The Hemp Connection [Search results for barramundi] 

Bored with salmon, but still want to get your Omega 3's?

Prefer a mild-flavored, white fish?

Looking for a more sustainable option in your seafood?

Try Barramundi!

A native of the tropical waters of northern Australia, southeast Asia, and southern China, Barramundi is farmed in the U.S.

If you're worried about farmed fish, don't be. Not all farmed fish is bad. In fact, the Monterey Bay's Seafood Watch program rates U.S. farmed Barramundi a"Best Choice" because of our environmentally friendly farming practices.

Why eat it? Barramundi has 833 mg of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids per 5-oz serving and contains less than 150 calories! It's a great source of lean protein, is rich in vitamins and minerals, and is low in saturated fat. Because of U.S. farming practices, it's also free from contamination with PCBs, mercury or other contaminants.

How to buy it? You may find it called Silver Barramundi, Giant Perch, Palmer Perch, and Barra. Locally it can be found at Giant and Safeway.

How to make it? Barramundi has a sweet, mild flavor and light, flaky texture and is super easy to prepare. Below is a recipe and links to more!

Barramundi and Lemon Butter

4 Barramundi fillets

2 tsp. olive or canola oil

2 Tbsp. butter

1 clove garlic, minced

3 Tbsp. fresh or bottled lemon juice

5 leaves minced fresh basil (or 3/4 tsp. dry)

Salt to taste

Gently saute the garlic in butter for about 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and basil. Add salt to taste. Remove from heat. Coat fillets with olive or canola oil. Pan fry one side on high heat for 3 minutes. Flip and cook other side 1-2 more minutes or until fish is cooked through. Transfer to serving dish. Spoon sauce over fillets.

Serving Suggestion: Serve on a bed of sauteed spinach or greens, and fresh tomato salsa.

Danielle Omar, MS, RD
The Food Confidence Expert

www.foodconfidence.com

We had a great interview with Josh Goldman, CEO of Australis this morning. Australis is the company that farms barramundi, a mild-flavored fish that is very high in omega-3 fatty acids.

If you've got the idea that it's always best to eat wild caught fish, consider listening to this interview, as it challenges some of the mantras in the debate and may answer some of your concerns about the safety of farmed seafood.

As promised in the interview, here is the legend of the barramundi, a love story told by the Aboriginals for whom this fish is a part of their culture and has been for generations.

Splashing in the billagong two lovers having fun

Ebony skin streaming under water fall.

Yungi and Meyalk sat together drying off in the sun

Their love was forbidden by tribal law, still they answered each other's call.

Creeping out during a corroboree, they ran hand in hand; love had won.

Following bush trail to the sea they knew they must fall.

They made spears to ward off angry tribe; seeing death must come.

Yungi and Meyalk threw themselves into the sea; they became barramundi fish and fooled them all.

Some spears struck their backs as they swam away; legend has it the spears became spines on the barramundi's back still visible today.

We know that most of you who originally come to inCYST are looking for help with your infertility, your acne, your weight, and/or your depression. We take that seriously and we hope you find our information helpful, meaningful, and relevant.

That is our immediate goal.

We also have a much bigger picture in mind. One reason we believe you're having so much trouble with your hormone balance, is that you're living on a planet that has been so badly mistreated that it has trouble supporting healthy balance within all of you. Because of that, one of the most important things we hope to communicate through our mission, is that our choices have effects far beyond us, and those choices that best benefit the earth, have the most potential to resolve the more personal concerns that initially introduced you to us.

From the very beginning, I've believed that to the best of our ability, our recommendations for food and lifestyle are consistent with what you might see on a green living website. I've also been very aware that, with PCOS affecting 1 in 10 women, the shopping habits we culture have potential to collectively influence what kind of food is available for everyone on the planet to eat.

