Dates are a truly luxurious food, not because they necessarily taste great (they taste amazing) or because they are the secret ingredient to a gourmet dish, but because dates take a literal lifetime to grow. Ok, lifetime may be a bit of an exaggeration, but a date palm, the tree that produces dates, takes 4-8 years to grow to maturity after planting. Then it takes another 7-10 years to produce the actual date itself.
These wonderful little nibbles aren’t just luxurious though – they are also very good for your health. Including just a few dates in your diet can have some truly fantastic health benefits which can actually help people achieve weight loss:
- High Fiber Content
Dates are fantastically rich in dietary fiber, otherwise known as the “good” carbohydrates. Fiber helps people to achieve weight loss by slowing down the absorption rate of food in the large intestine, preventing fat absorption, and producing good gut bacteria that helps in digestion - High Unsaturated Fatty Acid Content
Unsaturated fatty acids help to reduce inflammation which can occur for a variety of reasons such as, swelling, injury, unhealthy food consumption, disease, or even a sedentary lifestyle. Inflammation is directly linked to obesity, diabetes, and insulin resistance, so reducing it goes a long way towards keeping the pounds off. - Great Source of Protein
Dates are also rich in protein, which is great for any weight loss meal plan. Protein is difficult to digest and moves through the digestive tract slower than other compounds. This helps people feel satiated for longer periods of time and eat less. - Anti-diabetic Properties
Dates also have anti-diabetic properties, meaning they help to regulate your blood glucose level. Regulating your blood glucose levels can go a long way towards keeping the weight off.
Being a great source of protein also rich in fiber, dates aids in weight loss. Apart from being healthy, it also makes a great replacement for sugar because of the natural sweetness.
