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October 13, 2021

The Benefits of Dates for Men

An earlier version of this post promised men a lot from dates: more libido, more testosterone, better sperm, a healthier prostate and protection from heart disease and cancer. Most of that had nothing behind it. This version keeps what can be checked: what is in the fruit, what men need each day, and what studies on dates have actually measured.

This is general information, not medical advice. If you have diabetes, a heart condition or erection problems, or you take regular medicine, talk to your GP or doctor before you change your diet.

What is in 100 g of dates

USDA FoodData Central lists these amounts per 100 g of Medjool dates and Deglet Noor dates:

  • Energy: 277 kcal (Medjool), 282 kcal (Deglet Noor)
  • Total sugars: 66.5 g and 63.4 g
  • Fibre: 6.7 g and 8.0 g
  • Potassium: 696 mg and 656 mg
  • Magnesium: 54 mg and 43 mg
  • Calcium: 64 mg and 39 mg
  • Protein: 1.81 g and 2.45 g

So dates are not a low-calorie food. At 277 kcal per 100 g, most of it from sugar, they are an energy-dense one. The old claim of an “impressive amount of calcium” does not hold up either: 64 mg is about 9% of the 700 mg a day the NHS says adults need.

Potassium and magnesium are where dates do better. The NHS says adults need 3,500 mg of potassium a day and men aged 19 to 64 need 300 mg of magnesium a day. 100 g of Medjool dates gives about a fifth of the potassium and just under a fifth of the magnesium. The NHS describes potassium as a mineral that helps control the balance of fluids in the body and helps the heart muscle work properly, and magnesium as one that helps turn the food we eat into energy. The same page does not say magnesium lowers blood pressure, so this post doesn’t either.

Blood pressure and the heart

The World Health Organization says increasing potassium intake significantly reduces blood pressure in adults, and it names dates, with bananas and papayas, among the fruits that contain potassium. WHO suggests at least 3,510 mg of potassium a day for adults. That is evidence about potassium across the whole diet.

When dates themselves were tested, the results were smaller. In a 2022 randomised trial, 79 adults with type 2 diabetes (39 men and 40 women) ate either 60 g of dates or 60 g of raisins a day for 12 weeks, and 61 finished. There was no difference in systolic or diastolic blood pressure, blood lipids or blood sugar measures, and the authors saw no beneficial effect of dates on cardiovascular indices. In a 2009 pilot study, 10 healthy adults ate 100 g a day of Medjool or Hallawi dates for 4 weeks. Total, LDL and HDL cholesterol did not change significantly, while triglycerides fell by 8% (Medjool) and 15% (Hallawi).

The old text said dates lower cholesterol and raise HDL, and so cut the risk of heart attack and stroke. No trial cited here measured heart attacks or strokes, and HDL did not change in the 2009 study.

Blood sugar

The earlier version said the potassium in dates lowers blood glucose. Nothing here supports that. In a 2020 randomised trial, 100 adults with type 2 diabetes (39 men and 61 women) ate three dates a day for 16 weeks while a control group avoided dates. HbA1c did not change within or between the groups. Total cholesterol fell by 0.209 mmol/L in the date group, and LDL fell by 0.171 mmol/L, though the 95% confidence interval for LDL (−0.358 to 0.016) crosses zero.

A 2011 study from the UAE measured the glycaemic index of five date varieties at the dry tamr stage in 13 healthy adults and 10 people with type 2 diabetes, and the values in healthy adults ran from about 46 to 55. The authors rated them low. In both the 2020 trial and the 2022 trial above, HbA1c did not change, so dates neither worsened nor improved that measure. This site’s post on dates and diabetes goes through them in more detail.

The old text also said dates help with hypoglycaemia. The NHS list of things to take for a hypo is a small glass of fruit juice or sugary fizzy drink, glucose or dextrose tablets, jelly babies or glucose gel. Dates are not on it.

Fibre, digestion and weight

The NHS says eating plenty of fibre is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer, and that choosing foods with fibre can help with digestion and prevent constipation. Adults should aim for 30 g a day, and most eat about 20 g. Foods with 6 g or more of fibre per 100 g count as high-fibre, so Medjool (6.7 g) and Deglet Noor (8.0 g) both qualify. Its constipation page names not eating enough fibre among the most common causes.

The old text went from fibre straight to weight loss. Dates carry 277 kcal per 100 g, so a handful adds energy as well as fibre. The NHS fibre page also says dried fruit is sticky and can raise the risk of tooth decay, so it is better eaten as part of a meal than as a between-meal snack.

Libido, erections and testosterone

The NHS says erectile dysfunction is very common, particularly in men over 40, and that when it happens now and then it is usually caused by stress, tiredness or drinking too much alcohol. If it happens often, the cause may be a condition such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. Its lifestyle list is to lose weight if you’re overweight, stop smoking, eat a healthy diet, exercise daily, try to reduce stress and anxiety, and not drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week. It says to see a GP if the problem keeps happening.

Diet does show up in the research, as a whole pattern. In a 2004 randomised trial of 110 obese men aged 35 to 55 with erectile dysfunction, the 55 men advised to lose 10% or more of their weight by eating fewer calories and exercising more saw their erectile function score rise from 13.9 to 17 over 2 years, while the control group stayed at 13.5 to 13.6. The authors linked the lifestyle changes to improvement in about one third of the men. A 2020 cohort study followed 21,469 US male health professionals for an average of 10.8 years. Men under 60 with the highest Mediterranean diet scores had a lower risk of erectile dysfunction than those with the lowest (hazard ratio 0.78). Neither study looked at dates.

A PubMed search for “phoenix dactylifera erectile” returned 4 records on 20 October 2026. Two were studies in rats, and two were trials of date palm pollen or a “palm date capsule”. None tested whole dates eaten by men. The old text said dates contain luteinizing hormone and that their minerals drive testosterone production. No study cited here supports either line, and both have been removed. For simple food ideas without the aphrodisiac promise, see this site’s date and nut recipes for men.

Sperm and fertility

The human fertility trials that come up in searches on dates used date palm pollen, the powder from the male palm flower, not the fruit. In a 2024 randomised trial, 80 men aged 20 to 35 with low sperm count, poor motility or abnormal sperm shape took either 6 g of pollen powder a day or the drug pentoxifylline for 90 days. The pollen group had better sperm concentration, count, motility and morphology than the drug group. There was no placebo group. A 2015 study of 40 infertile men gave pollen capsules every other day for two months and reported better sperm count, motility and morphology, with no comparison group described in the abstract. In a 2022 double-blind trial of infertile couples in Iran, the abstract calls the product a “palm date capsule”. The full text says each capsule held 300 mg of date palm pollen, with 64 couples in each group for 30 days, and the men’s sexual-function scores rose against placebo.

None of these measured whether a couple went on to conceive, and none gave men dates to eat. The old text’s line that dates raise sperm count is a claim about the pollen trials, moved onto the fruit. This site’s post on dates and fertility goes through each trial. The old promises about prostate health and cancer were not tested in any study cited here, so they are gone.

Where dates fit

The NHS counts a 30 g portion of dried fruit, dates included, as one of your 5 A Day, eaten at mealtimes rather than as a snack between meals. At 277 kcal per 100 g, 30 g of Medjool is about 83 kcal. Research on date palms covers more than the fruit, and the fertility trials above used pollen.

Taken together, dates give men a useful amount of fibre, potassium and magnesium, alongside a lot of sugar. The benefits of dates for men that the studies support are those of a fruit in a balanced diet. The evidence on erections points to weight, exercise and the overall diet, and the fertility trials tested pollen.

References