TITLE:
Nutritional Value of Date Fruits and Potential Use in Nutritional Bars for Athletes
AUTHORS:
Sulaiman Aljaloud, Heather L. Colleran, Salam A. Ibrahim
KEYWORDS:
Date Palm, Health Benefits, Nutritional Value, Athletes
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.11 No.6,
June
16,
2020
ABSTRACT: The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the oldest primary staple crops in Southwest Asia and
North Africa. Date palms are also grown in Australia, Mexico, South America, Southern
Africa, and the United States, especially in Southern California, Arizona, and
Texas. Date fruit is a high nutritional value food that is rich in
carbohydrates, dietary fibers, proteins, minerals and vitamin B complex such as
thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic (B5), pyridoxine (B6),
and folate (B9). Carbohydrates comprise 70% of date fruit mainly as fructose
and glucose. Minerals in date fruits are calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium,
copper, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, sulfur, cobalt, fluorine, and manganese.
Date fruits are highly nourishing and may thus confer numerous potential health
benefits. In recent years, a huge interest in the abundant health promoting
properties of date fruits has led to the need to develop new food products
using dates as a source of nutrients. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review
the nutritional value of date fruits in the context of the potential use of
dates in nutrition bars for athletes.