Is sushi (raw fish) a healthy food? I wonder because of a posible mercury problem.?
October 1, 2011 Categories: Healthy Food
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4 Responses to “Is sushi (raw fish) a healthy food? I wonder because of a posible mercury problem.?”
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As far as I am aware, cooking doesn’t remove mercury. If it is there… it will stay there whether raw or not.
I think sushi is healthy as long as the sushi is freshly prepared. You see these things sittin gon display in fast food outlets…. the temperature that they are stored at is often warmer than it should be….. so make sure it is cold sushi.
Sushi doesn’t have to be made with raw fish. It can be cooked; a process that kills off bacteria.
Regardless, people of Eastern cultures have been eating raw fish for centuries. They do not get sick from it because their bodies have built up immunities to the illnesses raw fish can induce.
As a Westerner, I don’t eat sushi for fear of it being made with raw fish, because I don’t want to get sick from whatever pathogens it may be harboring.
In other words, you are more likely to grow sick from raw fish that has some nasty bacteria in it than to get sick from raw fish that has some sort of pollutant in it.
Consider that bacteria thrives in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and when you go out to eat you generally are not inspecting the kitchen your food is being kept in. How long has the raw meat been sitting on the counter, waiting to go into your sushi? As it warms in a hot kitchen, the bacteria in it multiply—that is what is going to make you ill.
If you are at a sushi bar, are you going to ask you server, “Excuse me, but are your fish farm-raised?” You could avoid worrying about mercury in your fish by going to a steakhouse, instead.
Absolutely, positively…UNHEALTHY.
Not eating fish is way worse for your health than mercury risk!!!