The top benefits, nutritional values, Uses and storage of Dates

The top benefits, nutritional values, Uses and storage of Dates

source: dreamstime

Dates are grown in the tropical regions of the world. Dates are sweet in taste and are chewy. They are the fruits of date palm tree. Scientific name of dates is  Phoenix dactylifera.  Medjool and Deglet Noor dates are the most commonly consumed varieties. Fresh dates are fairly small in size and range in color from bright red to bright yellow. Western countries that sold dates are almost dry.

Dates are the fruit of the date palm tree, which is grown in many tropical regions of the world. have become quite popular in recent years. are sweet fruits of date palm tree scientifically known as. They are one of the best versatile foods that can regulate the digestive process and have gained popularity in recent times. Date palm trees are cultivated all over the world especially across tropical regions. You can also use date molasses, a natural sweetener made from date syrup, in your smoothies or desserts in place of sugar. Dried dates have wrinkled skin whereas a fresh date have a smooth skin. have many health benefits like promoting eye health, preventing night blindness, muscle development, brain health, regularity. It also have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-tumor properties.

High in Disease-Fighting Antioxidants

Dates contains lot of antioxidants. It also reduces the risk of many diseases. The antioxidants present in dates protect the cell membranes from free radical damage. These have highest antioxidant content. They contain flavonoids, phenolic acid which helps to reduce inflammation, diabetes, certain types of cancer and alzheimer’s disease. It also contains carotenoids which protects from eye problems, macular degeneration and promotes heart health.

Good Source of Energy

These contains glucose, sucrose and fructose which helps to increase the energy levels in the body. It also helps to regain energy immediately after exhaustion from a workout.

People who follow Islam and observe fastings, break their fast by eating them along with water. This also helps avoid overeating of food once the fast is over.

Dates Rich in Fiber May Help Relieve Constipation

Dates help in relieving in constipation. It contains fiber which promote healthy bowel movement and ensures the comfortable digestion of food through the intestinal tract. They contain both high levels of dietary fiber and insoluble fiber which promotes healthy digestion and relieves the symptoms of constipation.

Relief from Intestinal Disorders

They contain amino acids and both soluble and insoluble fibers which promotes digestion and relevies in many diseases like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), diverticulitis and hemorrhoids.

Give Relief from Anemia

They contain a good source of iron which helps in the treatment of anemia and its symptoms.

Prevent Heart Diseases

Dates  contains antioxidants and potassium which is responsible for reducing stroke and decrease oxidative stress. It helps to lower the blood pressure and reduces the risk of diseases such as atherogenesis and other heart related diseases.

Treat Sexual Dysfunction

Dates help to increase male fertility. These contains  estradiol and flavonoid which helps in increasing sperm count and motility.

Prevent Night Blindness

Dates contain carotenoids which promotes healthy vision and promotes night blindness.

Help Treat Chronic Diarrhea

Dates help in treating in chronic diarrhea as it contains high fiber content.

May Have Cancer-Fighting Properties

Dates slow down the development of cancer cells and improves bowel health.

Bone Health

Because of boron, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus dates maintains bone health. It also makes the bones stronger thus reducing the risk of osteoporosis.

Dates May Promote Healthy Weight Gain

Dates promotes healthy weight gain as it contains proteins, sugars and high in fiber.

Aid in Relieving Symptoms of SAR

Dates helps in the treatment of allergic rhinitis and Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis

May Promote Brain Health

They lower inflammatory levels in the brain and helping in improving the brain health. It also promotes better memory and relevies in anxiety. It also helps in reducing inflammation as it contains flavonoids.

May Promote Natural Labor

Dates lower the need of induced labor in pregnant women. It also reduces the labor time. They ontain tannins which helps to maintain energy levels during labor.

Dates should be consumed early in the morning and at night. They go well with  cured meat, as well as tangy flavors like citrus, yogurt, mild goat cheese, and blue cheese. They also pair well with warm flavors, like cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, and other fruits, like pears, apples, and bananas.

