Pistachios

The most brightly coloured nut, famous perhaps more as a flavour than as its own, raw ingredient. Let’s learn about pistachio and its health benefits!

Lean, green potassium machine!

Pistachio must surely be the most popular “dessert” nut. Used in ice creams, cheese cakes and as garnish, they do provide some lovely colour and flavour to sweet treats. But pistachio has great health benefits too, like other nuts we’ve looked at in the past! This is actually another nut that isn’t a nut (like peanuts, if you remember), they are seeds! Their green colour comes from their chlorophyll content, the same pigment found in peas and cucumbers.

Here are some of the benefits of the pistachio:

• It is actually one of the foods richest in Vitamin B6. This vitamin, often lacking from people’s diet, is important for blood sugar regulation (maybe good to have it in a dessert, then!), and for oxygen flow in your blood.

• Pistachios are rich in potassium, more so than the potassium celebrity banana! The right amount of potassium in your diet helps your kidney health, heart health, and aids your digestive system and your muscles in functioning normally.

• Though nuts are usually all very healthy, as I’ve touched on many times before, some people want to steer clear as they are quite high in calories. If that is you, you will be pleased to know that pistachio is lower in calories than most nuts! But it is still high in the great stuff you need like protein (but do keep in mind you need good fats and calories too)

• Pistachios are high in fibre, which is great for your gut bacteria and digestion, and it helps you feel full.

Those are some of the amazing health benefits of pistachios, not to mention the antioxidants and many other nutrients like manganese and copper. So definitely find ways to add these to your diet or turn to them as a snack instead of crisps, for example!

Do you like pistachios? How do you use them in the kitchen? Message me on Instagram @TheFromScratchBody!