Oysters is Never a Good Idea
I’ve suspected that the first person to eat a raw oyster was either too drunk to know what they were doing or a freshman college student responding to an pledge challenge (and probably too drunk to know what they were doing).
There are two microbiologic reason to not eat oysters.
1: Oysters syphon seawater. So organisms that normally inhabit seawater are collected by oysters and live within them. The salt-loving (halophilic) bacteria can cause human illness, especially in those humans with iron storage problems (those with alcoholic liver disease). I personally saw a man die after eating a raw oyster at a local restaurant and after he developed shock from the microbe, Vibrio vulnificus. It was memorable to say the least.
2: Oysters syphon seawater. So any microbiologic that aren’t native to seawater but are contaminants in the water will concentrate in the oysters. That means that any fecal contamination of seawater by runoff from land will end up in the oysters. Hence historical concerns about hepatitis viruses (which are carried in human waste into the estuaries and then end up in oysters) are valid. Knowing that cycle (of human to waste to water to oyster) this weekend’s announcement by the US Food and Drug Administration of an outbreak of norovirus (Norwalk agent) contaminating oysters should be of no surprise. (Public Health Agencies Collaborate to Prevent Further Illnesses from Norovirus Outbreak Associated with Oysters Recently Harvested from Area Near Port Sulphur, La.)
Hot sauce doesn’t inactivate bacteria. Sprinkling tabasco sauce on oysters just makes the bacteria taste spicy.
Raw oysters don’t improve sexual powers. If that’s your motive, take a viagra.
The next burning question is “can you eat cooked oysters”?
Yeah, those are probably okay. Nutritionally I still don’t think they are a great idea.
