Why Dried Dates Can Be One Of The Unhealthiest Fruits To Eat

The quest to find delicious yet nutritious snacks is an endless one, full of distractions, false starts, and heartbreak. Among the sneakiest snacks you can try are dried fruits. On one hand, they're bursting with nutrients such as fiber and various vitamins. On the other, each miniaturized piece has more calories and sugar than its non-dried parent fruit per serving, making it all too easy to accidentally blow past your suggested nutrient limits while absent-mindedly munching.

Dried dates are a prime candidate for this unintentional overeating: A single cup of these purple nuggets holds a whopping 451 calories and 101 grams of sugar. Fresh dates aren't much better, with just two Medjool dates having roughly 130 calories and 32 grams of sugar. To put that in perspective, a 12-ounce can of Coke has 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar. Granted, you get actual nutritional benefits from dates compared to Coke, including 4 grams of protein and 13 grams of fiber from a cup of dried dates.

Despite dried dates being high in sugar, they have a low glycemic index, meaning people with high blood sugar concerns can enjoy them in relative safety. Their decent amount of fiber also helps you reach your 20-40 gram suggested intake, plus they have more antioxidants than most other dried fruits. There are also some interesting possible benefits to eating dates in the last month of pregnancy. One study published by the National Library Of Medicine found doing so can greatly reduce the need to induce labor, for example, while another published by the Journal Of Midwifery & Reproductive Health found it also makes inducing labor easier.

The key to getting all these benefits — while avoiding the worst of the calories and sugar — is to chop up two or three dried dates and incorporate them into other recipes. They're excellent in cinnamon trail mix, for example, or mixed with other fruits to upgrade your next salad. But life is also about balance, and that means indulging yourself on dried dates now and then without guilt. Lean into their sugar content and use them in desserts such as bread pudding, for example, or in a "don't knock it till you try it" manner, you could use them to sweeten your next pot of chili.