How Is Sushi Healthy? 
There are several factors that have lead to the increasing obesity of the American population. Jobs are less physically active. Hobbies are less physically active. Sedentary entertainment is amazingly seductive, and hyper-caloric processed foods are always at hand. As a result, most adults, at one time or another, deal with issues of weight loss, nutrition, and health. It’s no wonder that various and sundry diet plans have become part of popular culture. Dr. Atkins is famous, and who hasn’t heard of a low carbohydrate diet? There is even a cookie diet. With our country’s weight problem so interwoven with our culture, it might be wise to look toward other cultures that don’t exhibit these problems. It wouldn’t be worthwhile to look for answers in agrarian societies. Obviously, reworking our entire economy around weight loss and healthy isn’t likely. So, let’s look at other countries with similar economies. How about Japan? The small island nation is certainly a high tech, service oriented economy much like our own. However, other than the Sumo wrestler, the Japanese are not thought of as suffering from a weight problem. Let’s start by looking at the quintessential Japanese food: Sushi. Is sushi healthy? Sushi consists of small portions of rice (carbohydrates) and fish. Fish is almost pure protein. While some fish is fatty, most fish isn’t. Low fat fish includes tuna, albacore, halibut, red-snapper, and shellfish. Although, some sushi can be fattening. Avoid rolls with mayonnaise or any other ingredient that includes saturated fat, such as Philadelphia rolls or tempura rolls. Stick with the simple, traditional rolls composed of rice and fish. In terms of the rice in sushi, the smaller the amount of rice, the better. It is the logic behind the low carb diet. Carbohydrate rich foods have a high amount of calories for the mass consumed. In other words, the same amount of high carbohydrate food yields many more calories than the same amount of protein. It is also worthy to note that green tea is frequently served with sushi. There is a lot of hype out there about the miraculous properties of green tea. As it pertains to weight control, there is some evidence that green tea inhibits fat digestion by altering digestive enzymes. So, could sushi be the secret to Japanese weight control? The food balances reasonable carbohydrates with a low-fat, high protein fish. Undoubtedly, there are many other factors, however eating sushi certainly can’t hurt.
