POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Nutrition & HIV => Topic started by: Peaceful_Rhino on July 05, 2012, 03:07:05 pm
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Hi -
Sorry if this is a basic question but I was just diagnosed last week. I am curious about raw fish and seafood with HIV. I wasn't even thinking the other night and went out with friends for sushi...halfway through dinner I thought about pregnant women and the sushi "ban" and began to wonder about HIV and raw fish, shellfish, etc.
Is this now off the table?
Thanks for any insight?
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Hi -
Sorry if this is a basic question but I was just diagnosed last week. I am curious about raw fish and seafood with HIV. I wasn't even thinking the other night and went out with friends for sushi...halfway through dinner I thought about pregnant women and the sushi "ban" and began to wonder about HIV and raw fish, shellfish, etc.
Is this now off the table?
Thanks for any insight?
It used to be "off the table." People with very low CD4 cells (say, less than 100) have a much harder time fending off some of the pathogens and parasites that are occasionally found in sushi. Well, SOME sushi.
Of course, that bit of instruction is from the 1990s, before sushi was commonplace.
Nowadays, if you go to a reputable place that serves sushi and your immune system is robust, you ought to have no problems.
I eat sushi and sashimi whenever I get the chance. LOVE the stuff. I even are it when I was carrying around a whopping 12 cd4 cells, without problem.
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I'd try to limit the amount you eat, at least until you get all your bloodwork. If you get the craving, I suggest opting for the cooked stuff, like eel, shrimp, tamago, and perhaps the tempura. I'd go very light on the raw stuff. And, most importantly, stick with the places with an impeccable reputation. Better to treat yourself and spend more on excellent sushi fewer times, than eating the average stuff often. I had an awful experience last August with bad sushi, two months before getting this virus, and I went thru hell, even without a compromised immune system. God knows how scary it would be for me to go through that now. I haven't eaten the raw stuff since that day.
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Nelson Vergel, who is a pozzie and writes for The Body and other places, recently posted on this.
He cited several medical studies and publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, that described a particular parasite that affects people who eat raw fish or other seafood.
If I can find the post again, I will link it.
But the main gist of the articles was a particular parasite, a type of red worm, that infests people who eat uncooked seafood.
I used to eat sushi, sashimi, etc., but have stopped eating it after becoming ill after eating sushi. I have also stopped eating rare meats.
I would stick to the cooked varieties of sushi, as NY2011 suggested.
But, that's me.
HUGS,
Mark
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I narrowly avoided eating a very rare (read: undercooked ) tuna. It was a huge cut of meat and the picnic was on a hot hot day. The tuna was grilled whole and sliced. Everyone got sick that ate it. Luckily I saw it was too rare for me and passed on it.
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Two years ago I went through a serious sushi addiction. :D (I am talking about once a week to twice a week. All you can eat like ten sushi rolls to my self) Rice Rolls with huge slabs of tuna/salmon) with oysters and other "raw delicious delicacies."
I would definitely recommend on being careful if lower cd4 counts or sensitive GI tract. As I was having sympthoms similar to morning sickness the next day (I am a male) So I would watch the intake.
Speaking from personal experience. All though back then my diet wasn't that great to begin with.