Because we are so pro-omega-3, we cannot ignore that the type of seafood we recommend must be sustainable. Earlier in the week a Huffington Post article reported that 40 species of fish (including one that is very popular in sushi) are on the verge of extinction, largely due to overfishing and pollution…reinforcing how what we do at inCYST needs to keep all of you healthy and keep the planet healthy enough so that goal #1 is even possible.

So I was super excited to receive an email yesterday, Earth Day eve, from our inCYST contact in Nashua, New Hampshire. I've come to know Pat Hunter and her counterpart Kristen Rioux through planning events to promote their new PCOS support group.

We had planned an event which was to occur on April 1, but which we have since rescheduled to the fall. The problem was, we had received a generous donation from Australis, producers of the high-omega and sustainably farmed barramundi, which we had intended to serve at lunch so that the women coming to our event would have an opportunity to try this fish. We didn't want to waste the food and we wanted to be sure that Australis was happy with their inCYST experience, so Pat and Kristen arranged to have two barramundi promotions in their employee cafeteria.

We thought Lent might be a nice time to try this, since most people are eating more fish then anyway. But we knew that New Englanders love their cod and wondered if they'd be open to something new and different. (We even joked around that a fun marketing tag line might be"Give up cod for Lent!")

I heard from Pat and Kristen yesterday and it turns out the fish was so well accepted they are now working to make it a regular menu item for their employees.

This is a change with potentially far-reaching effects. Anyone eating barramundi at work is more likely to think of it to prepare at home. The more demand for this fish increases in local stores, the more likely it is to start showing up on restaurant menus. And the more barramundi that is bought, the less stress and strain on other fish populations that may not be healthy enough to provide our demand for more seafood.

So thanks to Pat, Kristen, and especially Australis for making it so easy to give a new audience an opportunity to try a new, sustainable (not to mention tasty) food choice, and encourage its popularity to take hold, we are very enthusiastically celebrating Earth Day at inCYST.

If we've gotten your curiosity up, please check out the Australis website. Farmed seafood has a terrible reputation, but this operation has a whole lot of thought put into it. They have gone to great pains to describe their farm in detail to answer any questions you might have. You might be surprised at what you learn.

Happy Earth Day to all. Be kind to yourselves and the world around you…you depend on each other for survival!

We hosted a Facebook chat today with Australis, the company that farms barramundi. All kinds of topics were covered: Earth Month is about sustainability, and making the world safer and less toxic for everyone. How do you see food being a part of this issue? Some people don't eat fish because they don't know how to cook it. Have you found recipes that are an easy"in" to cooking seafood? Do you know if the foods you eat contain hormones? How can you find out if they do/don't? What have you heard about fish farming? Do you have any questions about aquaculture? If you couldn't make it live, the entire transcript is on their Facebook fan page. Check it out! The photo you see here, by the way, is of the Australish fish farming facility in Vietnam. You can learn more about it by clicking the above link. Worth learning about.

It's really become important for us to partner with like-minded companies in order to do all the work we aspire to do.

When Pat Hunter, Hillary Wright, and I present in Nashua, NH, we owe that event's existence to St. Joseph Medical Center. Kristen Rioux has been instrumental in developing our flyer, and providing marketing insights that helped to create a great event with potential to reach a lot of women.

In addition, Australis is donating the barramundi we're serving for lunch. If you're not familiar with barramundi, please check out their website. It's a sustainable farm-raised fish with a very high omega-3 content. I love it because its flavor is very mild, which makes it acceptable to many people who just cannot tolerate the distinctive flavor of salmon. The Australis people like to call it"sustainable sea bass" because its flavor is reminiscent of that species.

Stonyfield will be donating samples of their vitamin-D supplemented yogurt for our snack break. If you have read inCYST intern Sarah Jones' blog post about yogurt, you will remember that not many yogurts even have vitamin D. Stonyfield is one brand that does have a variety, and we're looking forward to showcasing it in Nashua.

Source: Uploaded by user via Monika on Pinterest

Last week I was at the farmer's market, admiring a beautiful box of greens. I noticed a woman looking longingly at the same box. So I asked her if she liked kale.

