Recently, sushi has become a very popular food - a Japanese dish. Opens more restaurants and cafes serving such a treat. After all, his lovers are becoming more and more. Although disputes about the dangers and benefits of sushi do not subside. Many believe that such food can be poisoned. To understand whether this is so, you need to figure out which components are part of this dish, how it is prepared and how to use it correctly.
What is sushi
This is a traditional Japanese dish. In a country surrounded by the ocean, fish is the main food. It is often not even cooked, as it is eaten almost immediately after fishing. The simplest and most common dish among fishermen was thin pieces of fish, wrapped with rice in sheets of seaweed. Recently, such food has become popular in the West, and from there it came to Russia. At the same time, the traditional Japanese name "sushi" was transformed into "sushi". Now this dish has become fashionable.
Sushi embodies the tradition of Japanese cuisine. Their feature is minimal heat treatment and small portions of the dish. It is because of this that there is much debate about the dangers and benefits of land. Opponents of this dish indicate the danger of eating raw fish, and sushi lovers like its low calorie content and unusual taste. In addition, many are fond of such food because of the unusual serving, serving the meal and the way it is consumed. But still, before talking about the dangers and benefits of land, you need to figure out what they are prepared from.
What is included in their composition?
Sushi is rice soaked in a special sauce, stuffed with fish and vegetables. All this is wrapped in a sheet of seaweed and cut into portioned pieces. A large portion of such a dish is called sushi, and small pieces - rolls. Moreover, the rolls can be cooked with a wide variety of fillings, up to chicken and vegetables. This dish is served with soy sauce, marinated ginger and a bit of wasabi are also included.
Those who are fond of Japanese cuisine and want to learn about the benefits and dangers of sushi for health, you need to understand what all the components of this dish are:
- special rice is needed to make sticky porridge;
- after cooking, it is watered with a special dressing consisting of rice vinegar, sugar and salt;
- soy sauce is prepared from soybeans, fermenting them with a special fungal culture, sometimes cereals are added to it;
- nori seaweed or kombu contain a large amount of iodine: only 2 rolls provide the daily requirement of the body for this trace element;
- wasabi is a paste made from Japanese horseradish - eutrem, it is a source of a large amount of vitamin C, antioxidants and natural antibiotics;
- pickled ginger contains many healthy ingredients.
Useful or harmful sushi
This question cannot be answered unequivocally. It all depends on the individual characteristics of a person, the quality of the components from which sushi is prepared, and the correctness of their use. This dish may be harmful to people with an allergic reaction to seafood. In addition, spicy seasonings can harm those who have diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, a large amount of rice - for patients with diabetes mellitus. Soy sauce contains a lot of salt, which can lead to swelling and salt deposition.
The main danger of land with fish is that they can be a source of parasites. According to various sources, almost 100% of all fish are now infected with helminth eggs. It is she who is the carrier of round and ribbon worms, which can only be destroyed with sufficient heat treatment.
Useful properties of sushi
With proper preparation, compliance with all sanitary standards and the timely use of sushi are useful. This is due to their composition, because the main components of the dish are only healthy low-calorie foods. Therefore, this dish can contribute to weight loss. In addition, sushi protects the body from cancerous tumors, their use improves mood.
- Thanks to sea fish, which contains many minerals and essential fatty acids, the brain, cardiovascular system improves. It promotes timely cell renewal and improves digestion.
- Rice is a source of dietary fiber and carbohydrates. It stimulates the digestive process, provides the body with energy and helps to quickly satisfy hunger.
- Soy sauce is also good. It contains easily digestible proteins and flavonoids, which slow down the aging process and improve blood circulation. This sauce helps to speed up metabolism, improves the functioning of the nervous system and brain activity, normalizes the acid-base balance and helps with overwork.
- Nori algae helps cleanse the intestines, prolong youth and regulate the nervous system. They contain a lot of iodine and iron.
- Ginger has antioxidant properties, improves blood circulation and stimulates the body's defenses. It is believed that it helps relieve headaches, eliminates bad breath.
