Download Article - Iowa State University

Jackson Hole Star-Tribune, WY
04-19-06
Pistachios are nutritious, delicious
By GAIL CIAMPA
The Providence Journal
Is there a more perfect snack than pistachios?
They're delicious, good for you, and by having to wrestle them from their shells,
offer finger exercises. It also slows down your consumption. Everything in
moderation, you know.
Of course, you can say those same things about oranges, too, but really, aren't
pistachios more fun?
Pistachio is also a favorite flavor of ice cream, a fine nut to find in a biscotti and a
tasty crust for fish or chicken on the grill.
As for all those shells, when you're done, use them as drainage chips in pots and
planters or save them to plant in the garden around your favorite plants. Snails
don't like their sharp edges.
A 1 ounce serving of pistachios equals 49 nuts and delivers 160 calories, zero
cholesterol, six grams of protein and 13 fat grams. For comparison, cashews
have the same amount of fat grams and peanuts have 14, while almonds have
15, macadamias 22, pecans 21 and walnuts 19.
Of all the commonly consumed nuts, pistachios, actually have fewer calories than
other nuts. Only cashews come close to their nutritional profile. But they are too
easy to eat endlessly, as you don't have to work to shell them.
Pistachios offer potassium (as much as half a banana) and protein. They have
more dietary fiber and thiamin than yeast breads. Like olive oil, pistachios contain
monounsaturated fat that has been linked with lowered cholesterol levels and the
risk of heart disease. The nuts have copper (one of the reasons people eat liver
is for copper, which helps the body make hemoglobin) and magnesium, which is
also found in spinach.
Many diets, including the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)
recommend four or five servings of nuts each week.
So why not celebrate the pistachio. Now that they aren't all red we don't even
have to worry about painted hands anymore either.
Why were they red anyway, you wonder? Because in the 1930s, importers began
dyeing the shells bright red to disguise blemishes that occurred during harvesting
and so to make them more attractive to consumers. That's the explanation of
Jacques L. Rolland in "The Cook's Essential Kitchen Dictionary" published by
Robert Rose.
Pistachios are the seeds from the fruit of a small Persian tree, Pistachia vera,
and they've been cultivated at least 3,000 years, Rolland writes, widely in Central
Asia to the Mediterranean region.
You might remember that during the Iran hostage crisis, when the U.S. Embassy
was attacked and Americans were taken hostage for more than a year,
pistachios were in short supply. The crisis interrupted exports of pistachios from
Iran, the world's leading pistachio producer, and sent prices soaring.
That's when California got into pistachios big time. Though the tree was
experimented with in California in the 1930s, big commercial plantings didn't
develop until 1970, when farmers began diversifying from a heavy almond
industry. The first major commercial crop was harvested in 1976. With the Iran
export problem, California revved up production, and today is second only to Iran
in pistachio production, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center,
a group of experts from Iowa State University, Kansas State University and the
University of California, who serve as an information resource for agricultural
producers.
California producers aren't likely to sit back and rest on their success. They
formed the California Pistachio Commission 25 years ago, and this year the
organization has put together a free booklet of recipes written by 18 chefs from
restaurants around the country. Each uses pistachios in a different way and each
goes way beyond snacking. Copies of "America's Top Chefs Go Nuts for
California Pistachios" are free. Just visit www.pistachios.org and click the order
form.