"Oh, I do!" she answered."But I had to give it up when my husband went on Coumadin."

Coumadin is a blood-thinning agent that is being prescribed more frequently than it used to be, as blood that clots too easily is one consequence of inflammation. Since leafy greens are high in vitamin K, a nutrient that promotes blood clotting, patients prescribed Coumadin are advised to limit their intake to a level they can consistently commit to eating. That commitment factor intimidates many people out of eating them at all.

What is ironic about the Coumadin dilemma, is that leafy greens are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, both of which hold potential to fight the very inflammatory process that is likely creating the need for Coumadin in the first place.

So how does one back themselves out of this corner once their previous lifestyle has backed them into it?

Here are a few things to try. Note, Coumadin is NOT a drug to mess with, so if you choose to make these suggested changes, it is essential that you communicate with the physician in charge of managing your blood clotting issues. If your condition is improving, medications will have to be adjusted to maintain clotting balance. It is best to make these shifts one at a time and wait 6 to 8 weeks to see how your body responds, rather than make too many changes at once, which can make it challenging for your physician to keep up with what is happening.

1. Shift your fat consumption, as much as possible, away from omega-6 fatty acid-dominant fats. They are easy to remember, they primarily begin with the letters"s" and"c"--soybean, safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, and cottonseed. (Canola is the exception to this rule). They are primarily found in processed foods and in restaurant cooking, places where the price, not the quality, of the oil, is determining recipe makeup.

Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.

2. Add more vegetarian, non-leafy omega-3 foods into your diet. Flax is one of my favorites. You can add ground flaxseed into your smoothies, oatmeal, homemade vinaigrettes…and you may want to try a relatively new product on the market, flax milk, as a substitute for coffee creamer. If you are adventurous, try some chia seeds on your salad!

Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.

3. Try a protein-containing snack at night. It can help to stabilize blood sugar and cravings for sweets throughout the day, which keep you from being tempted by baked goods containing those oils.

Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.

4. Work on getting your seafood omega-3's. Note: ALL seafood, not just salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids. If salmon is too fishy for your taste, spend some time at a knowledgeable seller such as Santa Monica Seafood, and try some of the recommendations they have. One of my favorites, which is available at Santa Monica Seafood, as well as Safeway, is barramundi, a sustainably farmed, mild-flavored whitefish that has a lot of versatility with regards to cooking technique.

Check in with your physician to see how you are doing.

5. If you are not a fish eater, consider a fish oil supplement. Despite what the supplement companies tell you, fish is fish; I've seen great changes in clients using Costco's Kirkland brand. The most important thing about using fish oil when you are taking Coumadin, is that you take it consistently. If remembering it is a challenge, program your smart phone to send you a daily reminder.

Check in with your physician to see how you are doing. If your clotting times have improved enough to get the greens-eating go ahead, good for you!

Later this week I will share some ideas for getting greens in your diet consistently without burning out on them.

Taking time to think about the big picture today!

If you'd like to learn more about sustainable living and your health, I am co-hosting a Facebook Earth Day chat tomorrow with Australis Barramundi tomorrow, from 3 to 4 pm Eastern Daylight time. To join us live, please"like" their Facebook fan page where the transcript will appear.

Happy Earth Day!

Hello readers!

Just a reminder, we've worked SUPER hard on our Nashua, New Hampshire event and even got two sponsors. So not only will you have three dietitians and the PCOS Diva all in the same place at the same time, you'll get a chance to try the high omega-3 barramundi fish and Stonyfield's vitamin D- supplemented yogurt.

And…your registration includes a copy of Hillary Wright's"The PCOS Diet Plan", which she will autograph for you!

This kind of event does not happen every day, so if you're anywhere near Nashua and have been wanting more information about PCOS, it is well worth it to invest in yourself and spend the day with us.

We just chatted on the radio about the event and why we love to work with cysters. Check it out…and come see us on April 1!

