talk to me about oysters

[desertpenguin]

i'm fairly certain i have a zinc deficiency and have been losing my sense of taste! i have been looking at other nutritional deficiencies that are related to this so i am going to put more work into my diet. i need to know about oysters though. i'm skeeved out at the idea of eating them. how do i prepare them? i see that zinc is impacted by cooking, so would it be best to eat them raw? and if i'm eating them raw, how do i do that? : i'm not sure that i could get any fresh here, since we're land-locked. is it oK to eat previously frozen oysters raw?

[desertpenguin]

also, do oysters have a mercury issue?

[robugmum]

We love oysters around here!:

The oysters you buy at the supermarket in tubs need to be cooked
some good ways to eat them:
oyster stew
oyster chowder
pan fried with corn meal
baked
try tastespotting or epicurious for some recipes!

[tanyalynn]

Check if oysters have an arsenic issue. I could be wrong, I _thought_ I ran across that once, but I'm just not sure.

And I'm scared of them too. I just pop pills. :

[desertpenguin]

thank you robugmum.

Tanya, i looked it up and they do seem to have an arsenic contamination issue. i guess that's why the recipe i looked at earlier said to use only small ones. i found one site that said to get Pacific oysters only, but after that found a study that found a high correlation of cancer risk from consuming Pacific oysters. and another article about how they're very good at bioaccumulating metals so we should be using them to clean up our waters. hmm, i'm thinking maybe it's best to stick with the locally sourced liver and supplements, for the most part...