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December 29, 2023

Dates and Diabetes: What the Blood Sugar Studies Show

Dates for Diabetes

Ah, kurma! Those sun-kissed nuggets of deliciousness that grace our Ramadan feasts and Hari Raya Puasa celebrations. Every year, people with diabetes ask the same thing: can I still eat them? Whether you buy your dates from Green Diamond or from a stall at the bazaar, the answer depends less on the seller or the variety than on how many you eat. Here is what the studies on dates and blood sugar found, and what they did not.

This is general information, not medical advice. If you have diabetes, ask your doctor or dietitian how dates fit your own plan, especially if you take insulin or other medicine that lowers blood sugar.

Living with diabetes and sweet food

Managing diabetes is a daily balancing act, and the festive months make it harder. Dates are not banned, but they are not a free food either. Medjool dates have about 75 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, 66 g of it sugar, and one pitted Medjool date weighs about 24 g (USDA FoodData Central). That is roughly 18 g of carbohydrate in a single date. Diabetes UK says the total amount of carbohydrate you eat has the biggest effect on your glucose levels after eating (Diabetes UK).

What the studies on dates and blood sugar found

date fruit

The research is small, but it points the same way. Here is what it shows, and where it stops:

  • Glycaemic index (GI). In a study from the UAE, five date varieties at the dry tamr stage had GI values of about 46 to 55 in 13 healthy adults. In 10 people with type 2 diabetes the values were very similar, and the authors rated them low (Alkaabi et al., 2011). A 2023 review found a wider range across varieties, from 42.8 to 74.6 (Meenakshi and Misra, 2023). So GI depends on the date, and a low GI does not cancel out a big portion.
  • Three dates a day for 16 weeks. In a trial in Bahrain, 100 adults with type 2 diabetes either ate three dates daily or avoided dates. HbA1c, the long-term blood sugar marker, did not change in either group (Alalwan et al., 2020). Three dates a day did not make blood sugar control worse. They did not make it better either.
  • Fibre. 100 g of Medjool dates has 6.7 g of fibre (USDA). The NHS says eating plenty of fibre is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and bowel cancer, and that adults should aim for 30 g a day (NHS). That means fibre from your whole diet. A few dates add only a small part of it.
  • Minerals. 100 g of Medjool dates has 54 mg of magnesium and 696 mg of potassium (USDA). Your body needs both. None of the studies above tested whether the minerals in dates change blood sugar, so we won’t claim they do.

The review authors point out that most of these studies are small and short, and that more trials are needed. For now, the fair summary is this: a few dates can fit into a diabetes diet. They are not a treatment.

diabetes test

Fitting dates into a diabetes diet

If your doctor or dietitian is happy for you to eat dates, a few habits keep them in check. The NHS advice for type 2 diabetes is a healthy diet that includes fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and pulses (NHS), and dates can be part of the fruit.

  • Count them. Two dates instead of a packet of biscuits is a fair swap, as long as you count the carbohydrate. A handful is not a portion. Three Medjool dates weigh about 72 g and carry about 54 g of carbohydrate.
  • At breakfast, chop one date into your oats instead of adding sugar. Smoothies are trickier, because it is easy to blend in four or five without noticing. Measure first.
  • Sweet food is still sweet food. You can bake date-infused desserts or roll energy balls with nuts and seeds, but swapping white sugar for dates still adds sugar. Keep the slice small.
  • One chopped date in a pot of curry or stew adds sweetness, and the sugar is shared across every plate.

date fruit

You don’t have to cut dates out. Treat them like any other sweet food: count them, and if you check your glucose at home, check it after eating them too. For the full numbers, see our post on the nutrition and calories in dates. Our post on dates for digestion and energy covers the fibre side.

So, the next time you reach for a date, remember:

  • Dates have a low to medium GI, but they are still high in sugar.
  • Three dates a day did not raise HbA1c in one 16-week trial. The research is small and short.
  • How many you eat matters more than the variety or the shop.

Enjoy them at buka puasa and on Hari Raya. Just count them like the rest of your carbohydrate, and ask your doctor before Ramadan if your medicine needs adjusting for the fast.

References