Uses of dates

  • Start by soaking dates in water overnight to help them soften up. Next, add soaked dates and a bit of soaking liquid to a food processor and blend to make a thick, fiber-rich date paste. This remedy will help you in relieving in constipation.
  • If you have a cranky stomach which grumbles to digest the food, here is a remedy with dates to rectify it. Finely chop 5-6 fresh dates mix these with a teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of pepper powder. Consume this in empty stomach in morning and drink a small glass of warm water. You can eat or drink after 2 hours. This relieves constipation; set digestive power and strengthens the digestive system.
  • When you have a muscle pull or muscle cramp apply a poultice of date sugar on affected part. Warm 2 teaspoon of sesame oil, mix date sugar in it. Apply this warm poultice on aching muscle. This relieves pain.
  • Chop around 15 fresh dates mix it with 10 tea spoons of ghee. Add a pinch of ginger powder, cardamom powder and few strands of saffron. Store this in a jar and do not refrigerate it. Consume 1 teaspoon of this in early morning. People who are willing to gain weight, pregnant women and people with low energy levels can use this. This is an effective ayurvedic remedy for erectile dysfunction. People with high cholesterol and persons who are on weight loss program refrain from using this. Diabetes people can use this if their blood cholesterol levels are in normal limits.

Some more uses:

  • We all know that refined sugar makes us obese. If you are on a weight loss program use date sugar instead of white raw sugar. It is a healthy substitute which contains lots of iron. People use this in pregnancy.
  • When acidity bites the belly, finely chop 2 fresh dates and mix it with a spoon of honey and consume it. It prevents palpitation and boosts energy.
  • Kids usually get diarrhoea during teething. At that time mix ½ teaspoon date sugar and ½ tea spoons honey and give this to child 2 to 3 times in a day.
  • Palm sugar milk or Kharjura sharkara ksheera is a very good recipe to boost strength, increase libido and nourish recuperating patients. This recipe increases sperm count and helps in erectile dysfunction.
  • Dates and Carrot salad is a best Vajikarana or aphrodisiac food
  • A drink in which Milk is processed with dates is known as Vrishya ksheera or aphrodisiac milk. It is very useful for men with impotence.

Ways to use dates

Use dates in cookies, snack bars. It can also be used in smoothies, oatmeal, in salad dressings and marinades. Dates can be used with milk and yogurt. It can also be used as a bread spread. Use dates in place of ordinary sugar.

How to buy and store dates

Dates are available in all groceries stores and supermarkets. Buy the variety of dates which provide maximum benefit like medjool dates, noor dates or ajwa dates.store dates at a room temperature in a cool place, inside an air-seal container where they stay can well for several months.

Dates can be readily available in the groceries year-round. Some varieties of fresh, soft, good-quality fruits, however, only found from September through December. In certain dry regions of Africa, dates gathered while just reaching maturity and allowed to ripen inside the jars.

In the stores, one may come across soft, semi-dry, and dried types display for sale. At home, store them at room temperature

Season in which dates are available

They are available all year round. Fresh dates are available from september to december.

How to make Easy Vegan Date Roll Recipe

Ingredients

  • 250 grams Dates, seedless
  • 200 grams Mixed nuts, chopped or ground,
  • Almond butter, or any vegan butter, as needed

Method

  1. To prepare Easy Vegan Date Roll Recipe, clean the dates and ensure that they’re deseeded. Then add dates into grinder and grind till smooth paste, in a mixer grinder. Add almond butter or ghee for proper mixing.
  2. Roast the mixed nuts well and grind them too.
  3. Place them into grinder and grind it. Now add vegan butter and make crumbly texture like dates mixture.
  4. Now take plastic surface, and take date mixture into it, roll out to flat to a half inch thick sheet. ensure that both the dates and mixed nut are rolled out evenly, and to same dimensions, such that they can be rolled together.
  5. Cover the surface of dates with nuts mixture. Gently press the mixture onto dates.
  6. Now roll out flat surface and make roll out of it. Handle with care by pressing every roll.
  7. Then let the roll rest for 10 minutes into the freezer.
  8. Then, cut the roll by slicing it by half-inch thick pieces.
  9. Your Easy Vegan Date Roll Recipe are ready to be served as dessert or as a healthy after school snack.

How to make dates burfi

Ingredients

250 grams Dates dry

50 grams Cashew

25 grams almonds

25 grams Pistachios

1 tablespoon ghee

2 tablespoon khus khus

Method to  make Dates Burfi:

Cut the dates in small pieces. I have used seedless dates.

Chop the dry fruits into small pieces.

Dry roast them separately till crisp on low flame.

Dry roast the poppy seeds on low flame until it is crunchy.

Grind the dates in a grinder.

Heat a pan and add ghee to it. Put the ground paste to it. Saute it for a few minutes. Then add the roasted dry fruits and mix well. Remove from fire and keep aside for a while.

Grease your hands and roll it into cylindrical shape.

Roll it in the roasted poppy seeds and keep in the refrigerator for two hours.

Cut into small circular burfis.

Safety profile

Eating dates in excess can cause health issues and increase the weight as they are high in sugar and calories.

