Healthy Sushi: Tips for Ordering

Sushi can be the perfect diet-friendly meal, but it can quickly become a diet-buster with more than 1,000 calories in just a couple of rolls.

To help you navigate the array of options at your favorite sushi bar, I’m sharing the nutritional do’s and don’ts for ordering sushi rolls.

• Most smaller-sized rolls have about 200 to 300 calories per order
• Larger specialty rolls (such as rainbow roll and tiger roll) typically have 400 to 500 calories or more.
• Save 200+ calories and 30-40 grams of carbohydrate by nixing the rice (even brown rice), and ask for roll be wrapped with cucumber, rice paper or soy paper.

LOVE IT!

• Naruto Rolls – wrapped in cucumber, without rice
• Nori (seaweed), rice paper, or soy paper to wrap, with fresh fish & optional veggies + avocado, without rice
• Temaki (“hand roll”) – cone-shaped piece of seaweed filled with fresh fish, with little or no brown rice

LIKE IT!

• Brown rice rolls (with seaweed, cucumber, rice paper or soy paper) with fresh fish & optional veggies + avocado
• California roll or any veggie-only roll, with brown rice: Only 150 to 300 calories per roll, but the main issue is that they’re primarily carb-based, often with little protein or fat, so they’re likely to leave you feeling hungry shortly.

HATE IT!

• Tempura rolls – battered and deep-fried
• Crunchy rolls – also fried — though a few crunchies here and there won’t make that much of a difference.
• Spider roll (fried soft-shell crab, usually with spicy mayo) and Dynamite roll (typically covered with spicy mayo sauce) can each top 500 calories — most of it from fat and white carbs.

For more details on this topic, watch Molly’s full “Love it, Like it, Hate it” segment on WGNO New Orleans.