WHY OYSTERS AREN'T AS HEALTHY AS YOU THINK

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: oysters aren't as healthy as you might think.

What has few calories and gives you an instant ooh-la-la feeling? Shellfish, of course, or have you never slurped an oyster or shared a pot of mussels? But unfortunately, British research shows that those sexy shells are not that healthy at all: they contain microplastics.

Mussels, oysters, and scallops are the most contaminated with plastic of all edible sea creatures. And that's bad news because we eat these sea animals with skin and hair – well, almost, that shell just goes in the bin – and therefore you can ingest all that microplastic.

Plastic on your seafood platter
Mollusks like jellyfish contain the most microplastics, about 10.5 microplastics per gram. Fortunately, those are not on your seafood platter. Shellfish are, and they come in second place, with 8.5 microplastics per gram. Fish contain 2.9 microplastics per gram. Especially in Asia, sea creatures are severely contaminated with plastic because there is more plastic in the sea there. Small plastic particles are mainly found in the liver and other organs of sea creatures.

Beer and honey
The effects of microplastics in your body are not yet entirely clear. It could be that it causes damage, but that has not been fully mapped out yet. Other studies show that we can also ingest those microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic, through mineral water, beer, sea salt, and even honey.

Source: BusinessWorld