18 Incredible Health Benefits Of Dates

Dates are a food that’s easy to overlook – but do so at your own risk. They’re a nutritional powerhouse – not to mention a boon for people suffering from all sorts of conditions, including constipation, anemia, diarrhea, intestinal problems, cardiovascular disease – even abdominal cancer!

When asked to think of the healthiest foods on the planet, most people pick well known choices, like kale, or antioxidant packed berries, or broccoli – or lesser known ones, like flaxseed or chia seeds.

But dates often go completely unnoticed – which means there’s a huge opportunity for you to add them to your diet and improve your health in a variety of different ways.

Plus, they’re delicious! Everyone likes to complain about how the healthiest foods are never the ones that taste good – dates break the mold. Sweet, chewy, and oh so scrumptious, dates are something you can add to your diet and be happy about eating, all while they work their nutritional magic.

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After this article, you’ll know all the amazing ways that dates can improve your health, help to prevent and even cure chronic conditions, and make you feel healthier and happier than ever before.

Let’s talk about all the amazing benefits you get from eating dates.

The Biggest Health Benefits Of Dates

1. Dates Are Packed With Vital Nutrients

People who leave dates off their lists of superfoods are doing themselves a disservice. Dates are packed with potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and phosphorus – all crucial minerals that your body needs. (1)

But we’re not done yet. They’ve also got vitamins that your body desperately needs – including vitamin A, vitamin K, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, and folate.

But we’re not done yet. Dates are also an incredible source of dietary fiber – which helps to keep you regular and keep your digestive system healthy and happy. Without enough fiber, you can get some extremely unpleasant symptoms like constipation or worse – so add dates to your diet and your stomach will thank you! (2)

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2. Dates Are A Potent Anti-Inflammatory

Inflammation is at the root of many chronic diseases that affect millions and millions of people – and when you can work against inflammation in your body, you can mitigate and even get rid of some of the worst symptoms. (3)

Dates have tons of magnesium in them, which is a mineral that helps fight inflammation in all parts of your body, including your arteries and other vital areas. There’s some research that points at dates being able to relieve symptoms of and even reduce the risk of diseases like arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and others. (4)

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3. Dates Help To Treat Anemia

One more vital nutrient in dates that often gets overlooked is their high iron content. And because they’re so tasty and easy to eat, they make the perfect food for people who are suffering from anemia. (5)

Vegetarians and vegans in particular would do well to add more dates to their diet in order to get their dietary iron intake up and avoid the worst anemia symptoms like fatigue and exhaustion.

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4. Dates Help Your Nervous System Stay Healthy

If you want to keep your nervous system healthy throughout your life, you could do a lot worse than adding dates to your diet.

The reason behind that is that dates are rich in vitamins that keep your nervous system functioning properly – including potassium. (6)

Your body needs potassium in order for its nervous system to function and be able to communicate with your brain. When you have a potassium deficiency, it can make you feel sluggish, fatigued, and uncoordinated – so add more dates to your diet and keep your nervous system humming along beautifully.

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5. Dates Help You See At Night

This one is one of the more eclectic benefits of dates – but it’s real! If you suffer from night vision, dates might be the remedy for you.

Many people swear by the remedy of grinding date palm leaves into a paste and applying it on and around your eyes – but there’s some evidence that eating dates normally will also give you some benefit.

The science behind this is that dates are rich in vitamin A, which promotes your eye health and helps to improve your vision. (7)

So if you suffer from night blindness and would like to see better at night, add more dates to your diet or try this home remedy to see if you can improve your night vision!

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6. Dates Help Relieve Diarrhea

If you’re suffering from diarrhea, all you want is for it to mercifully end – which is why you should turn to dates.

One of the most effective remedies for diarrhea is more potassium – which dates contain in spades. In addition, dates are an amazing source of soluble fiber, which travels through your intestines intact and helps to add firmness and bulk to your bowel movements and relieve the worst of diarrhea’s symptoms. (8)

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7. Dates Can Help Lower Your Blood Pressure

Dates are high in a mineral called magnesium – which is something that researchers have been looking at frequently as something that helps people naturally lower their blood pressure.

Studies have been done that show increased magnesium intake directly lowers blood pressure – and dates are chock full of magnesium.

Plus, like we talked about before, dates are also high in potassium. Potassium is known by researchers to aid the cardiovascular system and help to dilate your blood vessels – naturally bringing down your blood pressure even further.

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8. Dates Can Help Lower Your Cholesterol

There have been studies done on the impact of dates on your cholesterol levels. While it’s still very early, and more research needs to be completed in order to draw firm conclusions, early evidence is promising.

One study showed that anyone who increases their intake of dates – even people who have good cholesterol levels – can naturally lower their cholesterol and reduce the amount of oxidative stress in their body.

Plus, if you have high cholesterol, you can eat dates guilt free – knowing that they have no cholesterol and tons of healthy fiber.

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9. Dates Help Relieve Constipation

Constipation is another incredibly unpleasant condition that you just want to end as soon as possible – which is why you should reach for the dates. (9)

Dates can have a laxative effect on the human body – especially if you soak them in water overnight and then eat them in the morning when you wake up. The high levels of fiber and the natural laxative effect of dates make it an extremely effective and tasty constipation remedy.

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10. Dates Help To Keep Your Heart Healthy

We’ve talked a little bit about how dates lower your blood pressure and improve cardiovascular health – but they also can directly make your heart healthier. (10)

Try soaking your dates in water the night before and then crushing them in the morning before eating to improve your heart health.

