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Jordan Jones stirs crawfish as they boil at the booth for C&M Crawchicks during Crawfête presented by the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society in Perkins Rowe on Sunday, March 23, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Greg Lutz still remembers his first crawfish season. Working toward his doctorate and living in a trailer outside Lafayette, he split time between research at LSU and working a 64-acre crawfish pond with a seasoned Louisiana fisherman.
“At the end of the day, there’d always be a few pounds left over,” Lutz said. “He’d say, ‘Well, they don’t want that. They’re not gonna buy that.
You take that home.’” By the end of the season, Lutz joked, he would’ve traded crawfish for hot dogs. Four decades later, the LSU AgCenter aquaculture specialist loves the mudbugs as much for their flavor and nutrition as for their environmental benefits and their cultural and economic role in Louisiana.
Steaming red crawfish piled high on yesterday’s newspaper is a staple of Louisiana tables in springtime. Beyond mudbugs' place in local tradition, the crustacean offers something else: a potentially healthy, sustainable seafood option. The catch is knowing how it’s prepared and where it came from.
Photo by LUCIUS A. FONTENOT -- Coby Hill runs crawfish traps on his father, Chad Hill's, farm in Elton, LA, December 23, 2015. High protein, low fat Crawfish may be small, but they offer the gold standard of nutritional value.
"Low in calories, high in protein," said Mandy Armentor, a registered dietician and nutrition agent with the LSU AgCenter based in Abbeville. A standard three-ounce serving of tail meat (peeled from about 1.25 pounds) contains around 70 calories, 14 grams of protein, one gram of fat and about 115 milligrams of cholesterol.
Crawfish deliver 20 grams of protein per 100 calories, making it one of the most protein-dense foods, beating out chicken, beef, salmon and eggs. Catherine Champagne, a nutrition researcher at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, said the cholesterol content in crawfish is not a concern for most people because they're low in saturated fat. “They’re relatively low in fat and calories," said Champagne.
"It’s a healthy choice.” They’re also packed with key micronutrients like copper, manganese, selenium and B12, which are all great for overall health, brain health and immune system protection, Armentor said. Plates of crawfish with potatoes from Honey’s Boiled Crawfish sit at the ready at Crawfête presented by the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society in Perkins Rowe on Sunday, March 23, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Crawfish contain about 200 to 300 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids per serving. That's not as much as cold water fish like salmon, but more than white fish such as cod or tilapia. The communal way they’re eaten can also encourage healthier eating habits.
“When you have to sit there and peel it, you slow down,” Champagne said. Sarah Flores lines up baskets of boiled crawfish at Tony’s Seafood booth during Crawfête presented by the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society in Perkins Rowe on Sunday, March 23, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Preparation While crawfish is naturally lean and high in protein, it can quickly become unhealthy depending on how it's prepared.
If boiled (more on this in a minute), it’s usually healthy, Armentor said. “But when we start frying it, or putting it in an au gratin, or some pasta dishes that are cream-based, then ..
. we’re negating the healthy benefits.” Frying crawfish adds fat, throwing off the nutritional balance.
Most people who are boiling up a pot of crawfish in the backyard are going to include a seasoning mix. That changes the health calculus a bit, according to Champagne, because of the high sodium content. “All of the Cajun seasoning, salt is the first ingredient,” Champagne said.
Instead, Armentor recommends sticking to spices like garlic, red pepper and lemon. An environmental win In addition to being healthy on the plate — or often, a folding table — crawfish are also a win for the environment. “It's about as natural and sustainable of a seafood as you could find anywhere, really,” said Lutz, the aquaculture specialist.
Nearly all Louisiana crawfish are farm-raised in seasonal rotation with rice, creating a productive system that uses land, labor and equipment that might otherwise sit idle. After rice is harvested, farmers flood the fields and let the leftover nutrients break down to create a natural food chain for the crawfish. Crawfish farms also serve as habitats for other animals.
“A crawfish farm is really like an artificial wetland,” Lutz said. Migratory and wading birds, critters like opossums and river otter, turtles and frogs can be found in crawfish farms, a lot of which have been "crowded out" of other habitats over the last 100 years, he said. Unlike other types of aquaculture such as salmon farming, crawfish farming requires few resources.
The water used in ponds is typically drawn from bayous and canals and is often cleaner when it leaves the pond than when it entered, thanks to the natural filtering processes at work, said Lutz. A crawfish farm worker empties traps Tuesday, January 18, 2022, along Prairie Hayes Road in Acadia Parish. Louisiana's crawfish industry Louisiana is the leading producer of crawfish in the United States, accounting for approximately 90% of the nation's supply, according to the Louisiana Crawfish Promotion and Research Board, an industry group.
However, not all crawfish on the market originate from Louisiana. Frozen crawfish tail meat is imported from China and other countries, where production practices and environmental standards may differ. Lutz said that in those countries, crawfish are often farmed from wild sources rather than controlled ponds.
When shopping, Armentor advises checking the label. If it’s a product of Louisiana, it will say so. These days, Lutz spends less time pulling crawfish traps and more time answering questions for Louisiana's crawfish farmers, who generate about $300 million for the state's economy annually.
But he hasn't lost his appreciation for what he calls Louisiana's "natural little lobsters." "I still enjoy them whenever I get a chance," he said..
