Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. In recent years, pistachios have
Speaker 1: been getting a lot of attention thanks to some successful
Speaker 1: marketing campaigns. Americans consumed close to a hundred metric tons
Speaker 1: of pistachios alone the most recent year of data available,
Speaker 1: which works out to just over eleven ounces or thirty
Speaker 1: two grams per person, according to International Nut and Dried Fruit,
Speaker 1: a nut industry organization that represented a more than six
Speaker 1: increase in consumption compared to just four years earlier. So
Speaker 1: why are we eating so many pistachios? One reason, obviously
Speaker 1: is that we like the taste and crunch, But part
Speaker 1: of that marketing positions pistachios is a good for you snack.
Speaker 1: Pistachios do have a decent spread of unsaturated fats, protein,
Speaker 1: and fiber, meaning that they'll help fill you up and
Speaker 1: keep you going. Nutrition is really complicated because our human
Speaker 1: bodies are complicated, but pistachios are under investigation for all
Speaker 1: kinds of potential health benefits when added to your diet
Speaker 1: in reasonable servings, especially when they replace more processed foods
Speaker 1: like snap chips. Partially because of the extra work we
Speaker 1: have to do to crack the pistachios shells open and
Speaker 1: extract them. That helps us eat more slowly and gives
Speaker 1: our stomachs time to signal they're full. In study, subjects
Speaker 1: who snacked on pistachios that they had to remove from
Speaker 1: their shells consumed fewer calories than those who were given
Speaker 1: pistachios with the shells already removed. But that leads to
Speaker 1: another question, why are pistachios one of the few nuts
Speaker 1: commonly sold consumers with their shells still attached. For the
Speaker 1: article this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke
Speaker 1: with Louise Ferguson, a pistachio expert with the University of California,
Speaker 1: Davis and co author of their Pistachio Production Manual. She
Speaker 1: explained that to roast and salt nuts like walnuts or cashews,
Speaker 1: producers need to first remove the protective shell. But the
Speaker 1: reason that's not so for pistachios. Between seventy and nine
Speaker 1: of pistachios develop a split in their shells naturally during
Speaker 1: the growing process, and the ones that do are typically
Speaker 1: the larger and thus more desirable nuts. After those pistachios
Speaker 1: are shaken off, the trees by people or harvesting machines.
Speaker 1: They can be salted and roasted while still inside the shells.
Speaker 1: That natural crack allows heat and salt to access the nut,
Speaker 1: eliminating the shelling step in the industrial process and thus
Speaker 1: saving processors some money. Only the minority of nuts that
Speaker 1: don't split on their own are run through industrial shell
Speaker 1: removing machines. Those Some experts think the unsplit nuts might
Speaker 1: be less mature than these split variety. Ferguson said there
Speaker 1: isn't really much of a discernible taste difference, as roasting
Speaker 1: is a sort of equalizer flavor wise, Most of the
Speaker 1: pistachios without naturally split shells end up being used in
Speaker 1: cooking and to make products such as pistachio ice cream.
Speaker 1: But let's say that you're neutral on whether you personally
Speaker 1: crack open a pistachio shell to extract it, which is
Speaker 1: a better deal to buy with shells or without. A
Speaker 1: whole single pistachio shell in all weighs about zero point
Speaker 1: zero two ounces that's zero point five seven grams, and
Speaker 1: the kernel or nutmeat that is the portion of the
Speaker 1: pistachio that you eat, makes up about of that weight.
Speaker 1: You might suspect that would make pistachios without shells cheaper,
Speaker 1: but if you look at the prices charged by retailers,
Speaker 1: statios without shells tend to be more than twice as
Speaker 1: expensive per ounce as the ones in shells. So all
Speaker 1: you say is the trouble of extracting them, and you
Speaker 1: pay a hefty fee for that luxury. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you're going to shell your own pistachios, an easy
Speaker 1: way to do it without hurting your fingertips or breaking
Speaker 1: a nail is to use half of a spe shell
Speaker 1: is leverage to pop open the next nut. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article why stachios are sold in
Speaker 1: their shells on how stuffworks dot com, written by Patrick J. Keaiger.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang.
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