The potassium in dates will improve the health of your cardiovascular system as a whole, and like we talked about before, they have a positive effect on your cholesterol levels – which reduces your risk of heart attack.

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11. Dates Can Help Prevent Hair Loss

If you’re worried about the health of your hair, try adding more dates to your diet – it can really help.

That’s because dates are high in iron, which will help promote more blood circulation throughout your body – and especially to your scalp.

More blood flow to your scalp means healthier hair follicles – meaning your hair will grow more and grow stronger, resulting in fuller, healthier hair.

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12. Dates Can Help Stop Hemorrhoids

If you suffer from hemorrhoids, you know how painful and unpleasant they can be. But did you know that dates can help you relieve the worst of your symptoms, and even stop new ones from forming?

Hemorrhoids frequently form when you don’t get enough fiber in your diet. Dates, being incredibly rich in soluble fiber, help to keep your digestive system running smoothly, and can help prevent you from getting more hemorrhoids – especially during pregnancy. (11)

13. Dates Are A Natural Aphrodisiac

If you’re looking to improve your stamina and endurance in the bedroom, or you’re just looking for a food that will boost your desire and stimulate your libido – dates are the food for you. (12)

There have been many studies on the subject, although more research is needed. Many people swear by the remedy of soaking dates in goat’s milk overnight, then grinding them up and mixing them with cardamom powder and honey.

That mixture is used in many different places as a natural remedy for sterility and impotence – and there’s actually real science behind it.

One study found that dates contain high levels of estradiol and flavonoids, which can help increase sperm count and also increase sperm mobility – helping men to become more fertile.

14. Dates Can Help Relieve Allergies

Allergy sufferers the world over curse the changing of the seasons and wish that they wouldn’t get so stuffed up and miserable during specific seasons – when really, all they have to do is eat more dates.

The secret is in an uncommon nutritional component of dates – organic sulfur. Organic sulfur is rarely found in food, and it has a variety of health benefits associated with it.

People who consume more organic sulfur find that their seasonal allergies can be relieved and reduced, and even the intensity of allergic reactions can be reduced.

One study looked at the impact of organic sulfur on people who suffer from seasonal allergic rhinitis, and found promising results for reduction of the intensity of the symptoms.

15. Dates Help To Keep Your Bones Strong

If you’re looking to improve your bone health and strengthen both your bone density and durability, add more dates to your diet.

They’ve got tons of essential minerals that keep your body and bones extremely happy – including magnesium, manganese, selenium, and copper. (13)

Dates might even be effective at preventing and mitigating the effects of osteoporosis, and protecting your bone density even as you age – so add more to your diet to reap the benefits!

16. Dates Can Help Prevent Abdominal Cancer

Obviously, the research is very early on this subject – if dates were proven to prevent abdominal cancer, everyone would be eating dates all the time. However, the early results are extremely promising.

Many studies have been done, and the results say that dates can reduce the risk of abdominal cancer, as well as mitigate the impact of actually getting abdominal cancer.

If you’re looking for a healthy, all natural food to add to your diet that reduces your risk of cancer, you could do a lot worse than dates.

17. Dates Give You More Energy

Dates are full of natural sugars that will give you an energy boost and keep you going in the middle of the day – without spiking and then crashing your blood sugar levels. (14)

Dates have fructose, sucrose, and glucose in them – making them a perfect healthy way to get a burst of energy in the middle of the day or during a workout while only adding a healthy fruit to your diet.

18. Dates Help Mitigate Intestinal Disorders

Dates contain a compound that most people would run screaming from, but that can actually help improve your intestinal health.

The compound I’m talking about that occurs naturally in dates is nicotine – which does not do the same damage to your body that it does from sources like cigarettes and tobacco.

The nicotine in dates helps to kill off pathological organisms that give you stomach and intestinal problems – as well as help promote the growth of the good bacteria that you want in your digestive system to keep things running smoothly.

We’ve already mentioned that dates have lots of soluble fiber that helps to push things along in your digestive tract and keep you healthy – but they’ve also got amino acids that help improve your digestion and keep your stomach happy and healthy.

Remember To Select Your Dates Carefully

Dates are truly a nutritional powerhouse and a food that can help with a variety of conditions – but you should still be careful in your selection of where you get your dates from.

That’s because the surface of dates themselves is sticky – which can lead to contamination from impurities if you’re not getting high quality dates.

Make sure to buy organic dates from a trusted source that have been processed properly and packaged securely. Also remember to wash your dates before you eat them – as that will get rid of impurities and make sure that you get the most health benefits from your dates!

In summary…

The Best Health Benefits Of Dates

1. Dates are packed with vital nutrients
2. Dates are a potent anti-inflammatory
3. Dates help to treat anemia
4. Dates help your nervous system stay healthy
5. Dates help you see at night
6. Dates help relieve diarrhea
7. Dates can help lower your blood pressure
8. Dates can help lower your cholesterol
9. Dates help relieve constipation
10. Dates help to keep your heart healthy
11. Dates can help prevent hair loss
12. Dates can help stop hemorrhoids
13. Dates are a natural aphrodisiac
14. Dates can help relieve allergies
15. Dates help to keep your bones strong
16. Dates can help prevent abdominal cancer
17. Dates give you more energy
18. Dates help mitigate intestinal disorders