Sushi used to be a type of food that you could hardly ever find, one that was exclusively seen in high end Japanese restaurants. Today however sushi can be found pretty much anywhere and many different restaurants now serve these types of dishes on a regular basis.
This has opened up the opportunity for many of us to try sushi who have never had before, and really helped to popularize this type of food in the United States.
In addition to being very tasty, most sushi is considered to be very healthy as well, which is another point of interest among customers also. Considering that it has emerged in a marketplace full of unhealthy alternatives, it is not too much of a surprise to learn how popular this dish has become.
With all of this being said, we all want to know whether or not sushi is healthy for us. The answer to this question can get very complicated, and depends on multiple factors. For that reason it is a good idea for us to have a better understanding of what sushi is actually beneficial for our health, and of course which ones we should avoid altogether.
The Major Reasons Why Sushi Is Bad for Our Health
1- Your Sushi Is Full of Unhealthy Fish
Wild caught fish is some of the best food you can possibly eat, and that is what most of us think we are getting when we go out to our favorite sushi joint. The problem here is that not only are you more than likely not getting the wild caught varieties, you may not be even getting the right species you ordered.
The easiest way to tell whether or not this is the case is by how much your meal is costing you. Chances are that it is relatively affordable, even cheap in some areas. They are able to price at this point because they use cheaper substitutes in place of the healthier varieties.
On top of that, sometimes restaurants will just use different fish than the one you ordered altogether. Sometimes this is intentional, however mislabeling and marketing one type of fish as another stems all the back to our grocery food chain so it may not be the case.
To avoid this, go to restaurants that serve the wild varieties, just be prepared to pay a much steeper price for the much more nutritional meal.
2-Crispy and Fried Rolls Are Unhealthy
While sushi can be a healthy type of food to eat, here in America we have modified it to the point where it isn’t the case. We tend to fry our sushi in unhealthy oils, like the very common and popular tempura dishes.
These types of fats are some of the most unhealthy food items we can possible eat, as they are known to cause heart attacks, hypertension and strokes-all life threatening problems we want to avoid.
If you’re going to go out for sushi, stick to plain fish with as little sauces, batter and other additives. This will help you maintain better health.
3-Sushi Is Loaded With Bacteria
One of the biggest issues with sushi is that it tends to be highly contaminated with bacteria. We have to remember that many hands end up touching our food throughout the entire process, something we should keep in mind before we go buying sushi.
Sushi is raw fish, and due to the fact that it is not prepared it is much more prone to developing bacterial growths and other nasty stuff we want to avoid. This mainly has to do with temperature control during transport, where the fish aren’t kept cold enough and thus are very prone to bacterial growth.
That aside, it is not just sushi you pickup at the supermarket that you have to be worried about. If you are someone who frequents Japanese restaurants, you are at a high risk of consuming this bacteria ridden food as well.
It all comes down to the chef of the restaurant and how hygienic they are. A chef who is diligent in keeping a clean work station is someone who is going to consistently provide you with a good product-while on the other hand a bad chef can easily get you sick.
This is the case for any restaurant, but is even more important here. Eating raw food is always going to be riskier than eating prepared food, so choose where you eat wisely.
