Pitted Dates

1. Dates are loaded with the energy you need every day - to win a marathon or get you through a tough day. With only 24 calories per date (248 per 100 gram serving), dates are high in dietary fiber, carbohydrates, and contain more potassium than bananas! Yet they are virtually fat, cholesterol and sodium free!

2. Dates provide essential vitamins and minerals - such as B-complex vitamins, magnesium and iron. Only a handful of dates - five or six - will help you meet your 5-A-Day goal for fruit.

3. A handful of dates will help you meet the 5-A-Day goal. Five to six delicious California dates or a cup of chopped dates equals one serving. Great tasting, power-packed California dates are part of the USDA Pyramid's food group. Eating California dates can help you achieve the recommended goal for fruit servings each day.

4. The American Cancer Society recommends that you consume 20-35 grams of dietary fiber a day. Dietary fiber comes in two forms - soluble and insoluble. Each serves a valuable function. Insoluble fiber increased the rate at which food moves through the digestive system. Soluble fiber may help control diabetes by decreasing elevated blood glucose levels. Soluble fiber also had been found to help lower serum cholesterol levels, particularly undesirable loud density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. California dates are a good source of dietary fiber. A serving of power-packed California dates - just 5 to 6 six dates - can provide 3 grams of dietary fiber. That's 14 percent of your recommended daily value.

5. A serving of power-packed California dates contains 31 grams of carbohydrates, making them a powerhouse of energy. Carbohydrates include 3 grams of dietary fiber and 29 grams of naturally occurring sugars such as fructose, glucose and sucrose to provide quick energy and are readily used by the body. California dates are a perfect energy boosting snack.

6. Ounce per ounce, pound for pound, California dates are one of the best natural sources of potassium. Potassium is an essential mineral your body needs to maintain muscle contractions including the vital heart muscle. Potassium is needed to maintain a healthy nervous system and to balance the body's metabolism. Since potassium is not stored in the body, and much is lost in perspiration, it must be continually replenished. As you consume potassium you excrete sodium, helping to keep blood pressure down. As people age, their kidneys become less efficient at eliminating sodium. About a 400 mg increase in potassium intake has been associated with a 40% reduction in the risk of stroke. This roughly amounts to one additional serving daily of California dates.

7. Eating California dates and drinking water is an ideal, natural way to replenish the potassium. A serving of California dates contain 240 milligrams of potassium or 7% of the recommended daily value. Bite for bite, they have three times the amount of potassium as bananas!

8. California dates contain a variety of B-complex vitamins - thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 and pantothenic acid. These vitamins have a variety of functions that help maintain a healthy body - to metabolize carbohydrates and maintain blood glucose levels, fatty acids for energy, and they help make hemoglobin, the red and white blood cells.

9.Magnesium is essential for healthy bone development and for energy metabolism. One serving of California dates provides 4% of the suggested daily intake of magnesium. Iron is essential to red blood cell production. Red blood cells carry all the nutrients to cells throughout the body. One serving of California dates contains nearly a third of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for iron.