Fruit facts - Dates health benefits - Dates nutritional values

Dates fruit nutrition facts → Facts about dates fruit and palm → Health benefits of dates fruit

Dates fruit have been the staple food for centuries in the West Asian, Mediterranean and North African regions of the world, giving health benefits to the populations in the region.This fruit is a good food source having high nutritional value contributing immense health benefits. Dates are easily assimilated producing energy in a short span of time.

Dates fruit uses and benefits

It is consumed as such and also used in various culinary preparations enhancing their nutritional values.
Dates fruit is chopped or made into paste or syrup and used in candy bars, cookies, cakes, jams, jellies, breads, puddings and cereals enriching their nutritional value.

a bunch of raw dates (enlarge)

Nutritional values and medicinal and health benefits of dates fruit

The high content of sugars like fructose, glucose and sucrose makes it a power house giving instant energy.
This fruit is rich in essential minerals like, potassium, calcium, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, copper and manganese.
It contains fairly high amounts of vitamin B complex, giving health benefits by helping in the regulation of metabolism, boosting of immunity, maintenance of blood glucose levels and cell regeneration.
The high fiber content improves health by giving a laxative effect in the intestine.
The soluble fiber in dates fruit helps in the control of diabetes by regulating the blood sugar levels.
The soluble fiber gives health benefits of lowering LDL ( low density lipoprotein - bad cholesterol).
The high potassium and low sodium content in them helps in the reducing hyper-tension and blood pressure.
Dates are found to have high levels of antioxidants and polyphenols, which give health benefits like protection from cancer and heart ailments.
The high tannin content make them useful in the intestinal troubles, functioning as astringent and detersive.
Continuous use of them has been found to help in building up of friendly bacteria in the digestive tract and in keeping the intestinal pathogens in check.
Dates help in weight reduction, weight gain and in the getting relief from constipation due to its high fiber content.
In various forms like decoction, syrup and paste gives health benefits controlling cough and throat ailments.
It is found to relieve fever, edema and abdominal health problems.
The gum from the trunk is used to treat urino-genital ailments and diarrhea.
For both adults and children, taking this fruit helps in the speedy convalescence.
They are believed to give health benefits like strengthening the uterine-wall during pregnancy.
Dates fruit has been found to give health benefits to pregnant women by helping in easy delivery and in reducing bleeding after delivery.

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Fruit facts: Dates nutrition facts

Dates nutrition facts → Dates tree and fruit facts → Facts about health benefits of dates

One of the important facts is that sugars are the most prevalent nutrient in the fruit and are mainly composed of sucrose, fructose and glucose. Instant energy available in this fruit contribute to its nutrition value.

Though proteins occur in small amounts, the amino acid composition is favourable to human needs and nutrition.

Crude fibre in dates fruit, ranges between 2-6% of the flesh and is useful as dietary fibre in human nutrition. Vitamin A, B1, B2 and niacin are available in this fruit in reasonable amounts. Dates are good sources of iron, calcium and potassium. Considerable amounts of copper, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur and chlorine are present.

Polyphenols as tannins are present to the extent of 3% weight of the dates fruit and add antioxidant nutrition properties to the fruit.

(Facts on nutrition and values are calculated for the edible parts.)

Dates (enlarge)

Fruit facts: Dates nutrition

Nutrients	Units	Value per 100g	One cup chopped 147g	One pitted
Water	g	20.53	30.18	1.46
Energy	kcal	282	415	20
Protein	g	2.45	3.60	0.17
Total lipid (fat)	g	0.39	0.57	0.03
Ash	g	1.60	2.35	0.11
Carbohydrate	g	75.03	110.29	5.33
Dietary Fiber	g	8.0	11.8	0.6

Fruit facts: Sugars in dates nutrition

Sugars	Units	Value per 100g	One cup chopped 147g	One pitted
Sugars	g	63.35	93.12	4.50
Sucrose	g	23.84	35.04	1.69
Glucose(Dextrose)	g	19.87	29.21	1.41
Fructose	g	19.56	28.75	1.39
Maltose	g	0.12	0.18	0.01

Fruit facts: Minerals in dates nutrition

Minerals	Units	Value per 100g	One cup chopped 147g	One pitted
Calcium	mg	39	57	3
Iron	mg	1.02	1.50	0.07
Magnesium	mg	43	63	3
Phosphorus	mg	62	91	4
Potassium	mg	656	964	47
Sodium	mg	2	3	0
Zinc	mg	0.29	0.43	0.02
Copper	mg	0.206	0.303	0.015
Manganese	mg	0.262	0.385	0.019
Selenium	mcg	3.0	4.4	0.2

Fruit facts: Vitamins in dates nutrition

Vitamins nutrition facts	Units	Value per 100g	One cup chopped 147g	One pitted
Vitamin C	mg	0.4	0.6	0.0
Thiamin	mg	0.052	0.076	0.004
Riboflavin	mg	0.066	0.097	0.005
Niacin	mg	1.274	1.873	0.090
Pantothenic acid	mg	0.589	0.866	0.042
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.165	0.243	0.012
Folate	mcg	19	28	1
Choline	mg	6.3	9.3	0.4
Betaine	mg	0.4	0.6	0.0
Carotene, beta	mcg	6	9	0
Vitamin A	IU	10	15	1
Lutein + zeaxanthin	mcg	75	110	5
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	0.05	0.07	0.00
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	mcg	2.7	4.0	0.2

