Healthy, portable and a little bit sexy: a love letter to the pistachio

The Guardian

23-05-2025

Do you ever feel like there's something missing when you sit down to eat? As if the whole process has become so streamlined that something's got lost?
You're not alone. The packaged convenience of modern food has weakened our connection with what we eat and although very few of us want to return to hunting in the woods, there is still a part of us that's crying out for food that we have to work for just a little, so we can nourish our soul as well as our body.
Well, I know a nutty treat that does the trick, so let's get cracking. Sophisticated and a little bit sexy, the pistachio truly is a nut like no other. Full of flavour and texture, with a satisfying crunch, this superfood is a pleasurable, tactile and nourishing snack that you'll never fall out of love with.
Bursting with goodness and zest, this gorgeous green nut is the perfect antidote to the soulless sloth of so much modern food because you don't just eat a pistachio, you rescue it heroically from its shell. Each time you crack a pistachio out of its little casing, that simple task creates the pleasure of (slightly) delayed gratification. It's like adult fidget spinning, but you get to eat the spinner afterwards.
That ritual of sitting back and cracking pistachio shells can be a bonding ceremony over a drink with a friend, a nice way to avoid picking up our phones as we watch TV, or simply a good way to pass the hours on a long train journey. Wherever we crack their shells, pistachios take us back to nature.
They're so pretty, too: eminently Instagrammable, they evoke Mediterranean summers and epic Persian feasts. No wonder the Queen of Sheba said that pistachios were the food of royalty – if legend is to be believed, anyway. Other nuts can only dream of their casual sophistication. Peanuts are only good for pub floors, almonds sit there like a guest who's overstayed their welcome and walnuts are just big, bitter and twisted.
So that's why I stick to the gorgeous green pistachio. I eat them a handful at a time – after shelling them, of course – crunching my way to a mouthful of their mild nutty flavour, buttery texture, with a suggestion of salt and hints of sweetness.
If you eat 49 pistachios a day that's just 160 calories and you get a natural source of B vitamins and minerals, as well as monounsaturated fats. If you love to exercise, this plant-based complete protein will keep you going and then give you a boost afterwards, thanks to its high levels of magnesium, which can help your body to recover.
The benefits don't end there. As if having healthy fats, high fibre too, and antioxidants wasn't enough, these superfoods can also help to manage our blood sugar levels for us. How kind can a foodstuff be?
The benefits just keep on coming: a study published in January found that eating a handful of lutein-containing pistachio nuts each day for 12 weeks improved the eye health of a group of midlifers, so whoever says that delicious food can't be healthy has clearly never eaten a pistachio, the poor people.
Our axe-wielding ancestors wouldn't recognise us getting our nutrition from microwaved ready meals, capsuled supplements or long-life juices. It's all become a little too lazy, but pistachios make you work (just a little bit) for their goodness, so they're a great way for everyone to connect back to nature.
Fun to eat, full of flavour, and amazing for your health – the pistachio is beyond royalty, it's actually divine.
Learn more about pistachio benefits