Click here for registration information.

Virginia Beach is approaching as well! The registration link is located on the right hand margin of this blog. I'd really love to see you if you're in the area!

Way back when I first started studying omega-3 chemistry, I put together a list of DHA contents of a variety of seafoods. I was recently asked for a copy of that list, and since the list was not complete the first time I did it, I decided to update it.

I noticed when looking at the latest list that there were two significant changes: Over half of the seafood given the"green light" are farmed. Meaning we need to be more open to eating farmed fish and better manage our ocean farming habits. Secondly, as a consumer it is also important to know what fishing method was used. Some are sustainable, some are not.

The list below is based off of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list, most recently updated January 11. As much as I advocate for all of you to eat more fish, I want to be sure that I do my part to encourage responsible use of the ocean's resources. So the only options included on this list are the"green light", or most sustainable options. If you don't see it there, it didn't get a green light. The (F) in front of an item denotes"farmed".

I'll update this from time to time so you all can keep current. I used the national list, but you can also find more specific regional lists at the same website. The downloadable wallet cards or iPhone application are great to keep with you so that you can always make better choices when you're grocery shopping or eating out.

Bottom line, any seafood has omega-3's. Even if they're not as high as what is found in salmon, every time you eat fish, you're not eating a meat higher in saturated fat. There's a"double whammy" benefit over and above that simple DHA.

Hope this inspires you to think when buying or ordering your seafood!

Milligrams of EPA/DHA/total omega-3 per 100 gram (3.5 cooked ounces)

(F) artic char 600/500/1100
(F) US barramundi 900/600/1500
(F) US catfish 200/200/400
(F) clams 100/100/200
(F) US cobia 383/418/801
(F) Pacific cod, bottom longline fished 100/100/200
Dungeness/stone crab 100/200/300
Pacific US halibut 300/100/400
Pacific US spiny lobster 100/100/200
(F) mussels 300/200/500
(F) oysters 200/400/600
Alaska sablefish/black cod 100/100/200
Alaskan salmon 575/500/1075
(F) off-bottom scallops 100/100/200
Pink shrimp 100/200/300
(F) striped bass 600/200/800
*striped bass 200/600/800
(F) US tilapia 130/50/180
(F) US rainbow trout 400/100/500
US/British Columbia albacore tuna (canned white) 100/300/400
Skipjack tuna (canned light) 300/100/400

Lent is a good time to remind all of you, Lenten-practicers or not, that even though salmon is a nice source of those omega-3’s, it’s not the ONLY source. Don’t bore yourself out of one of the most important nutrients your PCOS needs by focusing on only one fish!
Omega-3’s gain entrance into the food chain at the very bottom, with algae. The smaller fish eat a lot of algae. Bigger fish eat the smaller fish, which is how they get THEIR omega-3’s, and so on and so forth, up the food chain. (Whales defy that, they get their omega-3’s from krill, but they’re technically mammals and unless we live in the Arctic circle we don’t eat them so they don’t count in this blog post.)
Anyway, my point is, ANYTHING that comes from the water has omega-3’s in it. You don’t just have to eat salmon. In fact, it would be better if that wasn’t all you ate in the seafood department, because if we all did that… we’d wipe out the salmon population. There just aren’t enough for all of us to do that.
Any seafood has omega-3’s, and when you’re eating seafood, provided it isn’t fried in an omega-6 fat, your dinner plate overall is likely more anti-inflammatory than it would be if you ate poultry or meat.
Here’s a list of the omega-3 contents of a variety of seafoods for you. Remember, it’s about the balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fats, so total omega-3 is not all that matters. Salmon is nice, but for many of you it’s expensive. It’s also summer-seasonal, which means eating it in the winter is not really a sustainable practice. It’s better for everyone involved, including the fish, and the planet, if you vary your choices.
Barramundi… prawns… catfish… they’re all beneficial to your health.
Gumbo, sushi, calamari anyone?
http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/FishOils-table.pdf