Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, there's an old saying that you should
Speaker 1: never eat raw oysters in any month that doesn't have
Speaker 1: the letter R in its name. Most months do. The
Speaker 1: only ones without an R happened to be May, June, July,
Speaker 1: and August. But why is this and is it really true?
Speaker 1: The idea behind the saying is that it's unsafe to
Speaker 1: eat oysters during these months because it could make you sick.
Speaker 1: You'll notice that these four months fall in a block
Speaker 1: towards the end of spring through the heat of summer
Speaker 1: here in the northern hemisphere. That heat is why there
Speaker 1: is a grain of truth behind this old saying. Okay,
Speaker 1: we've talked before on the show about how bacteria live
Speaker 1: all around us. Many are harmless, some are even helpful,
Speaker 1: but some are pathogenic, meaning they can cause disease. There
Speaker 1: are a number of species of bacteria in the genus
Speaker 1: Vibrio that can cause nasty cases of food and water
Speaker 1: borne illness. A cholera is caused by a Vibrio species.
Speaker 1: Bacteria in this genus live mostly in salt water and
Speaker 1: during warm weather, when the water temperature hits about sixty
Speaker 1: eight degrees fahrenheit or twenty celsius. They absolutely thrive, for example,
Speaker 1: in places like the Gulf of Mexico, where lots of
Speaker 1: oysters are harvested, and in the past, before refrigeration technology
Speaker 1: was available and affordable, oysters harvested in hot weather wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been kept cold on their journey from the sea
Speaker 1: to you. So eating raw oysters during the summer theoretically
Speaker 1: could increase your chances of having contact with fibrio and
Speaker 1: becoming sick. It doesn't help that it's hard to tell
Speaker 1: with oysters and fibriel. Lots of the time, food that's
Speaker 1: gone off and could give you food poisoning is gonna
Speaker 1: smell or look bad. When food goes bad, it's because
Speaker 1: microorganisms have started to eat it before you had a
Speaker 1: chance to, and some of them might change the flavor
Speaker 1: or color or texture of the food, and some of
Speaker 1: them might be pathogenic. Unfortunately, oysters carrying fibriobacteria don't usually
Speaker 1: look or taste any different, so there's no way to
Speaker 1: know until twenty four to forty eight hours later, when
Speaker 1: gastonitis sets in. You know the fever, chills, nausea, diarrhea.
Speaker 1: It'll usually pass on its own, though cases can be
Speaker 1: severe or even deadly. But let's be clear, infections caused
Speaker 1: by Fibrio species are rare these days. Americans consume nearly
Speaker 1: two point five billion oysters every year. The CDC estimates
Speaker 1: that we have about eighty thousand Fibrio related illnesses and
Speaker 1: one hundred deaths, about half of which are due to
Speaker 1: contaminated food. That's not very many cases compared to say, salmonilla,
Speaker 1: which causes one point two million illnesses and four hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty deaths every year. Still, it's something to be
Speaker 1: aware of, especially if you're at risk for having a
Speaker 1: worse bout of illness from a potential Vibrio infection due
Speaker 1: to being immunocompromised or having a liver condition. In those cases,
Speaker 1: you might want to eat your oysters steamed, baked, deep fried.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of non raw options, and cooking oysters
Speaker 1: to a safe temperature will kill off any fibryobacteria that
Speaker 1: may be present. However, these days, there are industry practices
Speaker 1: and government regulations that make seafood like oysters as safe
Speaker 1: as possible. A water quality can be monitored and for example,
Speaker 1: in Louisiana, oyster boats are required to have on board
Speaker 1: refrigeration to keep those slimy buddies cool from the moment
Speaker 1: they leave the water, no matter what the weather's like.
Speaker 1: Just make sure your raw oysters arrive to you refrigerated
Speaker 1: or on ice. They should smell fresh and briny, not fishy,
Speaker 1: and any reputable kitchen or market staff will be able
Speaker 1: to tell you where they're from and when they were harvested,
Speaker 1: because oysters legally have to come with those labels in
Speaker 1: the United States. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: Factor fiction Raw oysters are safe to eat every month
Speaker 1: of the year on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Don Parretano.
Speaker 1: Rain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.