- Wasabi is a strong antiseptic. This product has an antibacterial effect, prevents the formation of blood clots, cleanses the body of mucus and toxins. In addition to its disinfecting properties, wasabi also protects teeth from tooth decay.
When sushi is bad
There are many opponents of this Japanese dish. Some simply did not like it, while others give arguments that prove the harm of land. They believe that the use of this product is dangerous for the inhabitants of our country. The main evidence for this is that sushi with fish is a traditional food of the Japanese, but not the Europeans, whose body is not genetically adapted to digest so many raw seafood. In addition, there are other arguments that prove that sushi can be harmful:
- tuna, which is a fairly popular component of this dish, has recently been heavily infected with lead, mercury and other poisons due to pollution of the oceans;
- soy sauce is often made from low-quality raw materials that contain GMOs, salts of heavy metals;
- this sauce contains a large amount of salt;
- Wasabi is sometimes made not from the original Japanese horseradish, but from the usual, adding spices and dyes;
- nori seaweed, in which rice is wrapped, is very rich in iodine, just a few sushi leads to its overdose, which is dangerous for health;
- Raw fish, which is the main component of land, is delivered to the consumer for a long time, during which time it becomes a hotbed of a large number of bacteria, parasites and worms.
Avoiding Negative Action
The main argument in disputes about the benefits and dangers of land is the danger of eating raw fish. It can not be delivered to the restaurant immediately after the catch, so most often this dish is prepared from frozen raw materials. But so that all parasites, bacteria and worm eggs are destroyed, you need to keep the fish at a temperature of no higher than minus 18 degrees. And such conditions are not always respected. Therefore, in order for sushi not to be hazardous to health, you need to follow a few rules:
- use them only in large restaurants and trusted cafes, since you need sushi immediately after cooking;
- When using sushi with red fish, it is better to give preference to those that include smoked or salted;
- Do not eat sushi with tuna more often than a couple of times a month;
- it is necessary to observe moderation, these dishes are eaten in small portions;
- sushi and rolls should be consumed immediately after preparation; they cannot be stored for longer than 3 hours.
How to cook sushi
Most often, this dish is consumed in specialized restaurants, where cooks are specially trained in all the intricacies of Japanese cuisine. But now in stores you can find everything you need to make sushi and rolls yourself. To do this, you need to purchase special rice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, nori seaweed. It’s best to buy a roll-up mat and chopsticks.
Rice for sushi should be sticky, not friable. When it is soaked in vinegar, it should form well into a ball. At home, it is better to take fish that has undergone heat treatment. But the advantage of self-manufacturing is that you can choose absolutely any filling to your liking. The traditional sushi recipe is nori seaweed, rice is placed on it, then - the filling, all this is rolled into a roll and cut into pieces. There are a lot of options for filling and serving.
Best Sushi Recipes
The traditional recipe for this dish is raw fish. But there are many variations that are more acceptable in the conditions of our area. As the filling use chicken, herring, ham. There are also lean rolls with cucumber, zucchini or avocados. You can choose the option to your liking, and you can roll sushi in accordance with the traditions of Japanese cuisine.
- Nigiri sushi is made in the form of a stick. Its components are rice, wasabi and any filling, mainly fish. All this is then wrapped in a piece of seaweed.
- Hosomaki is known as rolls. These are sushi, completely wrapped in nori and formed in the form of a roll.
- Uramaki is also rolls, but the rice in them will be outside.
- Temaki is sushi rolled up by a cone. Inside the cone-shaped sheet of nori is rice and some filling.
- Onigiri are pieces of roll wrapped with rice outward.
Reviews about this dish
Despite talk of the dangers of this dish, sushi is becoming increasingly popular. Some eat them almost every day, they cook them themselves. But mostly people use sushi on weekends or holidays in a cafe and restaurant. Many people like the unusualness of this dish, its special taste. Others say that they prefer sushi because they are low-calorie but saturate well. Everyone for himself must decide whether sushi is healthy or harmful. But so that this dish does not turn out to be dangerous, you must follow the rules for its preparation and use.