This post is about dates, the fruit that is a symbol for Ramadan for Muslims. It’s healthy and packed with nutrients, let’s dig more in it!
Since yesterday was the first day of the holy month Ramadan, I did fast 17 hrs! I talked all about fasting in the previous post and how it can boost health, and help lose weight too! And I just happened to read in a recent study that prolonged fasting may be very beneficial for “chemo therapy” patients, of course its still under medical supervision, but its promising.
I didn’t fast in a while, sometimes I feel less energized the first day, especially the hour around my typical lunch. That’s why I needed a quick simple food to help me restore energy when I break the fasting! And it’s Dates!
love to use dates in many forms. and notice here, that we use dates in it dried form. The fresh one called رطب tastes a whole lot different, and I’m not very fond of it. This one, a semi-dry one I bought yesterday from the middle eastern shop, but it’s coming from a California farm. It’s a fruit, its origin unknown for sure, but it’s cultivated in sandy areas like Africa and some middle eastern countries like Iraq and Saudi.I
Nutrition
Dates are mostly contain carbohydrates in the form of simple sugars like glucose and fructose so its high calorie food but a great source of energy. It has very low amounts of proteins, but good amount of fiber, vitamins like vitamin B6 and folate. And minerals like calcium, and iron. Also dates are rich source of antioxidants like ß-carotein, lutein which are beneficial for eye health. Date also has phytonutrients which believe to reduce cancer risk, and a great addition, the soluble fiber that reduce the LDL cholesterol.
What I love about the date, that it’s dry, therefore its easy to store, and carry on on the go. Moreover, it’s natural sweetness is a perfect natural sweetener to many deserts and energy bars.
Dates and Diabetes
“Diabetic patients should avoid sweet fruit” this is an old myth, but still going on.We can’t neglect all the nutrition benefits of dates and other sweet fruit. What matters in diabetes control, is the overall intake of carbohydrates, fruits has 15g of carbohydrates, so it can be a handful of berries or just a big piece of date. Just remember the portion size of sweet fruit like date should be smaller. Dates have low glycemic index (A measure to help control diabetes) and in this study they studied five different kind of dates and they found that dates can enjoyed be diabetic patients in moderation.
Recipes
Update: I used dates as a sweetener or as flavor in so many recipes. You can check them here
Since I was a kid , we used to eat dates as whole snack, I did try in the past few recipes, but not all of them perfectly healthy, but my favorite is date balls. I made them in many different ways, but this recent one is healthy and how I really like them. Just remember while, dates is really healthy, overeating of this healthy balls is very easy and you may consume more calories than you should.
Did you try Dates before? What’s you favorite way to eat them? I would love to hear from you!
