• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Marla Deen

Marla Deen

Finding ways to fit it all in each day . . .being fit, being healthy, enjoying BEING each day !

  • Home
  • Blog
    • Blog Archives
  • About Marla-Deen
  • MD Mats
  • Shop
  • Contact Us
  • Videos
    • Video Bundle #1
    • 30 Minute Arm and Abs
  • Login/My Account

Just a little slippery . . . the low down on oysters

August 6, 2014 by Marla-Deen Brooks Leave a Comment

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Picture

Food brings back sooooo many memories for me sometimes.  Don’t you think?  If I think of or smell a fragrant pot roast I immediately think of my grandmother.  A meaty goulash, which I have always hated, makes me think of Sunday evenings growing up.  Certain pickles, jams and jellies make me think of my mother.  Lately, I’ve been eating something that you either love or you hate.  I have been enjoying raw oysters,  and with them a flood of memories of my daddy.  

I was introduced to this wonderful, slippery food when I was four years old while at the beach.  From my first taste I was hooked.  My daddy would spear that oyster with the tiny little fork, squeeze a little lemon on it, dip it in cocktail sauce and plop it on a Saltine cracker.  There was nothing better!  I have so many memories of sharing raw oysters with him.  Sometimes he would bring them home from the fish market, call me up to the kitchen and we’d have our own little oyster feast.  I even had my first little sip of Heineken beer while eating some of those oysters.  

Lately, I’ve been ordering oysters while out because, first of all, I love them.  Secondly, they are light and cold in the heat.  Thirdly, I know they are full of protein and low in calories, and lastly,  I just love them.   Before I did too much damage I figured I would look at the oyster and see how they really stack up in the nutritional area.  

I am thrilled to report that whether you like them raw, baked, boiled, or grilled, oysters are a nutritional powerhouse! (Notice I left out fried because I’m thinking the frying would counter all of the good effects of the oysters!)  I might even venture to include them in that mysterious and ever-changing list of “super foods”!  Here are some of the benefits I found:


Oysters are loaded with zinc – more than any other food, in fact.  Zinc strengthens the immune system and promotes healing.  They are heart healthy – high in omega 3 fatty acids which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and help lower blood pressure.  They are a great source of protein, low in calories and low in fat.  They also contain vitamins A, E and C, iron, calcium and vitamin B12.  They contain iron which helps give the body more energy.  This one was a new one to me:  oysters can help lower cholesterol by raising the HDLs, the good cholesterol, and lowering the LDL’s, the bad cholesterol.  

There was always that saying that you shouldn’t eat oysters in “non R” months of the year.  Well, that was before there were these wonderful refrigeration systems that keep the oysters cool and safe during the warm months of May through August.  Further, one interesting tidbit I learned is that eating oysters is also environmentally friendly.  They are well-managed, caught and farmed in environmentally friendly ways.  

This is all good news to me.  I can keep on ordering, folks can keep on shucking and we can keep on eating one of  my favorite foods!  Whether it’s really that I like the taste and texture of an oyster sliding down or whether it’s more about the process, atmosphere, the event and the memories, I’m not sure.  Sometimes I think it’s about all of those things coming together just perfectly to make a food a favorite.   

For more info check out : LiveStrong, Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch List, Mother Nature Network, Wikipedia


Filed Under: Favorite Foods, Food Memories, General Post, Health Benefits Of Oysters, Nutritional Value Of Oysters, Oysters, Raw Oysters

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Subscribe

* = required field

powered by MailChimp!
Privacy Policy

Photographer: Deborah Celecia Wagoner – www.dcw-photo.com

Search

© Copyright 2018-2021 · All Rights Reserved · Website by TecAdvocates

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.