The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Oyster fun facts.

oyster fun factsThe Facts: The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats.

  • Some kinds of oysters are commonly consumed, cooked or raw, by humans as a delicacy. Other kinds, such as pearl oysters, generally not eaten by humans, are harvested for the pearl produced within the mantle.
  • There are more than fifty species of oysters.
  • August 5th is National Oyster Day.
  • Long ago, people were advised never to eat oysters during months of the year that didn’t contain the letter “r”. For one reason, the lack of proper refrigeration methods didn’t keep oysters well in the warmer weather months- May through August.
  • Nearly two billion pounds of these mollusks are eaten every year.
  • Oysters contain a whole raft of Vitamins, including C, D, B1, B1, B2 and B3.
  • Whether you dig them up, buy them at a local seafood store or order them through the mail, there’s one sure way to tell if an oyster is alive. If its shell is open, you tap on it with your fingers, and it snap shut, then it’s alive.
  • Oysters contain both gills and mantle in order for them to breathe. As the water passes through them, the oxygen is removed and the carbon monoxide is discarded.
  • Oysters feed on plankton, animal waste, decayed plants- most any small particles they suck in. Oysters can filter up to five liters of water each hour.
  • An interesting fact about oysters is they do contain a lot of zinc. This mineral- or rather, a deficiency of it- has been linked to male impotency. However, there isn’t any scientific data to uphold Casanova’s belief they made him virile ( it is said to have eaten fifty oysters for breakfast every morning ).
Oyster Fun Facts We Missed

Please feel free to let us know if we may have missed some oyster fun facts in the comment section below. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Oysters.

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