[p1necone]

> Putting a pitted date in for every ~2 cups of water also adds just enough sweetness

Saw this and had to moan, sorry but this particular trend is a pet peeve of mine. You know dates are sweet because they have sugar in them right? Getting an equivalent amount of sweetness from regular table sugar instead wouldn't be any less healthy, and would be much cheaper and less perishable.

I guess you get a bit of dietary fiber and trace amounts of nutrients from a date too, but that doesn't seem relevant when using them as an ingredient with other things.

[strainer]

The only well studied and clinically developed diet for people with serious irritable bowel diseases, known as FODMAP[1] focuses exclusively on minimizing specific types of sugar and carbohydrates. For a severely compromised digestive system, table sugar is likely recommended over dates as a sweetener because they are likely to contain 'free fructose' which may be fine or even better for normal digestive systems since it has lower glycemic index than glucose, but it is found to be complicating for people with serious digestion problems. This goes to show dietary sugar is not metabolically simple or equivalent as commonly thought.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5952847/

[aaronbrethorst]

As long as we’re talking FODMAP diets, be sure those rolled oats are certified gluten free. Oats are often cross contaminated with gluten. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gluten-in-oats#contamin...

[jjeaff]

A low FODMAP diet generally permits gluten. Especially trace amounts like what you would find in oats.

Pretty much everyone should be fine with trace amounts as long as they aren't Celiacs.

[ghostly_s]

dates, like other fruit, contain sugar in proportion to dietary fiber which helps moderate intake by making you full. Yes, that effect is probably quite negligible in this application but it's certainly not a harmful rule of thumb to use whole fruits instead of refined sugar where sensible.

[dajohnson89]

Maybe OP wanted the flavor from dates, as well as the sugar.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

I'm not saying this is the case, but some fruits and vegetables have fiber that is sweet. And potentially date could act as a better emulsifier than sugar. I know people use honey and syrup over sugar in some cases -- not for the sweetness, but for the properties.

I like to blend dates in my protein shake. I think -- just like if you added blue berries or strawberries -- it gives a distinct flavor to the drink.

I'm not sure if that's desired for the oat milk or not. I'd think people would want their milk to be somewhat plain.

[criley2]

This is actually pretty bad disinformation considering the overwhelming scientific evidence indicating that eating fruit is great for your diet.

A major point is that most fruit isn't sweet enough to dramatically sweeten a product. Most people would over-sweeten their food significantly compared to using fruit. It is in fact difficult to over consume fruit from a sugar perspective, while it is comparatively trivial to over consume sugar from added refined sources.

Another benefit to fruit is that instead of being pure sugar like sugar, there are a wide variety of other more complex carbohydrates

I'll point out that fruit consumption is inversely correlated with obesity [0] while sugar consumption is positively correlated with it [1]

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5084020/

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23594708

Fruit and vegetable intake is also positively correlated with basically reduction in all cause mortality but specifically heart disease and cancer https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/46/3/1029/3039477

There is more to fruit than an overly reductive idea of "sugar + fiber" and there are a lot of compounds in there from vitamins and minerals to other things. The science is clearly showing us that fruit is much more healthy for us than refined sugar, because of a variety of things including how much less sugar there is in most fruit compared to foods with added refined sugars.

[p1necone]

The studies you're linking and the conclusion you're reaching are based on the general idea of eating fruit. Dates have a much higher sugar content by volume/weight than fresh fruit (and are higher than a lot of other dried fruits too I believe).

> "A major point is that most fruit isn't sweet enough to dramatically sweeten a product."

Yes, dried dates are not like "most" fruit. They are sweet enough to "dramatically sweeten a product", that would be the reason they are used for that exact purpose.

Edit: I googled it; dates are anywhere from 40-80% sugar, depending on the variety (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sugar-content-of-fresh-a...). Even undried dates are at least 40% sugar, which surprised me.

[glofish]

I will mention though that food is always a lot more than a collection of sugars/fats etc.

Putting a date into your blended oat milk is, nutritionally speaking, very likely immensely different (and very likely more beneficial) than putting the equivalent amount of refined sugar. Then we havent even touched on the many other benefits - like behaviorally you are less likely to overindulge with dates than adding another teaspoon of sugar etc.

[criley2]

You sound like the kind of person who thinks that a spoonful of sugar and a multivitamin is functionally identical to a fruit and that is sad because the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly against your reductive approach to food.

No, the studies I linked cannot be handwaved off as you attempted, and no, they do not support your reductive approach. I urge you to read them again if gaining a greater understanding of why whole food is healthier than refined constituents is actually a goal of yours.

[iscrewyou]

Dates are great in moderation. Everything is. You can say the same thing about bananas or water melons or any melon.

Dates have potassium, fiber, and make anything taste great. But dates aren’t the end all fruit for all your nutrient needs. Nutrition facts and moderation is the key.