Yesterday a friend invited me to the Steamhouse Lounge Oysterfest here in Atlanta in February.  Although my grandfather was a seafood merchant, scouting out the best seafood up and down the east coast and venturing over to Houma, LA for oysters, I’ve never eaten an oyster.  Here’s what I know though – they are slippery little things that are loaded with copper.  In graduate school I had to design a perfect diet for three days that met all nutrient needs (all vitamins and minerals as well as carbohydrates, protein and fat for the calorie level assigned to us).  The catch?  No meat.  Let me tell you how hard that was.  After almost finishing my project, I realized I fell short on copper.  Beef is loaded with copper yet I couldn’t include it.  The next best food? You guessed it, oysters. We need 900 micrograms of copper per day.  Mushrooms, tomato paste, semisweet chocolate and soybeans all contain copper as well.  This mineral is needed in to help us make hemoglobin, it is a component of many body enzymes, it helps your body produce energy and helps our body make connective tissue.  Given the fact that I can’t a cup of semisweet chocolate everyday to meet my copper needs, it looks like I may have to venture out and give oysters a shot this year!