Healthy Sushi for Weight Loss

Healthy Sushi for Weight Loss

The nutritional benefits of sushi is a subject that has long been debated and one that is often on the minds of sushi lovers. It is also something pondered by those considering sushi as an alternative food source to incorporate into their diet for better health or maybe to offset the adverse effects of eating a normal western diet which is often high in unhealthy fats (trans and saturated), red meat, processed foods and calories.

But is sushi a better choice? Is it really healthy for you?

Perhaps the best way to make that determination is to take the most common ingredients used in making sushi and dissect them one by one. Tear them apart and try to discover whether they actually are or are not healthy for you.

Let's begin with the most obvious dominant ingredient in this arena; and the one that is the very definition of sushi... Sushi Rice.

Sushi Rice

Rice is a good source of protein (1 cup provides 25% of RDA) and carbohydrates and digests slowly, releasing its energy gradually. It is also gluten free (making it an excellent choice for those with wheat allergies), is very low in saturated fat, has no cholesterol or sodium, and is high in thiamin (vitamin B1 ).

Thiamine is a co-enzyme that helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy (glucose) causing it to be burned rather than stored.

This may partially explain why people in japan, where rice is eaten at almost every meal, have an obesity rate of just 3.2% which is about 10 times LESS than it is here in the United States.

Rice Vinegar

Rice Vinegar has long been accepted as having many medicinal health benefits in Japan for over 2,000 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 to its use in preventing cancer because of its anti-cancer properties. Vinegar was even praised by the Babylonians, Hippocrates, and Muhammad.

Rice vinegar contains 20 different kinds of amino acids of which 9 are essential because they cannot be created from other compounds in the human body.

Some of Rice Vinegars purported health benefits include:

    Boosts the immune system
    Lowers cholesterol
    Increases the body's ability to absorb nutrients
    Lowers blood glucose levels
    Kills bacteria on contact such as salmonella and streptococcus
    Preserves food
    Reduces blood pressure
    Aids in digestion
    Is gluten free
    Helps clear up urinary tract infections
    Reduces high blood sugar
    Aids in the relief of pain and symptoms from sunburn, jellyfish stings, insect bites, and headaches
    Helps to neutralize free radicals which damage cells that cause aging and degeneration
    Reduces cholesterol formation by neutralizing some of the harmful oxidized LDL cholesterol

With vinegar the list seems to go on and on and there seems to be no end to its positive benefits on health.

Nori

Nori is very rich in vitamins and minerals. Especially iodine --- but also contains A, B1, B2, B6, niacin, and C. And compared to land plants, marine algae has as much as 10-20 times as much of these essential vitamins.

Nori is also known to help curb the formation of cholesterol deposits in the 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 neuro transmitter, which is important for learning and memory.

Ginger

It has long been believed that ginger provides many beneficial medicinal advantages from aiding digestion, to preventing skin cancer, to eliminating nausea.

As a matter of fact, the Chinese prescribed ginger as a remedy for digestive issues over 3,000 years ago. And for centuries, the Ayurvedic tradition in Tibet and India used ginger to treat inflammatory joint diseases including arthritis and rheumatism.

Ginger has been used to treat ailments for thousands of years by cultures all over the world. It is one of the few foods that has withstood the test of time and one that is still being used today to treat the same ailments it was used to treat centuries and sometimes millennia ago.

The difference between then and now, is that now science and medicine are starting to support what some cultures have already known for hundreds or even thousands of years --- That ginger is indeed, as close to a cure all super root that we may ever discover.

Wasabi

Wasabi is known to have antibacterial properties and is also rich in Vitamin C, B6, protein, fibre and the minerals calcium, potassium, manganese and magnesium.

It also stimulates the production of saliva and aids in digestion.

Wasabi also contains compounds called glucosinolates which is converted by enzymes into ITC's (isothiocyanates) if water is present when it is torn apart by chewing or being ground up.

There is current research that is starting to show that wasabi may be useful in controlling seasonal allergies and asthma and also may inhibit platelet aggregation (blood clotting) which could have applications in the treatment of heart attacks due to the ITC's.

There is also a growing base of evidence that ITC's may work against cancer cells.

Sushi Grade Fish

Most everyone has already heard about the benefits of eating fish versus other kinds of meat, especially red meat.

Just a small portion of fish supplies up to one half of the protein we require daily. It is also low in calories.

White fish such as sea bass and red snapper have less than 100 calories per 3 1/2 ounces. Mackerel, eel and tuna have less than 200 calories.

Oily fish such as Tuna, Salmon, lake trout, herring, and sardines are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which 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 playing cards per serving) could reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack. Especially if that fish is one that is high in Omega-3's.

In Japan, fish is eaten practically every day. No wonder heart disease and stroke are almost non-existent in Japan compared to the U.S. In Japan, heart disease deaths are around 30 in 100,000. By contrast, in the U.S. it is 106 per 100,000. Over 3 times higher.

Without a doubt, fish has to be one of the strongest ingredients contributing to the health benefits of eating sushi.

Vegetables

All kinds of vegetables are used in making sushi.

Vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals and fiber. In populations where a good quantity of fruits and vegetables are consumed, there are lower incidents of cancer.

Plants also contain phytochemicals which help protect the body from disease.

And one of the best things about the vegetables used in sushi is that most of the time they are used in their natural raw state.

Cucumbers, avocado, and carrots are usually sliced up and used raw. If they are cooked at all, normally they are only blanched. Spinach if used, is normally blanched.

All of this means that the vegetables used in sushi retain as many of the vitamins and minerals as possible because they are not cooked to death before being used.

Green Tea

Although not officially an ingredient used in making sushi, it normally is present at the table of almost every sushi meal I have ever been served in a sushi restaurant.

For thousands of years and across 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 such as stroke, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis the claims are many and some hard to believe.

As a matter of fact, the evidence is so overwhelming that the chemo-prevention branch of the National Cancer Institute developed a plan for creating tea compounds to be used as cancer chemo-preventive agents in human trials.

The evidence must be pretty strong if the National Cancer Institute is working on plans for human trials.

Summary

Overall sushi looks to be a very healthy food as long as you stay away from the fusion sushi that incorporates deep frying, you use low sodium soy sauce, you avoid or limit high cholesterol seafood, and you avoid condiments like mayonnaise.

Using or ordering brown rice instead of white rice is a healthier choice too although white rice is still a healthy choice, just not quite as far up the health ladder as brown rice.

In closing let's just put it this way. If every American in the United States would substitute a sushi meal for every fast food meal that they would otherwise be getting, our healthcare costs would probably plummet, our life expectancies would probably soar and the quality of our lives would probably drastically improve.