Ever been in the midst of pregnancy, but had a craving for sushi? In the U.S., the overwhelming advice is to avoid sushi while pregnant, but is that an actual good tip or just an old wives’ tale? I can’t help but ask this question since, after all, sushi originated in Japan, where I am currently living, and there doesn’t seem to be the same stigma here.
Japanese View on Eating Sushi While Pregnant
Although people in Japan don’t care about pregnant people eating sushi, let me tell you that that in and of itself doesn’t mean a thing. About a decade ago, eating raw liver was apparently very popular here before people actually tried to figure out if it was even safe. Hint: it wasn’t, and it wasn’t until a lot of babies started being born deaf that anyone bothered to look into it. As you might’ve guessed, the common thread with all of these infants is that their mothers ate raw liver during their pregnancy.
Whoops.
This is not to blame those mothers specifically – it’s common in Japan to eat a lot of different things raw, and no doctors or health professionals warned against it, so there was no reason for them to suspect that it wasn’t okay. (At least, to my knowledge – all of my information about this is from my Japanese husband, and it happened over a decade ago so his memory might be fuzzy.)
Anyway, the point is that just because something is “popular” or commonly accepted as “okay,” that doesn’t automatically mean it’s safe. With that in mind, we return to the question – is sushi safe to eat while pregnant?
One thing that sushi does have going for it that raw liver didn’t is that it has not only been an everyday food for over a century, but I’ve heard that some doctors around here will even go so far as to recommend sushi as a good source of lean protein during pregnancy. So, based on that alone and the fact that there hasn’t been a rash of
(Mine did not say anything in favor of sushi specifically, but also didn’t warn against it. Note to self: ask him during my next appointment.)
Safe or Potential Danger?
However, something to note is that sushi chefs in Japan typically have to go through years of training before they can be certified to make sushi, and there are certain techniques in cutting raw fish that they use to ensure that they don’t serve salmon with parasites or somesuch.
The danger with sushi isn’t really in the sushi itself, but more in the fear of it being improperly prepared. It’s for this reason that, when my mother was pregnant, she overcooked her meat (especially chicken) to avoid any risk of bacteria that comes with raw or undercooked meat.
Granted, I don’t know if literally everyone who serves sushi goes through that rigorous training, so I try to stick with reputable sushi restaurants.
Figuring Out Which Fish Have Mercury
The other thing that I try to be cautious of when I’m pregnant is mercury intake from fish – and since sushi is fish, that is included in that category. You can check out this article if you want a more in-depth list of fish to limit/avoid vs. fish that is okay to eat plenty of, but basically, I just take a lot of care and track what I eat.
On a rare occasion, I might indulge in a small amount (6 oz. or less) of a more mercury-heavy fish like tuna, but I mainly stick to things like salmon, shrimp, or sweetfish (ayu in Japanese). I stick to this same rule while nursing as well since I’m basically acting as a filter for my kid, which is mainly the reason why I don’t swear off tuna entirely. It’s actually pretty difficult to avoid tuna here in Japan – specifically slipjack tuna (or katsuo), which is used in a lot of different seasonings.
My advice, ultimately, would be to do your own research and make a decision based on that – or better yet, just go with your doctor’s recommendation. If you do choose to eat sushi, try to stick to the “cooked” versions of sushi (i.e., most sushi rolls) if you want to play it safe or if you’re feeling uneasy about whether the sushi is actually being prepared correctly.
I have to be honest, I probably wouldn’t be eating sushi while pregnant if I was back in the States – I only feel comfortable doing it in Japan because it’s easy to find sushi places with very high standards. And on the bright side, pregnancy is a temporary state – cravings can be a powerful thing, but fortunately, we can always distract ourselves with other things (YouTube, blogs) to overcome.
