The nutritional benefits of sushi is a topic that has been debated for a long time and is often on the minds of sushi lovers. It is also something that those who consider sushi as an alternative food source to incorporate into their diet for better health or perhaps to offset the adverse effects of eating a normal Western diet that is often high in unhealthy fats (trans and saturated), red meats, processed foods and calories.
But is sushi a better option? It is Really healthy for you?
Perhaps the best way to make that determination is to take the most common ingredients used to make sushi and dissect them one by one. Separate them and try to find out whether or not they are really healthy for you.
Let’s start with the most obvious key ingredient in this field; And the one that is the very definition of sushi … Sushi Rice.
Sushi rice
Rice is a good source of protein (1 cup at 25% of the RDI) and carbohydrates and is digested slowly, releasing its energy gradually. It is also gluten-free (making it a great choice for people with a wheat allergy), very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium free, and rich in thiamine (vitamin B1 ).
Thiamine is a coenzyme that helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy (glucose) by causing it to burn instead of storing it.
This may partially explain why people in Japan, where rice is eaten at almost every meal, have an obesity rate of only 3.2%, which is roughly 10 times LESS than here in the states.
Rice vinegar
Rice vinegar has long been accepted as having many medicinal health benefits in Japan for over 2000 years. And all vinegars in general have been used in almost every country in the world for things ranging from flavoring and preserving rice, to a skin conditioner and use to prevent cancer due to its anti-cancer properties. Vinegar was even praised by the Babylonians, Hippocrates, and Muhammad.
Rice vinegar contains 20 different types of amino acids of which 9 are essential because they cannot be created from other compounds in the human body.
Some of the purported health benefits of rice vinegars include:
- Boosts the immune system
- Reduce the cholesterol
- Increases the body’s ability to absorb nutrients.
- Lowers blood glucose levels.
- Kills bacteria on contact, such as salmonella and strep.
- Preserve food
- Lowers blood pressure
- Helps in digestion.
- It is gluten free
- Helps clear up urinary tract infections.
- Reduces high blood sugar level
- Helps relieve pain and symptoms of sunburn, jellyfish stings, insect stings, and headaches.
- Helps neutralize cell-damaging free radicals that cause aging and degeneration.
- It reduces the formation of cholesterol by neutralizing some of the harmful oxidized LDL cholesterol.
With vinegar, the list seems to be endless and there seems to be no end to its positive health benefits.
Nori
Nori is very rich in vitamins and minerals. Especially iodine, but it also contains A, B1, B2, B6, niacin, and C. And compared to land plants, seaweed has 10-20 times more of these essential vitamins.
Nori is also known to help slow down the formation of cholesterol deposits in blood vessels and is high in protein (up to 50% of its dry weight).
It is also a good source of glutamic acid, an amino acid and a neurotransmitter, which is important for learning and memory.
Ginger
Ginger has long been believed to provide many beneficial medicinal benefits, from aiding digestion, preventing skin cancer, and eliminating nausea.
In fact, the Chinese prescribed ginger as a remedy for digestive problems more than 3,000 years ago. And for centuries, the Ayurvedic tradition in Tibet and India used ginger to treat inflammatory joint diseases such as arthritis and rheumatism.
Ginger has been used to treat ailments for thousands of years by cultures around the world. It is one of the few foods that has stood the test of time and one that is still used today to treat the same ailments that it was used to treat centuries and sometimes millennia ago.
The difference between then and now is that science and medicine are now beginning to back up what some cultures have already known for hundreds or even thousands of years: that ginger is, in fact, the closest thing to a cure for all. super roots that we can ever. to find out.
Wasabi
Wasabi is known to have antibacterial properties and is also rich in vitamin C, B6, protein, fiber, and the minerals calcium, potassium, manganese, and magnesium.
It also stimulates saliva production and aids digestion.
Wasabi also contains compounds called glucosinolates that are converted by enzymes to ITCs (isothiocyanates) if water is present when it is broken by chewing or grinding.
There is current research that is beginning to show that wasabi may be helpful in managing seasonal allergies and asthma and may also inhibit platelet aggregation (blood clotting) that could have applications in treating heart attacks due to TCIs. .
There is also a growing evidence base that TCIs can work against cancer cells.
Sushi grade fish
Almost everyone has already heard of the benefits of eating fish over other types of meat, especially red meat.
Just a small serving of fish provides up to half of the protein we need on a daily basis. It is also low in calories.
White fish like sea bass and red snapper have less than 100 calories per 3 1/2 ounces. Mackerel, eel, and tuna have less than 200 calories.
Fatty fish like tuna, salmon, lake trout, herring, and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that can be effective in preventing heart disease, stroke, and arthritis.
According to the Mayo Clinic, eating just 2 servings of fish a week (about the size of a deck of cards per serving) could lower your risk of dying from a heart attack. Especially if that fish is high in Omega-3.
In Japan, fish is eaten practically every day. It’s no wonder that heart disease and stroke are almost non-existent in Japan compared to the US In Japan, deaths from heart disease are around 30 per 100,000. By contrast, in the United States it is 106 per 100,000. More than 3 times greater.
Without a doubt, fish has to be one of the strongest ingredients that contributes to the health benefits of eating sushi.
Vegetables
All kinds of vegetables are used to make sushi.
Vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. In populations where a good amount of fruits and vegetables are consumed, the incidence of cancer is lower.
Plants also contain phytochemicals that help protect the body from disease.
And one of the best things about the vegetables that are used in sushi is that most of the time they are used in their natural raw state.
Cucumbers, avocado, and carrots are usually sliced and used raw. If they are cooked, they are usually only blanched. Spinach, if used, is usually blanched.
All of this means that the vegetables used in sushi retain as many vitamins and minerals as possible because they are not cooked to death before use.
Green Tea
Although it is not officially an ingredient used to make sushi, it is normally present on the table of almost every sushi meal that I have been served at a sushi restaurant.
For thousands of years and in almost every country in the known world, green tea has long been praised for its purported ability to improve health.
From eradicating simple bacterial and viral infections to controlling or curing degenerative conditions like stroke, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis, the claims are many and some are hard to believe.
In fact, the evidence is so overwhelming that the chemoprevention branch of the National Cancer Institute developed a plan to create tea compounds that will be used as cancer chemoprevention agents in human trials.
The evidence should be pretty strong if the National Cancer Institute is working on plans for human trials.
Summary
In general, sushi seems to be a very healthy food as long as you stay away from fusion sushi that incorporates deep frying, use low sodium soy sauce, avoid or limit seafood that is high in cholesterol, and avoid seasonings like the Mayo.
Using or ordering brown rice instead of white rice is also a healthier option, although white rice is still a healthy option, but not as high on the health scale as brown rice.
In closing, let’s put it this way. If all Americans in the United States substituted one meal of sushi for every fast meal they would otherwise get, our health care costs would likely plummet, our life expectancies would likely skyrocket, and the quality of our lives would likely improve dramatically.