Fruit facts: Lipids in dates nutrition

Fatty acids	Units	Value per 100g	One cup chopped147g	One pitted
Saturated	g	0.032	0.002	0.00
Monounsaturated	g	0.036	0.053	0.003
Polyunsaturated	g	0.019	0.028	0.001

Fruit facts: Amino acids in dates nutrition

Amino acids	Units	Value per 100g	One cup chopped 147g	One pitted
Tryptophan	g	0.012	0.018	0.001
Threonine	g	0.043	0.063	0.003
Isoleucine	g	0.049	0.072	0.003
Leucine	g	0.084	0.123	0.006
Lysine	g	0.066	0.097	0.005
Methionine	g	0.022	0.032	0.002
Cystine	g	0.067	0.098	0.005
Phenylalanine	g	0.050	0.074	0.004
Tyrosine	g	0.015	0.022	0.001
Valine	g	0.071	0.104	0.005
Arginine	g	0.136	0.200	0.010
Histidine	g	0.032	0.047	0.002
Alanine	g	0.083	0.122	0.006
Aspartic acid	g	0.213	0.313	0.015
Glutamic acid	g	0.359	0.528	0.025
Glycine	g	0.101	0.148	0.007
Proline	g	0.130	0.191	0.009
Serine	g	0.057	0.084	0.004

Source: USDA National Nutrient Database (2009)

Fruit facts: Dates fruit facts

Dates fruit nutrition facts → Facts about dates fruit and palm tree → facts about health benefits

Facts about dates fruit

• The dates fruit is a berry having a single seed surrounded by fibrous endocarp, mesocarp and pericarp.
• The pericarp is the outer skin of the berry and the fleshy portion is mesocarp.
• The dates fruit berry is attached at calyx to the spike-let.
• A cluster of dates may hold 500-2000 berries.
• When fully ripe there is dehydration of the dates and the skin gets wrinkled and is covered by a waxy film.
• It takes about 200 days for it to reach maturity from the day of pollination.
• There are three major stages in the growth and maturation and each stage has a name; Khalaal, Rutab and Tamr-full ripe stage.

Facts about dates fruit palm

• Dates palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is a palm tree belonging to genus Phoenix.
• One of the facts is that Phoenix dactylifera palm tree has a long history of cultivation and it origin is probably in North Africa or West Asia.
• Phoenix dactylifera tree is a medium sized palm growing up to a height of 20-25 meters.

Dates palms (enlarge)

• One of the interesting facts is that a single root system of Phoenix dactylifera tree can give rise to several palms and single palms are also not a exception.
• The leaves of this palm tree, like many palm trees is pinnate and grows to a length of about 2-5 meters and has spines on the petiole.

Facts about dates fruit palm history and distribution

• The facts of archaeological evidence prove about cultivation of these palms dating back to 6000 years.
• There is evidence of prehistoric Egyptian use of dates for preparation of wine.
• Later the palms were spread to Mediterranean countries and in 17th century to California and Mexico.

Facts about growing dates fruit palms

• Phoenix dactylifera is dioecious ie. there separate male and female palms.
• Though these palm trees can be grown from the seeds only about 50% of the trees will be female fruit bearing trees.
• One of the known facts is that the Phoenix dactylifera trees grown from seeds yield smaller clusters of fruit and of poor quality.
• For commercial plantations cuttings are used to get good yield from tree.
• The trees from the cuttings will be females and will start yielding 2-3 years earlier than those grown from seeds.
• Medjool is a very popular high yielding cultivar giving large and sweet fruit.
• The plantation should also have male trees as they are required for pollination.
• Nowadays during pollination season male flowers are made available in local markets.
• In facts in nature these palm trees are pollinated mostly by wind.
• In commercial plantations of Phoenix dactylifera to get good yield pollination of tree is done manually.
• The manual pollination is done by skilled persons using ladders or palm tree climbing gear.
• In facts Phoenix dactylifera takes up to 3-6 years for bearing fruit and after 7 years viable yields are realised.
• In a season a yield of about 100kg can be expected from a palm tree.
• In facts several harvests are required as the berries do not mature at the same time.
• The clusters in the palm tree have to be protected from birds and climatic conditions.

Facts about dates fruit production

• One of the interesting facts is that Egypt has extensive cover of dates fruit trees and leads the dates fruit producing countries with an annual yield of more than 1400,000 tons.
• Iran with a production of about 1000,000 tons takes the second place closely followed by Saudi Arabia with 980,000 tons.
• Other top ranking countries are UAE, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, China and Libya.

Facts about preserving dates fruit

• One of the facts is that Fig moth is a major threat to the harvested dates.
• Preservation methods like fumigation, heat treatment, cold storage and irradiation are resorted to.
• Dates are washed graded and cured by sun drying or dehydration.
• Then they are treated for pest, glazed by running hot air and packed.
• Pitting is done to get compact packets.

Facts about culinary use of dates fruit

• Many recipes are being invented for the use of different stages of maturity of the dates fruit.
• Their use in salad preparations are in vogue in the Middle East.
• Shredded dates are mixed with wheat or other cereal flour and numerous preparations like cake and puddings are made.
• Many dates fruit recipes for sandwich spreads, party snacks and salads are now being tried out.