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SEAFOOD MYTHS

Many myths and misconceptions have sprung up concerning seafood. As
is the way with myths, they are handed from generation to generation,
reinforced with each telling, until they become an almost inherent
part of the culture in which they grew. Nor are these myths fare for
the unlearned; educated people are likely to believe them as well.
Here are a few of the myths and misconceptions concerning seafood
that have come down through the years:

* Oysters and other shellfish should be eaten only in months with an
"r" in them. So far as the United States is concerned, this is not
true. Under commercial raising and harvesting conditions, oysters and
other shellfish are safe and good to eat any month of the year.
Certain European oysters, which brood their young in months without
an "r" are less palatable at that time of year, but this rule doesn't
apply to U. S. oysters, which don't brood their young. As a
contradiction to the myth about "r" months, shellfish containing a
paralytic shellfish poison are occasionally found along the Pacific
Coast in "r" months. When this occurs, people are warned against
gathering and eating these particular shellfish. The California
Department of Health places a quarantine on the harvesting of mussels
between May 1 and October 31; and along the Oregon Coast, people are
warned by the news media against gathering and eating the mussels
that cling to rocks that rim the beaches. The cardinal rule is that
any commercially available shellfish is non-toxic and safe to eat.

* Oysters are an aphrodisiac. The idea of eating oysters for their
aphrodisiac qualities, which has been around for a long time, is
basically untrue. Oysters do contain considerable amounts of
nature's building block, cholesterol, as well as being extremely rich
in protein -- although it is doubtful that this was common knowledge
when the aphrodisiac myth was perpetrated.

* Shellfish that die before being cooked should not then be cooked and
eaten. People have been warned not to eat clams, mussels, crabs,
lobsters and other shellfish unless they are alive when cooked. From
the standpoint of flavor, this is a good suggestion, but shellfish
don't become toxic when they die. When shellfish die, their
digestive glands break down, releasing digestive enzymes that begin
digesting the flesh of the animal. Cooking the shellfish alive
prevents this process from beginning. The reason you should only
clean and cook live or frozen shellfish is that those that die before
being cooked or frozen will have a decomposed flavor and odor.

* Seafood it a brainfood. The myth of fish as a brain food goes back
to a 19th Century Harvard University scientist who discovered that
phosphorus is abundant in the human brain, and from this fact,
wrongly concluded that a diet of fish should increase the human IQ.

* Eating seafood with fresh milk will make you sick. This is totally
untrue, both from observation and the application of logic; the
combination of two wholesome foods cannot possibly make one sick.

* Mahi-Mahi is actually porpoise meat. This myth probably originated
because the Mahi-Mahi is also called dolphin fish or dolphin.
Mahi-Mahi is really a fish, caught in tropical waters and marketed
throughout the world. The dolphin, as a mammal, is protected by the
1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, and is not harvested or used for
food in the United States.

* Frozen seafood is inferior to fresh seafood. This is more a simple
fallacy than a myth and probably originated around the time when the
marketing of seafood went through the transitional stage from
primarily refrigeration and icing methods, to freezing methods. The
truth is that fresh seafood is processed quickly after being
harvested, with surpluses beyond the immediate marketing demands
being frozen by the "glaze" method, which literally coats the product
with a layer of ice. This is an improvement over the old dry-freezing
method, which itself was a viable way of handling a highly perishable
product. Fresh-frozen seafood is of exactly the same quality and
flavor as when it was frozen.

: About the Author

Adam Starchild has combined business travel with discovering the
delights of native dishes from Hawaii and Hong Kong to Russia and the
Caribbean. He is the author of The Seafood Heritage Cookbook (Cornell
Maritime Press), co-author of another seafood cookbook, and the
author of a number of food and cooking articles.
Submitted By BARRY WEINSTEIN On 08-30-95

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