Can I eat Sushi when Pregnant?

16 comments

1. Yes.

2. You should not eat raw fish while pregnant.

   https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/nutrition-during-pregnancy

   https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/keeping-well/foods-to-avoid/

   You can eat sushi containing *cooked* fish, however. Cooked fish is very healthy for pregnant people to eat.

3. My wife ate sushi often while pregnant but avoided types that are prone to be high in Mercury content. Our daughter is happy and healthy with no issues whatsoever.

   Edit: We were living in Japan, and her doctors had no issues with this cautioned approach.

4. My wife’s observation while pregnant with our two children was that people sure do love to tell pregnant women what not to do, “out of an abundance of caution”, and a lot of the advice is outdated or paranoid.

   She doesn’t like fish so the sushi question never came up, but she enjoyed pointing out how steak tartare was a no-no while nobody mentions commercial packaged salad leaves or sandwiches, which are statistically far more likely to cause the same problems.

5. I cook salmon sushi using smoked salmon (cooked salmon), try that instead

6. When I lived in Sweden all sushi places had Mama Sushi, which was sushi without the fish, but instead the omellete, aspargus, avocado etc.
   The recommendation there is to avoid fish, if I remember correct both raw and cooked.

7. I love sushi. When I had sushi while pregnant, I was more cautious. I did have more of the cooked stuff – like CA rolls, eel, etc. I ate less raw but when I did, I made sure it was stuff I loved – like chu toro or o toro. lol

8. I had a friend that is from Hong Kong that was so enraged by the advice given to American women about Asian food. Her thing was that none of this advice was given in Asia where people actually ate sushi and other types of food that contained raw fish all the time, and so would usually have a better idea about safety. Instead they are completely ignored by American practitioners who insist on giving advice based on little evidence and a lot of prejudice. I can’t prove that she’s right, but I think she’s right.

9. Yes, just don’t eat the raw stuff.
   If you’re paranoid, then ask the waiter to ask the kitchen if your order contains anything else a pregnant guest cannot have, that will also alert the kitchen about that specific order.
   Usually restaurants have experience with guests asking these things all year round.

10. No. I wouldn’t give it a try unless you’re Japanese and have evolved from generations of people eating sushi over thousands of years.

11. No

12. I wouldnt

13. My wife is also pregnant. Word from American doctors is to stick to cooked sushi like shrimp, crab, eel.

14. Just ask: do women in Japan have the same worry? There’s your answer.

15. Avoid high mercury fish and Oysters per the Japanese health agency. No I don’t have source, but thats what I looked up when I was pregnant with number 2 because I started to wonder why American women were told to not do (or do) a lot of things that pregnant women in other countries said was fine (or not fine…I think it was the French who recommended against uncooked leafy greens when pregnant…)

16. Ask your doctor.