Sushi is generally seen as a healthy and delicious fish based food (yes I know other varieties are available, but fish is by far the most popular), but it turns out that we might be completely wrong in this assumption. In fact, it could be destroying the environment, wrecking our health while being responsible for tuna becoming almost extinct.

Featured Image VIA

Professor Daniel Pauly and Dr Dirk Zelle from the University of British Columbia in Canada have said the following regarding the dish:

Historically we have had the “Popeye effect” where everyone ate spinach, then vitamin D was good and vitamin C would save us from having cancer.

Now it is omega-3 – all these things are going to save us, make us healthy and we are going to live for ever. None of this is true – what we need is a balanced diet.

Sushi isn’t even particularly good for you. It regularly containsmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls from polluted waterways which can lead to cancer.

The sushi served up in trendy sushi bars also contain microbeads – plastic particles that are magnets for pesticides and industrial chemicals. Microbeads are poison pills which soak up all the pollutants and they are consumed by little fish which are then eaten by tuna. These again aren’t good for humans.

Regarding the extinction of tuna, we are in permanent crisis if you look at it in historic terms. Bluefin tuna was extremely abundant, especially in the Mediterranean.

What has become of that? We have 2 to 3 per cent of what we had 200 years ago and this is all down to the recent increased desire for sushi.

Image VIA 

It sounds like they know what they’re talking about, but playing devil’s advocate it doesn’t really sound like eating sushi is any less unhealthy than anything else you could put in your mouth. Sure omega-3 might not save your life, but it’s probably not going to do any harm either. It might even help you in fact.

The pair might have a point about tuna going extinct and its links to the thriving sushi industry though. However, I doubt anyone is going to stop eating it because of that do you?

For an alternative kind of sushi, check out this meat lover’s roll prepared by a Japanese master chef. Delicious.