Shop for Zahedi Dates fruits or any other kind and the first thing you notice is texture. Medjool is large and very soft, Mazafati dates from Bam in Iran are dark and soft enough to need a fridge, and Iranian varieties such as Piarom dates and Sayer dates are semi-dry. Whether you are buying for a gift box or picking up cheap dates for the week, it helps to know what is actually in the fruit. The figures below are the dates nutrition facts published by the USDA, so you can read them for yourself rather than take anyone’s word for it.
Nutrition facts for one Medjool date
The USDA’s FoodData Central database lists Medjool dates (entry 168191) and uses one pitted date weighing 24 grams as its standard serving. For that one date it gives:
| Nutrient | One pitted Medjool date (24 g) |
|---|---|
| Calories | 66.5 |
| Fat | 0.04 g |
| Sodium | 0.24 mg |
| Carbohydrates | 18 g |
| Fiber | 1.61 g |
| Sugars | 16 g |
| Protein | 0.43 g |
Those numbers are worked out from the USDA’s values per 100 grams: 277 kcal, 75 g of carbohydrate, 66.5 g of total sugars, 6.7 g of fiber and 1.81 g of protein. About a fifth of the weight is water (21.3 g per 100 g). If you want the energy side in more detail, our page on calories in date fruit covers it.
Sugar content in dates
Most of a Medjool date is sugar. In the USDA figures, 66.5 g of every 100 g of Medjool is sugar, and nearly all of it is two simple sugars in almost equal shares: glucose at 33.7 g and fructose at 32.0 g. Sucrose, ordinary table sugar, is only 0.53 g. Medjool itself has a rich, caramel taste.
One date carries 16 g of sugar, so three dates with coffee come to about 48 g. Worth counting if you keep an eye on sugar.
Micronutrients in dates
Medjool dates are not a fruit to buy for vitamin C. The USDA records 0.0 mg of it in Medjool. Medjool does supply six B vitamins: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6 and folate. Per 100 g the largest of these are niacin at 1.61 mg and pantothenic acid at 0.805 mg, with folate at 15 µg.
Potassium is the mineral that stands out, at 696 mg per 100 g. Calcium (64 mg), phosphorus (62 mg) and magnesium (54 mg) follow. Smaller amounts of iron (0.9 mg), zinc, copper and manganese make up the rest of the list. Sodium is almost absent at 1 mg per 100 g.
Fiber
Each pitted Medjool date gives 1.61 g of dietary fiber, or 6.7 g per 100 g. That is the same fruit that carries 16 g of sugar per date, so the fiber comes packaged with a lot of sweetness.
These numbers describe what is in the fruit. They are general information, not medical or dietary advice.
Freshness and storage
Dates from the Gulf and the Middle East are mostly harvested from late summer to autumn, roughly August to November, and new-season stock reaches shops some weeks after that. Soft varieties such as Mazafati are cold-stored, so they are sold all year round and not only in season.
If you want to compare varieties side by side, the Green Diamond shop lists each one with its own page. And if you are writing your own label or recipe card, the USDA table above is a sound starting point for dates nutrition facts, as long as you remember the figures are for Medjool only, not for every variety. For any other variety, look up its own dates nutrition facts rather than reusing these.