In recent years , pistachio have been getting a lot of care , and not just because of those clever TV commercials featuringSnoop Dogg eat them out of a oral contraceptive bottleandErnie the elephant decrease off a treadmill . Americans have close to 100 metric heaps of pistachios in 2013 , the most recent year available , which work out to just about 11.4 ounce ( 323 grams ) per soul , agree to International Nut & Dried Fruit , a nut diligence establishment . That represented a more than 60 pct addition compared to just four years originally .
Why are we eating so many pistachios ? One rationality , manifestly , is that we like the gustatory modality . But pistachios also have develop a report as a guilt - free snack with slew of nutritional benefit , rich in unsaturated fat , fiber and antioxidants . inquiry suggeststhat pistachios could help to reduce high blood pressure and promote ontogeny of good gut microbes . They ’re even gaining credibility as a tool forweight loss — partially because , like other nut , they give a person a full feeling , and partly because the extra work needed to crack their shells and extract them helps to slow down down expenditure . In one2011 study , subjects who snacked on pistachio nut they had to take out from their plate deplete 41 percentage few Calorie than those who were given pistachios with the shells already removed .
But that take to another question . Why are pistachio one of the few nuts normally trade to consumer with their shells still attach ?
To roast and salt nuts like walnut or cashews , producers need to remove the protective eggshell . But the cause that ’s not so for pistachios ? Between 70 and 90 percentage of pistachio train a natural rent in their shells during the growing process , says University of California , Davis pistachio expertLouise Ferguson , cobalt - generator of the " Pistachio Production Manual . " After those pistachios are shaken off the trees by harvesting machine , they can be salted and roasted while still inside the shells as that raw crack allows passion and salt access to the nut , eliminating a step in the industrial process and saving processors some money .
" The pistachio tree that burst by nature generally are your declamatory Nut , " says Ferguson .
Only the minority of nuts that do n’t divide on their own are melt through industrial shell - removing machine . Though some experts guess the unsplit nuts might be less ripe than the split smorgasbord , Ferguson said there really is n’t much of a discernible taste difference .
" By the time you get them , they ’ve been roasted , anyway , " she says .
Most of the pistachios without shells end up being used in preparation , and to make product such as pistachio ice cream . Ferguson adds that pistachio use as a formula fixings is a growing trend in the industry .
assume that you ’re not a someone who enjoy the sensual experience of cracking the shell and extracting a pistachio , which is a better great deal to buy — with shells , or without ? A whole single pistachio , eggshell and all , weighs about 0.02 troy ounce ( 0.57 gramme ) , and the kernel or nutmeat — that is , the portion of the pistachio tree that you eat — piss up about 53 percent of that weight . You might surmise that would make pistachio tree without shells cheap . But if you look at the prices commit by retailers , Pistacia vera without plate tend to be more than twice as expensive per oz. as the one in shells , so all you pull through is the difficulty of extracting them , and devote a hefty fee for that luxuriousness .
And if you ’re become to husk your own pistachio , givethis ingenious methodof crack opened pistachio shell : BuzzFeed suggest using a drop scale as leveraging to pop reach the next nut .
