Jiro was trying to talk himself out of eating sushi. He had two phones and a tablet by his plate, to help him.. The tablet identified the components of his dinner - a list of ingredients in the Crunchy Rainbow roll, under sesame sauce and presented with a side of wasabi. In the phone to his immediate right, he searched for documentation of identified toxins with each ingredient. In the other phone, he calculated the estimated toxin levels he could expect to be exposed to, down to the piece.
He had been proud of his dietary lifestyle: not as doomed as the bacon cheeseburger worshippers, not as pretentious as the vega-ova-terrestrials... just chicken, fish, and the kind of stuff that gets a B-to-B-plus on the nutritional report card. But then the local news reported that a sister location of his favorite grocery store had recalled a week's worth of chicken breasts sales, after several families contracted a previously unidentified strain of avian flu. He started reading headlines about the risks in foods that he had trusted, to the point that he recognized he was becoming phobic about the act of eating. He compromised with his fears, and began his dietary audit.
Jiro had been eating sushi since he was 13 years old. Now, he sat in front of his favorite order, trying to figure out how many more pieces he could eat in his life. He attempted to ascertain the levels of mercury in the fish, arsenic in the rice, lead in the seaweed... He looked up from his mathwork, and eyed the colorful plate. By his own determination, this plate of sushi would be his third-to-last ever, to be safe.
He was studying his food so intently, he did not see the waitress refresh his drink. He shifted his gaze to the glass of tap water... and he froze.
inspired by Discover Magazine article, "Arsenic-Tainted Rice is Harmful to Humans"
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