LONGECITY

Duke, Scottl, and the rest of the nutritionally-sound massive,

I was just eating some honey dates, and goshdarnit, I like them. The container didn't have any real nutritional information on them. I could just look it up, but that wouldn't be fun, and I figured you all might have some interesting comments to go along with it all.

Thanks

Alright, I'll do it myself! The very unbiased www.datesaregreat.com has some objective things to say [lol] such as "dates are high in dietary fiber, carbohydrates, and contain more potassium than bananas". I also see that they contain no vitamin c. But since most people get some vitamin c from non-food sources, it could be a worthwhile addition one's diet.

Dates are my downfall but I think they are good for you. I wouldnt expect every food to contain C.

Nor do I, but was surpised because they are a fruit with pretty much no vitamin c, where as so many fruits are such a great source of it.

Any idea how much sugar is in dates? Simple carbohydrates?

100g of medjool dates has 75g of carb, of which 66g is sugar. 100g of deglet noor dates is just about identical, with 75g of total carb and 63g sugar. Both have 2g of protein, 0g of fat and only trace amounts of any useful nutrients as far as I can see from a quick scan of the above pages.

Well, OK, they have non-trace but still piddling IMO amounts of a few minerals. But that doesn't make them a health food. They sure are delicious, though!

-Paul

Don't forget the fiber, they have lots of fiber. I eat them once in a while but not every day.

Xanadu-

That's kind of a relative thing, isn't it? That 100g of medjool dates I linked to has 75g of total carb including fiber. 66g of that carb is sugar. Only 7g is fiber. Granted, 7g isn't a trivial amount — 100g of boiled and drained frozen spinach has only 5g of total carb and 4g of fiber — but the sugar content is staggering. It takes a 20oz. Pepsi to equal the sugar content of 100g of dates.

100g of raw coconut, to pick another desserty food, has a much more favorable ratio: 15g of total carb of which 9g is fiber and only 6g is sugar. And an apple is a lot closer to a coconut than to dates, with 14g of total carb and 10g of sugar in a 100g portion. Same goes for a peach — 10g of total carb and 8g of sugar in a 100g portion.

All in all, dates look like bad news to me.

-Paul, AKA The Fruit Grinch

Well gee, I guess we could take that logic to prove that if you found a ton of silver in your backyard you should throw it away. After all, gold is much much more valuable than silver and platinum even more so. That makes silver bad news.

People like to have a little desert now and then. Not too many people consider an apple desert. It's much better to eat a natural fruit than to consume crap like most of the processed food is today. No msg, aspartame, hydrogenated oils or any of the other artificial garbage that you find in most processed foods. How much fiber do you get from a Sara Lee cake?

7g of fiber from 75g of carbs is not "a lot of fiber". If I ate a box of Trix a day, I'd meet most of my vitamin requirements, but what does that mean?

I'm not preaching against dates or anything like that, I just don't buy xanadu's argument.

Trix are a processed food, correct? Loaded with sugar and lord knows what else. Dates are fruit. Notice that I didn't say you should get all your fiber from dates. As always, people love to knock down the straw man. I said that for desert once in a while, dates are a good thing. I compared it to processed food deserts in the grocery store. Eating those will do you harm. Eating trix every day is not good at all and I doubt seriously you would meet most of your vitamin and fiber requirements no matter how much of it you ate. Or you could take a vitamin pill with ice cream and cake and claim it balances out.

Anyone else want to argue that processed foods are better than natural foods?

Well gee, I guess we could take that logic to prove that if you found a ton of silver in your backyard you should throw it away. After all, gold is much much more valuable than silver and platinum even more so. That makes silver bad news.

Come on, that doesn't fit at all. There's no active drawback to silver. If you find a bunch of silver, you've found a bunch of money.

The sugar content of dates, however, is an active drawback. Eating dates increases potential glycation in your system. It provides ready food for pathogens. It causes an insulin surge, which can lead to insulin resistance over time. Etc.

People like to have a little desert now and then. Not too many people consider an apple desert. It's much better to eat a natural fruit than to consume crap like most of the processed food is today. No msg, aspartame, hydrogenated oils or any of the other artificial garbage that you find in most processed foods. How much fiber do you get from a Sara Lee cake?

I'm not saying people don't want to eat some dessert or even that nobody should ever eat dates. And sure, in the overall ranking of foods, dates are most likely better than Sara Lee cakes, though the PDF I'm looking at doesn't show any hydrogenated oil, and the carb total is actually appreciably less per 100g. Then again, a date is likely to contain all sorts of trace nutrients that a Sara Lee cake is bereft of, and it's not like the eggs in the cake are going to be anything but the worst quality... so, I'll give the dates a qualified win.

Not considering fruit a dessert, though, is a relatively modern problem. If we're trying to maintain optimum health for as long as possible, it seems to me that we ought to pay attention to all aspects of food quality. So yeah, I'm being pedantic in this thread, but I think I'm making valid and important points.

-Paul

Xanadu-

Anyone else want to argue that processed foods are better than natural foods?

Depends on the processed food, I'd think.

-Paul

Dude, you didn't even come close to understanding what I was saying.

All in all, dates look like bad news to me.

-Paul, AKA The Fruit Grinch

Dammit Paul, you ruined christmas!! [lol] To be honest, I only started eating them a few years ago, they always looked like an odd thing to eat, and they were never around. I was figuring because they're so sweet that there was something somewhat nasty going on. Oh well, at least it's sparked some date related conversation, which was my intention

Paul, I would agree with what you said. Dates are not a good thing for everyday, certainly not in quantity due to the high levels of sugar. I do think they are better than any dessert you will find in the grocer's case though that's not much of a recommendation by itself. Do you eat bread or other flour products? They turn to sugar right away and boost blood sugar levels. I don't see anyone knocking bread but it's not good for you based on standards discussed in this thread. I'd take a date over a piece of bread but neither are that great compared to other things.

Xanadu-

I don't know, a quality ice cream might well be better for a lot of people than a straight hit of sugar from dates.

And no, I don't eat bread or other flour products or in fact any starch at all, so at least I'm a consistant pain in the ass.

-Paul

You don't eat flour but you recommend eating ice cream rather than a sweet fruit?

Xanadu-

You don't eat flour but you recommend eating ice cream rather than a sweet fruit?

I don't recommend it; I'm just speculating on which might be the lesser of two evils. Ice cream benefits from having some fat and egg yolks and milk, though the quality of all will be piss poor. Dates benefit from, well, not much, but there may be more trace nutrients. They're both pretty bad.

-Paul