Dates aren’t the most appealing fruit, but they certainly are sweet and nutritious. Studies find that this amazing fruit has approximately over a dozen beneficial ways of helping your body heal, and they are displayed to prevent and/or help treat about many different health conditions (1). And as it turns out, dates are also one of the best foods for heart health.
Dates For Heart Health
The health benefits of dates begin with your body’s most vital organ.
1. Prevent Atherosclerosis
Israeli researchers discovered that eating dates once a day can protect you from developing atherosclerosis, a major reason of heart att.acks and str0kes.
2. Lower Bl00d Pressure
A Harvard Medical School study also finds that dates are one of the foods that can help to lower blood pressure.
3. Prevent Str0ke
Dates are also a powerful source of potassium, which researchers know is connected to heart health. In particular, Medjool dates offer 20 percent of your recommended daily intake (RDI) of potassium per 100 gram serving.
One study displayed that healthy women who eat around 3,200 mg of potassium a day have a 21 percent lower risk of stroke (6).
8 More Amazing Health Benefits Of Dates
1. Prevent Anemia
Iron is a major component of hemoglobin in red blood cells, which are responsible for carrying oxygen to all the other cells of your body. Iron deficiency can lead to anemia, a difficult condition to manage.
Dates consist of significant amounts of iron, which is obviously key for preventing and treating this condition, especially in children and pregnant women.
2. Treat Constipation
The significant potassium content in dates, as well as the high levels of soluble fiber in the fruit, can treat constipation. Dates are crucially a perfect and tasty digestive regulator!
3. Prevent and Treat Gastric Ulcers
Dates are soothing on your digestive tract and have been applied for centuries as a home remedy for ulcers. One 2005 study anncounced in the Journal of Ethnopharmacy confirms that dates do in fact have the ability to soothe inflamed ulcers in your digestive tract.
Researchers said, “The results implied that the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the date fruit and, to a lesser extent, date pits, were effective in ameliorating the severity of gastric ulceration and mitigating the ethanol-induced increase in histamine and gastrin concentrations, and the decrease in mucin gastric levels.”
4. Facilitates Labor
This benefit may be a bit surprising to some people, but it goes back centuries.
A 2011 study announced in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology titled, “The effect of late pregnancy consumption of date fruit on labor and delivery,” displayed that women who ate 6 dates daily for 4 weeks prior to their scheduled due date, had significantly enhanced cervical dilation when in labor. They also experienced less damage to their cervical membranes after giving birth.
Plus, the study concluded they went into more spontaneous labor (98 percent compared to 79 percent) and only 28 percent of women needed drugs like prostin/oxytocin to induce labor. In fact, researchers say it was significantly lower as 47 percent of non-date fruit consumers needed this medication.
5. Prevent Canc3r
Dates consist of high amounts of magnesium, a mineral that is important to your immune system. Magnesium calms inflammation in your body, a condition that is connected to a multitude of diseases, including such canc3r, which is accelerated by inflammation. Dates are also full of beneficial antioxidants that combat free radicals and dangerous oxidation of your cells, again something that leads to disease.
6. Boost Male Fertility
Surprisingly, studies also find that date palm pollen (DPP) may cure male infertility by improving the quality of sperm parameters (13).
A 2015 study announced in the Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences (PJBS) looked at 40 infertile men who ate 120 mg DPP every other day, for two months.
They concluded that consumption of DPP enhanced their sperm count and in fact, “The treatment significantly increased sperm motility, morphology and forward progressive motility.”
Dates have high levels of estradiol and flavonoids believed to help boost sperm count and motility, and even increase testes size and weight. A common home remedy calls for soaking a handful of dates in fresh goat’s milk overnight, then grinding them in the milk with a mixture of cardamom powder and honey.
7. Promote Energy
Dates are full of natural simple sugars like glucose, fructose, and sucrose, which makes them a perfect snack for a fast and effective energy burst as these simple sugars are easily and quickly transformed into glucose, which your cells use as energy.
Eat a few dates both before and after exercise, especially if you are doing high cardiovascular exercises, as they will help fortify and replenish your energy levels.
The fiber in dates also allows you to remain energized without the typical crash you get after eating most commercial “energy bars,” that are nothing more than carbs and sugar.
8. Boost Brain Energy
Not only can dates help enhance your overall physical energy, but these delicious fruits can also promote your brain power. Every date consists of over 2 milligrams of choline, a B vitamin in acetylcholine, the memory neurotransmitter.
And studies find that higher choline intake leads to better memory and learning. This makes eating dates key for children and older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s.
