The Best Date Syrup For Taste And Health
The best date syrup on the market has everything you would want from a health and taste standpoint, an easy addition to your kitchen
More and more, Americans are turning away from sugars and artificial sweeteners and looking for healthier options. One option that is beginning to gain more and more traction is date syrup. The health benefits from this ancient sweetener are many, as you will soon see. But as more people are finding date syrup as a great answer to sugar alternatives, another question is posed – what is the best date syrup?
WHAT IS DATE SYRUP?
Before we try to answer that question, let’s first find out exactly what date syrup is. First and foremost, it has but one ingredient – dates. But inquiring minds weren’t satisfied, and, in fact, they were quite skeptical of date syrup and the process used to create it.
How good is date syrup? Does it have any sugar in it? Some might have even been confused about the nature of a date? It also seemed like those manufacturing the fruit didn’t fully realize what they had considering how long this product took to get to market. Now, you can see the fruit on fancy restaurant menus, offered in different healthy forms.
Believe it or not, this sweetener is one of the oldest sweeteners known to man. It goes back to Mesopotamia when it was noted in ancient cuneiform manuscripts. Apparently, it was the main form of sweetener during that time. Taking a look at the Good Book (the Bible), the word “honey” is translated from Hebrew, not as honey from a bee, but instead, fruit honey. With the massive quantity of date palms that filled the area at that time, it isn’t hard to believe that the “honey” reference was toward the sweet date nectar.
The growing popularity of date syrup has influenced the rapid decline seen in traditional sugar alternatives, such as agave and other artificial sweeteners. This decline has left a vacuum of sorts with artificial sweeteners that the best date syrups are beginning to fill. To show that they are truly making a move, a highly rated date syrup brings in an estimated $23K per month on Amazon. Those are impressive figures.
IS THE BEST DATE SYRUP THE HEALTHIEST?
In determining just what the best date syrup is, we need to start at the beginning. How is it produced and what are the health benefits? Let’s start with the production first.
Date syrup isn’t maple syrup. It isn’t honey either. It isn’t produced like a fruit concentrate, even though it is a fruit. Dates, unlike many fruits, have no real juice inside of them so they have nothing to squeeze out. But in markets across the Middle East, you often see dates bagged tightly together for sale. As they sit out in the hot desert heat, they slowly start turning into nectar, or in our case, date syrup.
But this nectar isn’t enough, obviously. Because dates have little to no water or juice in them, water is added to fully extract the nectar from the dates. The process is fairly simple, though. First, the dates are heated in water and then blended. The mixture is then filtered to remove pits and unusable parts. From there, the water that was first added is then evaporated out, leaving you with the vitamin and mineral-filled nectar.
Unlike table sugar, date syrup is not highly processed. Table sugar has a very high glycemic index, something date syrup does not. High glycemic index diets have been linked to the weight gain and obesity issues we face across the globe. On the other side of the spectrum, these date-filled syrups have the lowest glycemic indexes among all options of sweeteners.
If that wasn’t enough to convince you to turn away from sugar and artificial sweeteners, let’s see if we can “sweeten” the pot for you. Date syrup comes filled with vitamins and minerals. A simple 100g serving contains 848mg of potassium, which is 24% of your daily value. It also contains more iron, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium than those other natural heavyweight sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup, but more on those two in a bit.
WHICH IS BETTER DATES OR DATE SYRUP?
The answer here is simple but for one reason. Dates, in their natural form, provide just a little bit more health benefits than date syrup. The reason for this, as explained above, is that the best date syrup is formed by putting these beautiful pieces of small fruit into hot water and extracting the nectar from this mixture. As the mixture is strained and processed into syrup, some of the nutrients are also strained out. It isn’t a lot, but enough to make date syrup a tad less healthy than if you were eating dates whole.
Dates, by themselves, are high in antioxidants. Three of the most powerful ones are flavonoids, which help reduce inflammation; Carotenoids, which promote heart health and may also reduce the risk of certain eye diseases; and Phenolic acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties. It may also help lower the risk of heart disease and cancer. So, it stands to reason that the best date syrup will also have these benefits, only in smaller doses.
WHICH IS HEALTHIER MAPLE SYRUP OR DATE SYRUP
Naturally, the more and more popular they become, the more comparisons are being drawn. How does it stack up to the old standby, maple syrup? First and foremost, the thing to know is that date syrup contains almost triple the potassium per serving as its maple counterpart and it also contains fiber, something that the maple version is devoid of.
These two reasons alone are worth dropping your maple syrup intake for the healthy choice of date syrup. Plus, if a sweeter taste is what you crave, it will definitely provide you with that. It offers a much more natural and sweeter taste than maple syrup and the bottom line is it’s a much healthier choice.
WHICH IS HEALTHIER HONEY OR DATE SYRUP?
Much like maple syrup, honey is another go-to when it comes to sweeteners. You can add it to many things and it’s not that it isn’t good for you, it just doesn’t offer the same benefits you see in date syrup. According to the Glycemic Index (the 0-100 ranking of carbohydrates and how they raise one’s blood sugar after eating), honey comes in with a GI score of 87. This means it provides short bursts of energy while digesting quickly. Date syrup, on the other hand, hits the Glycemic Index with a score of 62. Your energy will much last longer than honey.
Comparatively speaking, the best date syrup will provide more fiber than honey. While maple syrup allows for no fiber, honey isn’t much better with only 0.2 grams per 100 grams. Date syrup comes in strong with 6.7 grams per 100. When it comes to minerals and vitamins, honey can’t even compete. In total, honey only provides a mere 4% of the daily recommended amount while the date syrup is loaded with both.
JUST DATE SYRUP – THE BEST DATE SYRUP
So, with all this in mind, just what is the best date syrup? The brand that leads the pack is called Just Date Syrup and it continues to receive high marks. Just Date Syrup explained how the company got its start:
“Our company was started by Dr. Sylvie Charles, who is a doctor and a mom. She started Just Date when she was in medical residency, at UCSF, seeing the impact of refined sugar on her patients, both physically and mentally. She wanted to take the nutrition from Medjool dates, which her mom used in chutneys all the time growing up, and turn them into a nutritious and delicious sweetener.”
But Sylvie wasn’t sure if she would be able to take the amazing nutrients and flavor the dates provided and introduce them to the world. Her goal was to create a syrup that one could use in their morning coffee and baked goods and also use in wonderful dishes. After a little bit of trial and error, Dr. Charles was able to. Her side project (she was still seeing patients while developing her healthy alternative) then took over and Dr. Charles eventually left her medical profession so she could help the public choose a better alternative to sugar.
Just Date Syrup isn’t considered one of the best just for its taste and healthy nutrients. The company has shown it is much more than that. They are working in tandem with medical researchers to discover the health impact (short and long-term) refined sugars and different sugar alternatives have on the body. They are taking a close look at sugars and substitutes such as agave, maple, honey, monk fruit sugar, stevia, and yes, even date syrup. They consider this project to be one of the most important they have taken on and have pledged that a percentage of their Just Date Syrup will go towards funding their project.
But that isn’t all. The company is also a supporter of diabetes education for at-risk youths. They also work with cooking programs to help develop educational programs that will teach children about health education at an early age. They have proven it isn’t just the best date syrup, but one that is fighting for the health of people all over the world.
