Tailor-Made Infosession Fridays: Is eating Sushi really Healthy Eating?

In this day and age, Sushi is one of the most popular types of cuisines, if not THE most popular type. In fact, Sushi restaurants led all other types of restaurants in popularity in the ZAGAT 2006 survey. So, what could possibly be wrong with it...?

I mean sure, Indian food can be heavy, Chinese can have MSG, burgers and steaks can be under-cooked, fast-food is slow-acting poison, desserts are fattening, milk has hormones, fruit has insecticide spray leftovers, and the list goes on-and-on.

Well, now Sushi can now also be considered unhealthy when consumed in large-quantities due to the significant amount of Mercury it has found to contain. But before I start ranting and raving about how you should limit your sushi intake, let's just go over why Mercury is bad for you.

Firstly, Mercury is toxic. Large amounts of Mercury in anyone, men, women or children can be dangerous if not fatal. Here's what higher than FDA-approved amounts of Mercury consumption can mean to you:
Men may be pre-disposing themselves to diseases such as Heart disease as well as many other types of acute coronary problems. Check out this article for a start.
Both men and women will increase their risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Check out this article for a start.
Women who are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant are putting their un-born children at risk of developing a multitude of problems. Check out this article for a start.

Ok, so now that we know that Mercury can be bad for you... there are ways you can avoid it. Generally speaking, the bigger the fish, the more Mercury it will contain. So, you can expect Tuna and Swordfish to have much more Mercury content than you would expect Salmon to have. So, since Swordfish isn't very popular for sushi, let's put our focus on Tuna. Now, just in case you didn't know, Tuna goes by a host of different names, so don't think you're off the hook just cuz you have never ordered 'the Tuna Roll.'

Here is a brief summary of a very thorough report done on Sushi with Tuna, just to give you an idea of how toxic your sushi can be:
- Typical restaurant tuna actually contains 136% more Mercury than what the FDA rates for tuna.
- Overall, 15% of the tuna tested in San Diego was at or near the 1.0ppm legal federal limit for Mercury established by the FDA. This was even higher for Los Angeles, 25% of the tuna tested there was at or near the 1.00ppm legal limit.
- One out of every 5 samples of tuna tested was higher than the average for King Mackerel, which typically rates at 0.730ppm of Mercury and is a type of fish the FDA says women and children should never eat.

So, what all this tells me is that technically-speaking, about 20% of the tuna you eat has a higher Mercury content than a type of fish the FDA says women and children should NEVER eat!!!

The catch of all this is that you never know exactly how much Mercury you are consuming when you order tuna, be it as sushi, sashimi or even ahi steak as the levels differ so much. But considering that this study was done in the most popular restaurants of both Los Angeles and San Diego, it's hard not to accept it as the truth, or at least very damn close to it.

Now, I don't expect you to stop eating Sushi because of what I've researched or written about. And if you did, then you are a gullible-fool. But like they say, 'ignorance is bliss' but 'knowledge is more precious than gold.' So, go out, eat your freakin' sushi , but just be a little more informed.

Here, let me help you!
Like eating Sushi, and live in San Diego, well, here is a list of top-restaurants that serve sushi, and the typical Mercury content in their tuna. And no, I'm not telling you what restaurants to avoid... all I'm telling you is that if you eat these kind of rolls at these places, well, then go less often, or at least try something else in the menu!

Also, if you're concerned about, or just want to keep tabs on how much Mercury you intake, be it including or not including sushi, then I found a wonderful tool just for you. Log on to www.gotmercury.org and check out their shnazzy mercury calculator... just tell it your weight (don't worry, nobody is watching), the type of fish, and how much you ate. It will automatically calculate for you how much mercury you probably consumed, and what it means for someone of your size. I can't wait to use it!!!
Also check out their espanol version, just in case that suits your preference, at www.gotmercury.org/espanol.


I want to thank www.gotmercury.org for all their valuable information on this topic, and I encourage all of you to check it out. They probabaly have the most detailed information on this topic I have found yet... including the nifty restaurant table I pasted above.

So next time you're out eating sushi, eat smarter... so you can live longer, and keep visititing your friend at 'Catch up on Aman.'

Again, I hope that even the experts of Sushi have learned something by this post!

Have a good weekend :)