5 Health Benefits Of Dates And Delicious Ways To Eat Them

 

These sweet, gooey treats are packed with nutritious goodness.

If you're overlooking dates—those wrinkly little fruits nestled unassumingly between the raisins and the prunes in your grocery aisle—you're sleeping on an amazing addition to your healthy-food repertoire. Not only are they satisfyingly sweet, dates are full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals that benefit your brain,

muscles, metabolism, digestion, and so much more.

What Are Dates?

Dates are oval-shaped fruits consisting of a single seed (or stone) surrounded by sticky, edible flesh (similar to cherries, mangoes, and peaches), and coated with a crinkly skin that shimmers from natural sugars.

Dates' Nutrition and Health Benefits

We asked registered dietitians to break down the nutritional benefits of dates, why they're an excellent healthy snack, and their favorite suggestions for including them in your diet.

Dates are a sweet treat that will not spike your blood sugar.

Although the afternoon slump may have you hankering for a candy bar, dates are a smarter option than anything you'll find in a vending machine. Although they're high in sugar—containing about 16 grams per date—they're also high in fiber (more on that later), which counteracts the natural sugar and helps it be absorbed more slowly in the bloodstream, says Mascha Davis, a registered dietician at Nomadista Nutrition and the author of Eat Your Vitamins. This puts dates low on the glycemic index (GI), so they have a less dramatic effect on blood sugar; i.e., no spikes and crashes.

 

Dates fuel your workouts and support your metabolism.

Consider making a date or two your new pre-workout snack. They're 70% carbohydrates, which we need to fuel moderate to intense exercise.¹ And because dates are low on the glycemic index, they offer steady, sustained energy throughout your workout. Dates also contain B vitamins such as folate and niacin,² which play an essential role in metabolism.

Dates are high in gut-healthy fiber.

Filling up on fiber is essential to gut health as well as overall health. "Dates are a nutritional powerhouse, packed with fiber to help fill you up and keep you full longer, as well as promote healthy digestion and heart health," says registered dietitian Meghan Sedivy, health and wellness strategy manager at Fresh Thyme Markets. Eating three dates will get you close to 5 grams of fiber. A 2015 study found that those who ate seven dates a day for 21 days had increases in bowel movement and stool frequency.

Dates’ fiber content also supports healthy cholesterol.

Soluble fiber also helps to keep cholesterol in check. It binds to dietary cholesterol in the small intestine so it passes through the body rather than getting absorbed. In fact, one small study of 100 men and women with type 2 diabetes found a statistically significant decrease in both total cholesterol and “bad” LDL cholesterol among those who added dates to their diets.

 

Dates contain potassium.

"Dates are an excellent source of potassium, which helps our muscles to contract, our nerves to function properly, and our hearts to beat regularly," Sedivy says. Potassium is also an electrolyte, a category of essential minerals that are essential for hydration and water regulation in our cells.