Seven dates a day for three weeks are put to the check in a randomized managed trial. (I’m speaking concerning the fruit, not a deliberate get collectively.)
Dates are one of many healthiest sweeteners. I exploit them after I cook dinner and bake, and also you’ll discover them as key elements in The How Not to Die Cookbook and The How Not to Diet Cookbook. You can blend them with water to make date syrup or use date sugar, which is a complete meals—simply dried dates floor into powder. As such, it’s full of diet and has as a lot antioxidant energy as blackstrap molasses, as you may see within the graph beneath and at 0:24 in my video Flashback Friday: Benefit of Dates for Colon Health, however with out the robust style. (Not all manufacturers are the identical, although. For instance, as you may also see beneath and at 0:31 in my video, Bob’s Red Mill might have twice the antioxidants in contrast with NOW Foods’ date sugar, although researchers examined just one bundle every.) So, dates are wholesome in contrast with different sweeteners, however that’s not saying a lot. Do dates have any particular medicinal properties?
There are papers within the medical literature touting the “therapeutic effects of date fruits…in the prevention of diseases via modulation of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-tumor activity” and discussing “pharmacological activities of dates fruits in diseases control.” You can see a determine beneath and at 0:57 in my video for instance this. But, what they don’t say is that a few of this can be based mostly on research by which dates have been fed to rats earlier than they have been then subjected to testicular ischemia by twisting their left testicle 720 levels clockwise—two full rotations—to fully kink off the blood provide. Did the dates assist? Who cares if the dates helped?! We’re speaking about rat testicles. What relevance does testing the nut-on-nut results of pecans on rat testes have?
Ironically, maybe the strangest assertion is that dates help with labor and supply, which is definitely supported by randomized and double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, as I coated in my video Friday Favorites: Best Food for Late Pregnancy, Labor, and Deliver. So, let’s hold an open thoughts right here.
What concerning the purported anti-cancer results? Researchers studied the influence of dates on our good intestine flora and colon most cancers cell proliferation. Our intestine harbors about 10,000 billion micro-organisms and “is considered the most metabolically active site in the human body.” All types of loopy issues are taking place down there, and we are able to reward our good intestine flora by feeding them prebiotics, reminiscent of dietary fiber and polyphenols, a category of antioxidant phytonutrients. Dates have excessive ranges of each. Researchers blended some dates with some intestine flora—fecal slurries donated by volunteers. (Have you heard of inexperienced smoothies? This is extra like a brown smoothie.) What occurred? Both the entire date extract and simply the date polyphenols have been “able to significantly increase the growth of beneficial bacteria.” They additionally assessed the power of mixtures to inhibit the expansion of colon most cancers cells in a petri dish. As you may see within the graph beneath and at 2:51 in my video, even simply the polyphenol extract cut most cancers cell development by greater than half and the entire date extract practically blocked most cancers cell development fully. “Together these data suggest that consumption of date fruits may enhance colon health by increasing beneficial bacterial growth and inhibiting the proliferation of colon cancer cells.”
It would have been good if researchers had truly studied the results of dates within the precise colon, however there had by no means been such a research—till just lately. A randomized, managed, cross-over, human interventional research looked on the influence of date consumption on intestine flora development and enormous intestinal well being. Volunteers have been randomized to both a management group or seven dates a day for three weeks, and researchers discovered “there were significant increases in bowel movements and stool frequency,” which was not shocking for the reason that research individuals within the date group have been consuming extra fiber. But, in addition they discovered “significant reductions in stool ammonia concentration…after consumption of dates, relative to baseline.” (My video Stool pH and Colon Cancer explains why that’s vital.) “Furthermore, date fruit intake significantly reduced genotoxicity in human fecal water,” or human stool tea. A water extract of feces from somebody consuming seven dates a day causes considerably much less genotoxicity, that means considerably much less DNA injury, which is sweet as a result of that’s what’s coating the within of our colon each day.
As you may see beneath and at 4:17 in my video, dozens of various date varieties have been pitted (no pun supposed) in opposition to quite a lot of most cancers cells in vitro—not simply colon most cancers and abdomen most cancers, which the dates would possibly truly are available contact with, but in addition prostate, lung, and breast cancers. Of course, we’d first have to point out that the lively parts are literally absorbed into the bloodstream and find yourself in these organs.
Here are a few of my favourite recipes utilizing dates: Date Syrup and Balsamic Date Glaze.
