Flashback Friday: Benefit of Dates for Colon Health

Seven dates a day for three weeks are put to the test in a randomized controlled trial.

We can reward our good gut flora by feeding them prebiotics, like dietary fiber, and polyphenols, a class of antioxidant phytonutrients. And dates have “high levels of both.” Shutterstock

Dates are one of the healthiest sweeteners. That’s what we use in The How Not to Die Cookbook. You can blend them with water to make date syrup or use date sugar, which is a whole food—just dried dates ground into powder—and as such is packed with nutrition, ending up with as much antioxidant power as blackstrap molasses, but without the strong taste, though not all brands are the same. For example, Bob’s Red Mill may have twice the antioxidants compared to NOW Foods, though they only tested one package each. Okay, so dates are healthy compared to other sweeteners, but that’s not saying much. Do dates have any special medicinal properties?