I'm fuming. I just had a major food rules boo-boo. The irony, the break in rules occured with sushi. 

FISH. Fish and rice to be specific. Honest to pete, nothing is sacred. 

The set up- I decided that I wanted to kick off the weekend with a little fish. I hit my local H.E.B. grocery store and cruised over to the fish counter. Nothing really jumped out at me. (Which is good given that I didn't really want my food to jump at me.) So I shifted over to the sushi bar. I happen to like sushi. I'm still learning about it, but I've got no issues eating raw fish. Or raw beef. But I digress. 

I did a quick eyeball and bypassed the various California roll options and shifted towards the Deluxe Sushi box. I grabbed a tuna/salmon variant and wandered back up to the front for checkout. Came home, sat down for an early dinner and began to munch. 

As I chewed, I gave a passing thought to the label on my box. I was curious about calorie counts. So I flipped the box over and started reading. I'm running down the label (4g of carbs and 3g of protein per piece for those interested), and my eyes stray to ingredients. 

I see the words, "high fructose."

Big, flashing alarm bells go off. Whyfor is there high fructose ANYTHING in my fishies? 

I start piecing the label that I'd ripped off the box together. High fructose corn syrup in the vinegar. Potassium sorbate. Acetic acid. Aspartame.

… So not only is there fake sugar in my sushi, there's fake sweetener.

Yeah. The vinegar is used to prep the rice, so it's all through the meal. I mean that's the point of sushi. Fishy bits and the spiffy rice. Full of chemicals. One of which I work very hard to not ingest ever.

I know better. I am a devoted reader of labels. This caught me off guard. It's sushi. Not a chemical bomb. Yet within my humble fish I discovered a plethora of chemical non yummy.  

I finished the sushi. I've got issues not finishing meat products I've purchased no matter where they come from. I believe if an animal dies to be on my plate, I need to respect that death and not just throw it away.  So meat doesn't get tossed. But man am I ticked. Yes it's my fault, but yeeish! It's a fresh prepped item, it spoils, and it doesn't glow green in blacklight. It's what I'd tell my clients is a safe food option. 

Amazing how that perspective changes when you actually check what's in your food.