Ask Dr Nerenberg | Health and Fitness

is sushi a good idea?

im trying to lose weight (around 25lbs) and have been very good about working out. i eat sugar free oatmeal for breakfast with some fresh fruit, turkey wrapped in lettuce with fat free mayo for lunch (so theres no bread aka carbs) and then usually have sushi for dinner. i LOVE sushi but my stepmother is concerned about how often i have it. i usually get the philly roll (raw tuna or salmon with cream cheese but i ask them to not put alot of cream cheese in it so it isnt as bad) the spicy tuna roll, the eel roll and a side of edamamae. my stepmom keeps sayin stuff about mercury in the raw fish and it will make me very sick, that the rice is fattening (but theres not a whole ton of rice in sushi anyway) and that sushi is bad for me…is there any validity to what she is saying? is there a website that i can look up the nutrition facts (calories, carbs etc) for different ingrediants that go into my sushi?by the way the resteraunt is very clean and up to code..thanks in advance

Sushi is good for you because it is fish.

A philadephia roll (6 pieces) has about 170 calories and a spicy tuna roll probably around 200 calories for 6 pieces, as does an eel roll. So, all that sushi is probably closing in on 600 calories including soy sauce and wasabi. Edamame has about 43 calories per ounce – figure 2 ounces per serving.

So, it looks like your meal has about 600 to 700 calories depending on size of the portions (which can vary place to place).

That’s a big meal for one sitting, but not overly so. It all depends on what else you eat for the day.

Probably due to the omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish, eating fish can benefit the heart. The American Heart Association, accordingly, recommends that people eat fish at least twice a week – and more than that if you’ve got heart disease. However, pollution has sufficiently contaminated water resources with mercury that some fish (usually larger fish who get that way by dining on smaller mercury-containing fish) concentrate enough mercury in their bodies to pose a health hazard to some people.

The FDA recommends that pregnant women and young children should avoid eating the kinds of fish that are likely to be high in mercury. These high-mercury fish – including shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish – should not be consumed at all by pregnant women and young children.

However, the guidelines recommend eating other varieties of fish, known to be low in mercury, twice a week. These fish include shrimp, light canned tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. The light canned tuna is preferred over the albacore because the albacore tuna are larger and contain more mercury. Most fish sandwiches and fish sticks contain pollock. Pregnant women and children, according to the guidelines, can (and ought to) consume these low-mercury fish twice a week like any other people.

So sushi should not be a big deal. Plus, the quantities of fish in sushi rolls are fairly small compared to when you eat a filet or fish steak at home. So, I wouldn’t worry about it much.

Frank’s Sauerkraut Sushi Spider Roll: From Blu Coral Restaurant,