Beware of Eating Oysters: Here’s What Could Happen

The oyster (whose scientific name is ostrea) is a genus of bivalve mollusk that has a rounded shell covered with scaly, wavy gills. The two valves are not the same and the lower one, to which the animal is anchored, is much larger and hollow than the upper one. The mollusc has a rounded body, with the margins of both edges fringed. Oysters live in all the seas of Europe at shallow depths, they live clinging to rocks and other solid bodies.

Some oysters, mainly those that live in the eastern seas, produce beautiful pearls but they are also very popular in Mediterranean cuisine. Oysters are alternate sequential hermaphrodites, what does this mean? Who change sex according to the reproductive need of the moment; their eggs are contained in the pallial cavity of the female specimen, where fertilization and the maturation process (from the zygote to the larval stage) take place.

After this period, they release the offspring in the veliger stage, which then goes through an 8-10 day pelagic phase, during which they disperse from water currents, thereby causing the loss of medium to large amounts of the more mature molluscs. . Let’s see the nutritional values ​​of oysters. They are a good source of iron, a contribution that makes them a very important food for the formation of hemoglobin in red blood cells, whose function is quite fundamental since they transport oxygen to all the tissues of the body.

Iron is a constituent of vital importance against anemic states that can lead to serious problems of general fatigue, states of physical weakness and various metabolic disorders. And what about contraindications instead?
Well, fortunately, there are no particular contraindications to their consumption, except for certain allergic reactions caused by a protein present in oysters, tropomyosin, which occurs almost exclusively in sensitive people with symptoms such as facial swelling, viral hepatitis, skin rashes. .and no indifferent abdominal discomfort.

In the case of the production of European molluscs, very strict specific production regulations have been adopted with regard to the sanitary field so that these not exactly pleasant eventualities do not occur, also ensuring an effective production traceability system capable of to exercise controls aimed at preventing any kind of drunkenness. To avoid any kind of unpleasant surprises aimed at the personal health of one’s body, it is good to direct consumption towards products and sellers capable of offering us adequate guarantees of healthiness and the absence of harmful contamination. Beware, a total ban on raw oysters is recommended if you are in an interesting state.