“Does Eating Sushi Cause Acne?”

Ray J. Wang Answers Whether Eating Sushi Causes Acne.

If you LOVE sushi like I do, you’ve probably wondered if sushi, nigiri, and raw fish can cause acne? Well… can it? What if your favorite food was doing something to your skin that you didn’t know about? There’s something very interesting that I think every acne sufferer should know if they like eating sushi so much. And it’s something that you’re not going to want to miss…

For those of you just chiming in, I decided to go on a 7 day journey of a sushi diet.  I ate a lot of sushi foods from sushi restaurants for 7 days to see how many acne would look by the 7th day on the How To Clear Your Acne Program.  Here’s what I found…

Day 7: We’re finally here, the last day of the sushi showdown…

For those you who are new to and might have found this article by accident, this is a week or so challenge in which I had sushi, nigiri, sashimi, fish, shrimp, or some sort of seafood everyday for roughly a week and noted the effects on my skin.

Click “Keep Reading…” to see pictures of my results from the day before on Day 5 & 6, see pictures of the food I ate on Day 7, and pictures of the next day.

From my previous entry, I noted that I actually started getting a pimple on my nose. I ended up popping it, it was a very small bit of inflammation and nothing too serious though it was relatively larger than my other pimples.
Here’s a close up of my nose. You can see the blemish of where the pimple originally used to be. It will form into a scab pretty soon if I’m careful with it and if it doesn’t get infected again.

WHAT I ATE THAT NIGHT FOR MY FINAL NIGHT OF SUSHI BINGING!

Just kidding kids, binging is a bad idea and you shouldn’t do it. It can actually cause acne and stomach problems if you’re not careful in the long run.

Now, on to what I ate that night.

Plate 1: Again, plenty of rice and fried foods. This is a crunchy role, it’s often eaten with a “special sauce” that’s very sweet so you know it contains quite a bit of sugar.

Plate 2: Unagi handroll, it was delicious. It contains that “special sauce” that I just mentioned, cucumbers, sesame seeds, and plenty of rice wrapped up in seaweed.

Plate 3: Nigiri pieces: I believe I ordered salmon, tuna and albacore? Again, a lot of rice.

Plate 4: Then there was some lobster rolls which were basically just California rolls with lobster and “special sauce” that was slightly different (mayonnaise maybe?). And above that shrimp, tuna, and avocados on top of California rolls.

MY RESULTS:

Not too much damage. Slightly increase in whitehead and blackhead production. 2-3 pimples along the peripheral lining of my face around my chin and jawline. One larger more noticeable pimple on my nose that I ended up popping.

There was also slight redness of my cheeks that were a little bit more noticeable that usual. There were little bumps over my skin that weren’t there before causing the service to be a little bit more rough, but it was nothing that was obvious to the naked eye.

DID YOU GAIN A LOT OF WEIGHT?

I didn’t gain too much weight. Maybe 2-5 pounds at the very most. But my weight always fluctuates quite rapidly so I disregarded this data.

I’m also working out consistently doing heavy duty weight lifting so this may definitely affect the gaining of muscle for extra mass or the gaining of weight because of the added muscle volume.

I started off around 141.5 lbs. and ended at around 143 lbs to 147 lbs depending on whether or not I’ve just finished eating or not in the day. I’m quite happen about it because I now have more muscle mass to work with.

MY CONCLUSION:

Unless you have an allergy to shellfish, shrimp, or fish, you’re in the safe when it comes to seafood.

Generally, it’s really the white rice that’s probably doing any of the damaged because of the fact that it’s almost pure sugar when converted into your system. That sugar was mostly likely the reason that I was getting slightly inflammation when I was getting any pimples at all.

My pores did become slightly more clogged than usual, and it might have a little bit to do with the fact that I was eating an incredible amount of raw foods. However, I believe that it wasn’t until I combined it with a highly inflammatory food like white rice, that I started breaking out a bit and getting actual “pimples.”

On top of that, usually, when Americans eat sushi in the United States, it’s not just straight sashimi (which is just the raw fish by itself). We usually eat a lot of Japanese handrolls and California handrolls with a lot of “special “sauce.”

The “special sauce” that’s usually eaten with Americanized “sushi” usually contains a lot of sugar (so it tastes good) and less seafood than we think. Many of the restaurants that I went to were very stingy with their actual seafood and a lot more generous with their rice. It’s very deceiving if you’re a sushi connoisseur.

We can’t really hate on them though because in reality, it really is more expensive to serve quality raw sushi than it is white rice.

Also, you have to know that the California rolls that most Americanized sushi is really isn’t sushi at all. It’s artificial crab that’s made with a secret flour mix. So that’s a little bit more sugar added to the meal. It’s not real seafood but grinded fish leftovers mixed with a bunch of other things. It’s sort of like the hot dog of Japanese food…

Therefore, my conclusion is that sushi is DECENT because it really depends on what kind of sushi you’re eating, a lot of handrolls with “special sauce” or the authentic sashimi (a lot more $$ expensive). You’re acne is safe if you’re body is strong enough to withstand all that rice and sugar that you’re eating. But if you’re still in a weak condition when it comes to acne and if you’re body is highly reactive to the ingredients that I’ve been mentioning in this article, you may want to stay away.

I hope all of you who have read my article enjoyed it and maybe had a good laugh here or there! I take many hours out of my own day working on this website to contribute back to the community. If you feel like this article has helped you, I hope you can understand that you can contribute back in some way too. If so, please support this website and encourage future detailed articles to help with your acne and your health. Whether it’s a comment, new recipe, a small donation, or just an email to say thank you, I want your participation!

-Ray