I live in a part of the country where palm trees are commonplace. I recently moved to a part of town where date farms used to fill the space. And it's not uncommon this time of year, to see fruit and yogurt stands advertising"date shakes".
I finally decided to learn more about the nutritional value of dates, and learned that they are one of the few food sources of choline. Choline is a building block for acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that is very important for memory function. Many Alzheimer's medications are designed to help enhance acetylcholine metabolism.
One of the lesser known symptoms of PCOS is memory/concentration trouble and"brain fog". Diabetes and Alzheimer's disease have a strong metabolic connection. So it seems that women with a predisposition to diabetes should be paying attention to ways to get choline into their diet.
In addition, dates are a good source of fiber, iron, B vitamins, potassium, and magnesium.
And this one is fun! I'm giving you a healthy version of our local date shake to try, a banana-date smoothie.
Ingredients
1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup skim milk, 1% is fine too
1/2 cup dates, fresh, pitted and chopped
2 bananas, sliced
8 ice cubes
Directions
Place everything in blender and blend until the ice cubes are well incorporated.
Serve!
Source: www.recipezaar.com
If you are in Phoenix, this coming weekend is a date harvesting event on the Arizona State University Campus, which will include a lesson on harvesting, a cooking demonstration, and some tasting. Click here for more information.
Between the smoothie recipe and the cooking demo, here's hoping you remember to eat your dates…and in the process, encounter a few dates to remember!