Do You Think Sushi is a healthy lunch alternative?
What you are about to learn may come as a shock to you. Many people think having some sushi for lunch, instead of a sandwich, is the healthy choice. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Don’t worry all is not lost, I going to show you how to make healthy sushi!
But first I want to give you the science behind why your sushi is not better than a sandwich and in actual fact is worse.
All carbohydrates convert to glucose (sugar). Yes, this means white bread, whole grains, pasta, rice, potatoes, corn etc. It all gets converted to glucose by your body.
How do you work out how much sugar is in your food, the simple way is to look at the nutrition panel, find out the number of grams of carbohydrate and then divide by four (4). Remember if there is added sugar, you also need to add that to your total.
Now for the fact that is going to absolutely shock you! How many teaspoons of sugar do you think are in two thin slices of “healthy” whole grain bread?
Are you sitting down……… There are typically, Ten (10) teaspoons of sugar, in 2 thin slices of whole grain bread.
Now let’s compare that to how many teaspoons of sugar are in a very sweet “unhealthy” snickers bar?
Are you still sitting down…………… There are 8.5 teaspoons of sugar in a snickers bar!
So, with this information, look at the image below and you will quickly see why Sushi is NOT a healthy alternative for lunch.
Using the maths above, if there are the equivalent of six (6) slices of bread in what looks like three (3) standard sushi rolls, you end up with a whopping thirty (30) teaspoons of sugar in your sushi or 3.5 snickers bars!
Just a little additional information before I move on and tell you how you can still enjoy the wonderful flavours of sushi!
Grains actually contain chemicals that turn off the hormone in the brain, that lets you know when you have eaten enough. So, foods containing grains (rice, pasta, bread) make you hungrier, rather than satisfying your appetite. There is a biological, chemical, hormonal reason you can consume large amounts of breads, rice, pasta and corn products etc. at one time, but you can’t eat huge amounts of meat or broccoli or salad or butter! Carbs make you hungry, and as soon as your body burns up all the easily available sugar contained in them, its hungry again. Healthy fats, proteins and vegetables not only contain far more essential vitamins and nutrients, they will also keep you feeling fuller for much longer.
So how do you make healthy sushi! Well you have 2 options: Firstly, no rice at all, try just taking the nori sheet and using it like a wrap, fill it with lots of salad, herbs, avocado, chicken, beef, tuna, whatever you like and just rolling it up in your hand. Easy, no fuss, ready in minutes and full of flavour.
Secondly, you can make sushi using cauliflower rice, a little more complicated but much closer in flavour and texture to the original.
Cauliflower Rice Sushi
Ingredients:
1/2 head of cauliflower, broken into pieces
2 nori seaweed sheets
A dash each of soy sauce, sesame seed oil and sushi vinegar
Ingredients you would like in your sushi – avocado, carrots, cucumber, chicken, tuna etc.
Method:
Place the cauliflower pieces into a food processor and pulse until you have fine, rice-like texture. It only takes about 30secs!
Heat the sesame oil in a small pan and add the ‘rice’. Mix to coat the 'rice' in the oil and then add a splash of the sushi vinegar and soy sauce, cook for about 7–8 minutes until it softens slightly, then set aside.
Next, slice your chosen veggies into longs strips and prepare any of the meats you have chosen
Now it’s time to put it all together! Having the “rice” slightly warm helps it stick to the nori better. Start by spreading a layer of “rice” over the nori sheet, leaving a space at the front and back, then lay the veggie and meat slices on top.
Roll up and cut in half, and you are ready to eat.
Special Note: Watch a few YouTube video’s on how to roll sushi before you start, I found it very helpful when it came to my rolling technique. It may take a couple of goes to get the hang of it but once you have it, you will be making these wonderful sushi rolls on a regular basis.
Make some in advance so you can pop them in lunch boxes for work and school.