Sushi has many benefits due to its source of low-calorie, high quality protein. It has many fatty acids that can lower your cholesterol, as well as your risk of heart disease. Eating sushi is not detrimental to one’s health, unless they eat it too often. Also, it depends which type of sushi you decide to eat, because certain types of fish are worse for you than others.
Extremely high levels of mercury are found in tuna, mackerel, yellowtail, swordfish and sea bass. These fish can be very damaging to one’s health, especially tuna which has the highest mercury levels of all fish. There are several symptoms when one experiences mercury poisoning, such as problems with vision and tremors. These are indications that one should most likely cutback on their sushi intake or the consequences may become very severe. Also, some individuals should stay away from sushi completely, such as pregnant women. Pregnant women should avoid sushi because mercury poisoning can be extremely harmful to a developing fetus or child.
Overall, sushi can be quite healthy if you eat it every once in awhile, but you shouldn’t overdo it. You should be very careful about your sushi intake because eating too much can definitely be dangerous.
Sources:
http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=4496&channel_id=44&relation_id=48473
http://www.usforacle.com/news/view.php/686471/Dont-eat-too-much-sushi
I thought this was interesting because growing up in a coastal community I ate a lot of sushi, poke, and other various raw seafood. I had previously never heard that sushi or raw fish could be harmful unless it was old or to be careful when you’re pregnant. I think it is important to note also that even in cooked fish there is still a chance of getting mercury poisoning, not just with raw seafood, which was pointed out in this article: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22843389/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/it-safe-eat-sushi/#.VDB2fCldXXw
I agree with what you are saying completely. I have always been a sushi person; in fact my family and I would always go to the same sushi restaurant every Friday night. Over the years we became very close with the owner, who explained to us some of the dangers of consuming raw fish. As you mentioned before the mercury levels in the fish can be dangerous, but according to a sushi chief, what is often the most dangerous things about sushi is consuming bad fish. Depending on the freshness and area where the fish came from people can get incredibly sick. If you are like me and love sushi make sure you go to a reputable sushi restaurant and don’t settle for cheap grocery store sushi because you never know where it came from, who prepared it, and weather or not the fish is fresh.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/images/2007/05/27/dayoldsushi.jpg