Japanese restaurants offer a variety of diet-friendly menu items. But is Japanese food healthy? Japanese cuisine features plenty of vegetables, many protein-rich healthy fish choices and most entrees only include a moderate amount of "bad" starchy carbohydrates.You'll find most of these basic items at your favorite Japanese restaurant. Keep in mind that some of these foods have a high sodium (salt) content, so if you are watching your salt intake, ask your waiter for the best option. Most of these items can be a full meal in themselves. But you can also mix and match to try new tastes and flavors.Sushi is one of the most popular foods in a Japanese restaurant. In many cases, sushi can be a very healthy menu choice. Sushi is raw fish served with rice, vegetables or other garnishes. Salmon and tuna are often found on sushi menus and both types of fish provide health benefits. You'll also see healthy avocado included in some sushi rolls.So is all sushi healthy? In some restaurants, sushi is deep fried.

When you see a sushi roll with the word "tempura" in the name, it is fried. In addition, you may find raw fish combined with other fatty or salty ingredients. Since sushi preparation varies from restaurant to restaurant, it's best to ask your server for the healthiest options. There is plenty to choose from if you want to eat healthy at a Japanese restaurant. Stick to raw or steamed vegetables to keep the calories as low as possible. Then choose raw or cooked fish according to your taste. If you don't like sushi, consider sashimi. Sashimi is small bites of raw fish that you eat with wasabi or soy sauce.  White rice will probably come with your meal, but you can ask for brown rice to boost your fiber intake. And remember to keep portions sizes in control. Some larger sushi rolls are eight pieces or more—enough to serve two people.When you're scanning the menu at your favorite spot, be wary of any foods that are breaded or fried. Tempura items are often heavily fried, although some restaurants only flash fry their foods.

If you're not sure about a particular item, don't be shy. Ask your server for the best options. And many Japanese chefs are happy to customize and order for you.As a general rule, try to avoid these foods:Eating in any restaurant can be tricky. Most restaurant dishes are bigger than they need to be and contain more fat and calories than they should. But dining in a Japanese restaurant can be especially tricky because most of the food looks healthy.So what's the problem with healthy food? Nothing if you don't overeat it. But when you're dining out you're often with friends and family. And you might even enjoy a Japanese beer or two or even a sake with your meal. These distractions can make it easy to overeat.So to keep your calorie count in control, consider ordering an appetizer as your main dish. Or select a few pieces of sushi or sashimi as your entree.  Sushi rolls can be delicious as well, but many of them include fried items, and they can provide more food (and calories) than you need.

Remember, eating in any restaurant is about making smart choices. where to buy spicy mayo for sushiUse these tips to enjoy your next trip to your favorite Japanese restaurant.where to buy sushi ingredients in bostonYou now have the blessing of five health experts to eat sushi—but there are some things you should know before ordering.buy japanese yen melbourne “Sushi is a nice and healthy meal if you make the right choices,” says Sunniva Hoel, a PhD candidate at Sør-Trøndelag University College in Norway. sushi takeout downtown minneapolisIt comes with all the health benefits you’d expect from fish, like omega-3 fatty acids and lean protein, but the problem is often what it’s wrapped in. “Maki and nigiri sushi mainly consist of rice, which is just fast carbohydrates,” she says.

Eating sashimi, slices of raw fish accessorized with vegetables, is the better way to order. It should be noted, too, that sushi is raw, so people with immune deficiency, like the elderly or chronically ill, and pregnant women should take care when eating foods that haven’t been heat-treated, she says. “Raw fish can transmit infectious diseases,” adds Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, “so you need to choose a very well-run establishment.” Store-bought sushi might face even more of a quality challenge than the kind you eat at a restaurant, since its longer shelf life gives bacteria more of an opportunity to flourish, Hoel says. A study by Hoel and her colleagues found that almost half of the 58 samples of supermarket sushi they sampled had unsatisfactory levels of bacteria. “The main concern is to maintain an unbroken cold chain during production, distribution, and display in stores and all the way to the consumer’s tables,” she says.

Needless to say, rolls that are deep-fried and smothered with mayo are less healthy choices, says Kristin Kirkpatrick, RD, manager of wellness nutrition services at Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. She tells her patients to focus on lean sources of fresh fatty fish, get plenty of sea vegetables and wrap it in brown rice, or no wrap at all. “If that’s how you approach a night at the sushi bar, then a portioned controlled thumbs up to you,” she says. Mercury is still a concern with sushi, says Roxanne Karimi, PhD, 
School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University
. Her research on mercury found that blood mercury levels were positively associated with eating a weekly tuna steak or sushi. But small-bodied fish lower on the food chain have less of it, she says. Those lesser-known fish lower on the food chain are often the best ones to pick for sustainability, too, says Tim Fitzgerald, director of impact in the oceans program at the Environmental Defense Fund.

“The sushi market in general is much more opaque than the larger seafood market,” he says. Unfortunately, three of the most popular items—tuna, salmon and shrimp—aren’t often fished or farmed sustainably, he says. Opt instead for things with two shells, like scallops, clams and oysters. Roe—fish eggs—are a good choice too and have some of the highest omega-3 levels of any food per volume, Fitzgerald says. Other sustainable options are mackerel and arctic char, which is produced in a much more sustainable way than farmed salmon sushi, he says. (For more on the best fish to order, check out the Environmental Defense Fund Seafood Selector—complete with a sushi guide.) Some restaurants, too, are raising the bar: Fitzgerald points to Bamboo Sushi in Portland, OR, Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, CT, and Tataki in San Francisco, CA as pioneers in sushi sustainability. “You don’t have to give up sushi,” Fitzgerald reiterates. “It’s still good for you: just have a cheat sheet when you go in.”