Fun facts:

  1. Date fruits have been present in the Middle East and Northern Africa as a local food for more than 7000 years. They have been agricultural produced for 5000 years.
  2. Date fruits are very nutritious and have lots of vitamins (A, B, D) and sugar (fructose), what makes them great source of energy.
  3. Due to availability people used them for longer boat trips, crossing deserts and they even stocked them in fortresses and use them for survival food, when they were besieged. Correctly stocked date fruits can last for several years.
  4. Joining camel milk with date fruits makes them unbeatable team. Camel milk is rich with fat and vitamin C and joining vitamin A, B and D, makes them a perfect nutrition combination. An adult can survive with only 15 date fruits per day. With them your body gets all the necessary minerals and vitamins for its existence.
  5. When in Oman a son is born, they plant him a date tree. The date tree grows together with him and secures him that his family will never suffer hunger.
  6. UAE has more than 199 different types of date fruits. The country has around 44 million palm trees (98% of all fruit trees), which produce 900.000 tons of date fruits per year. Oman is behind UAE, having only 8 million palm trees (82% of all fruit trees), which give about 268.000 tons of date fruits yearly. The TOP country for date fruits producing is Egypt. Saudi Arabia and Iran follow. Oman and UAE are still among TOP 10 producers of date fruits in the world. There are more than 1000 different types of date fruits known.

Interesting things about dates:

  1. Date fruits stones are used for making soap and even eyeliners.
  2. For pollinations female and male date trees are needed, having only 2 days time.
  3. Date trees were not used only because of date fruits. They used them for shades in the dessert. Their leaves were used to make baskets, carpets, fens and even trays. The trunk was used as a frame for tents and for making furniture. Its fiber was good for ropes, fish traps, brushes and filling mattresses and pillows.
  4. Due to popularity of date fruits around the world, people started to use also date syrup, which is made from grind dried dates.
  5. According to Islamic tradition, the date tree is the tree of life in Garden of Eden.
  6. The word “date” comes from the Greek word dactylos, meaning finger.
  7. One cup of dates has about 400 calories, 27 percent of the recommended daily requirement of potassium and 48 percent of daily fiber needs.
  8.  Very few people are allergic to this fruit.
  9. Their low water and high sugar content gives them a shelf-life of many months.
  10. Dates made nomadic life and trade possible in the very dry and hot regions of the Middle East and North Africa.
  11.  Because the tree and its fruit have so many uses — from food to building materials — the date palm is known as the “tree of life” in the Middle East, and it’s the national symbol of Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Astonishing things to know:

  1. Date palm seeds can go dormant for decades until the right light and water conditions are just right.
  2. Some scholars believe a date — not an apple — was the real fruit mentioned in the Bible’s Garden of Eden.
  3.  Dates were probably cultivated about 8,000 years ago in present-day Iraq.
  4. Date palm trees need at least 100 days of 100ºF heat and plenty of water to produce the best quality fruit.
  5. Dates and laban, or buttermilk, are traditionally used by Muslims to break the Ramadan fast each evening.
  6. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics mark years with images of full date palms, as the trees grow 12 new fronds a year.
  7. About 3% of the earth’s farmland is covered by date palms, producing four million tons a year.
  8.  The bulk of US dates are grown in California’s Coachella Valley. High temperatures and irrigation from the Colorado River make growing conditions ideal.
  9. There are more than 200 varieties of dates. Medjool, large and caramel-like, is the hardest to grow and therefore one of the most expensive to buy.
  10. Ancient Mesopotamians considered the date an aphrodisiac. It’s the symbol of the goddess Ishtar, prototype of Venus and Aphrodite. 20. Date palms were brought to Spain from North Africa around 800 AD.
  11. Spanish explorers brought seeds to Cuba in the 1500s. Missionaries planted them in Baja California in 1765, while other varieties were imported to California in the early 1900s.

Links to some best Amazon products:


Happilo Premium International Omani Dates, 250g

https://amzn.to/3ivDE7a

Dry Fruit Wala Date Crown Fard UAE Dates 1kg, 1 kg

https://amzn.to/2ZBlEQ6

Ziofit Classic Sultan Dates, 500g (Buy 1 Get 1 Free)

https://amzn.to/31M2zgS

Comments (2)

  • Facebook Marketing Reply

    I am really impressed with your writing talents as smartly as with the layout on your weblog. Is that this a paid subject matter or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to look a great blog like this one these days.

    October 13, 2020 at 3:19 am
  • opportunity Reply

    Hі there, after reading this amazing paragraph i am also glad to
    sһarе my knowledge here with frіends.

    December 15, 2020 at 10:04 am

Leave a Reply to opportunity Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *