I kept getting these snaps from a friend who went to the same sushi restaurant for lunch every day. I asked him how that’s possible, because how can anyone not get tired of eating the same thing every day? But then that made me wonder if there’s some sort of nutritional benefit to eating sushi every day. So after a couple more sushi snaps—he dared me to do the sushi diet, and I did.
Here are the rules of this challenge: five days, and eat only sushi meals (to heighten the stakes of this experiment). Here’s what I learned after five (incomplete) days of the sushi diet.
Day 1
I was super lucky that my parents bought extra sushi take out the previous night, so for lunch and dinner, I ate these leftovers. The pro is that they were some of my favourite sushi rolls (California roll and chopped scallop roll). The con is that sushi doesn’t last long, and is only good for 24 hours with refrigeration. I don’t know about you, but eating chewy rice didn’t seem like a good start to this diet challenge.
Day 2
I have yet to find the best place for on-the-go sushi. However, given that I was running late and missed breakfast, I gave in and picked up a couple rolls from the sushi place in the AMS Nest. Although I think the rolls are way overpriced, I learned that they are actually a great option for a quick lunch on campus. They’re popular for a reason; they cater to tired, yet hungry college students.
Day 3
By this point, I was in the middle of this experiment, and I started feeling extremely frustrated. What was I doing this for? Why does wasabi burn so much? Is the sushi diet really good for me? Sushi tastes good and fresh, but are my tongue and mouth deceiving me? Regardless, I went out to my local family-friendly sushi restaurant with my dad for dinner and ordered a large Sake to get through the meal.
Day 4
This was a cheat day. I met up with a friend who I hadn’t seen in a couple weeks. When I told her about this ridiculously weird experiment, she laughed at me while Yelping some good sushi restaurants nearby. However, maybe it’s the smell that started to get to me—but I ended up ordering an Udon soup while she had a couple interesting rolls: a colorful caterpillar roll and a mini fish maki roll.
Day 5
This was the end of my experiment week. I had never felt so happy and excited to finally be able to eat whatever I want again. I ended this experiment with my favourite rolls: kappa roll, Ebi roll, a couple pieces of Hokkigai & Tako, and a new fusioned tobiko roll.
I went home and Googled the benefits to eating sushi. It turns out that sushi can be a nutritious meal because it is comprised of a high-quality protein. However, sushi tastes good because it is high in sugar in the rice, which we all know is very bad for you. As well, you can be over-consuming carbs from the rice.
Sushi is always fun to eat because of the different types of rolls that exist, where they can be made of any ingredient. I don’t know if I could have lasted beyond the five days of this experiment, but I’m glad that it’s over. As I’m typing this, I’m eating a big scoop of ice cream and nibbling on leftover pizza. I’ve never been a diet type of person anyways.