Don't Let Your Dates Eat Alone

Three dates. 3 p.m.

That was my snack last Thursday, eaten standing at the kitchen counter. My wife keeps a jar of big, sticky Medjool dates by the coffee maker. I grabbed three… and ate them fast.

About 40 minutes later, I checked the glucose monitor on my arm. Those three dates had raised my blood sugar about 62 points.

Interesting. And a little annoying, because dates have a sweet reputation as a healthy snack.

So today we're testing a simple fix. The same three dates, but with a partner.

● Why Now

Here's the timely part. This July, a small study in the Journal of Functional Foods compared two snacks. One was dried cranberries with sugar added. The other was raisins with only their own natural sugar.

The researchers found no real gap in how much the two snacks raised blood sugar. In other words, sugar that grew in the fruit and sugar added at a factory acted about the same.

So the words "all natural" on the bag don't change much. What you eat alongside the dried fruit might.

Here's the thing about dried fruit. When a grape dries into a raisin, the water leaves but the sugar stays. A small handful of raisins holds about as much sugar as a full cup of grapes.

It's easy to eat a lot without noticing.

I've done it. A bag of dried mango on a road trip disappears faster than you'd think.

But the research is kinder than you'd guess. Most dried fruits score low to medium on the glycemic index. That's the scale that ranks foods by how fast they raise blood sugar. A Toronto study found raisins scored about 55 and dried apricots about 42. White bread scored 71.

Dates are trickier. A study from Saudi Arabia tested 17 types of dates and found big differences. Some, like Sukkari and Khalas, scored low. Medjool, the big soft kind in most U.S. stores, scored much higher in that study.

Which date you buy matters.

Medjool dates are still fine to eat. They just do better with company.

● The Test

So I ran the test twice. On day one, I ate three Medjool dates alone, mid-afternoon, with nothing else in my stomach. On day two, I ate the same three dates with a small handful of almonds.

3 Medjool dates: alone vs. with almonds

Dates alone, empty stomach

+62

Dates + a small handful of almonds

+34

mg/dL above fasting

Source: Continuous glucose monitor (Libre 3)

This is one person's experiment, not medical advice. Everyone's body responds differently.

With the almonds… my blood sugar rose about 34 points. That's close to half the rise.

I noticed a difference in my day, too. On the dates-alone day, I was hungry again by 4:30. On the almond day, I made it to dinner.

Why would nuts help? Almonds bring fat, protein and fiber. All three slow down how fast food leaves your stomach. So the sugar from the dates reaches your blood more slowly. In other words, the sugar still gets in. It just comes in over a longer stretch, so the rise is smaller.

And there's research behind this. A 2018 study in the journal Nutrients fed people raisins and other dried fruits with rice. When the researchers added about an ounce of almonds, the highest blood sugar readings came down.

But not every partner works as well. An older study found that eating dates with yogurt made very little difference. I'm not sure why. My guess is that the fat and fiber in nuts do more of the work than protein alone. That's a guess, not a fact.

● How to Do It

Here's how to turn this into a habit.

🥜	Pick a nut partner A small handful of almonds, walnuts or pistachios. A spoon of peanut butter or tahini works too.
🍽	Eat them together A bite of date, then a bite of nut. Or push an almond into a pitted date and eat it as one piece.
🕑	Skip the empty stomach Dried fruit raised my blood sugar the most as a snack on its own. Have it with a meal or right after one instead.
🔄	Let it replace, not add In the Toronto study, swapping dried fruit in for half the white bread lowered the meal's glycemic index. Use raisins in place of some bread or cereal, not on top of it.

● Dos & Don'ts

✓ Do

✓	Pair dates, raisins or dried apricots with nuts or nut butter.

✓	Have dried fruit with a meal or right after one.

✓	Try date types that tested lower, like Sukkari or Khalas.

✓	Pour a portion into a bowl instead of eating from the bag.

✕ Don't

✕	Eat a big pile of dried fruit alone on an empty stomach.

✕	Assume "all natural" means it will raise your blood sugar less.

✕	Count on plain yogurt alone to soften a date snack.

✕	Add dried fruit on top of a carb-heavy meal when it could replace some of the carbs.

● By the Way

By the way, my wife was not impressed by my experiment.

She's been eating her dates with a spoon of tahini for years. "You needed a glucose monitor to figure that out?" she asked.

Fair point.

Plenty of food traditions already pair dates with nuts, butter or tahini. Maybe they knew something… or maybe it just tastes good.

And the kids now ask for "date sandwiches." That's a pitted date with an almond pushed inside. They think it's a treat. I think it's a hack. We're both right.

Is this the final word? No. Most of these studies are small, with 10 or 20 people. A bigger trial at the University of Manitoba started this spring to test dried fruit in people with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Results aren't expected until around 2031.

In the meantime, the fix costs almost nothing. A handful of nuts. A little planning. That's it.

"Keep the dates. Just don't let them eat alone."

Stay steady

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