There’s an odd problem with eating fruit. Although nearly every health organization in the world—including the World Health Organization—recommends eating more fruit, there is a perception that it’s healthier to eat less.

With the popularity of low-carb, low-sugar, higher-fat diets, a common idea is that all carb intake—including fruit consumption—makes us fat. If that’s true about apples and berries, the thinking goes, then it certainly stands for the mighty date, which is about 70 percent sugar.

Despite the buzz around fad diets, science—broad reviews and meta-analyses of the best studies that exist on the topic—conclude the opposite. Researchers consistently advise more fruit in our diets. If anything, fruit consumption—sugar-laden as it is—leads to smaller tummies and lower incidence of diabetes, as we’ve covered before. Although we should avoid sugar in packets, juices, or honey jars, when it comes in the form of a whole fruit, it impacts the body differently. This includes the types of fruit found in airfare snacks—unsweetened, unoiled, dried fruit.

But does this science stand true for dates, the fruit once source called “bags of sugar?”

The answer is yes. It turns out that source is… dated. 🥁

A date is a stone fruit, so it has a single seed surrounded by an outer fleshy fruit, like a peach, mango or olive. Like most analyses of humans eating other types of fruit, date-focused studies conclude that more, not less date consumption is best for dropping pounds or lowering insulin levels. This is probably why the American Diabetes Association wholeheartedly recommends eating fruit.

In fact, we might as well make this a double date, or even a threesome.

One research team conducted a randomized controlled trial on a sample of 100 Type 2 diabetes patients, feeding one group three dates per day (nearly 50 grams of sugar), while ensuring the other group avoided dates. After four months, the “daters” gained no weight or fat and saw no increase in blood sugar levels. In fact, members of the date-eating group saw significant improvement in markers for cholesterol, heart disease and blood lipids.

Results from other recent studies show similar findings. Date consumption has led to improvements of health markers across the board, which follows the logic from decades of research on fruit in general.

The best news is that the crew at airfare is all over the dating apps…and by that we mean creative applications of dates in healthy snacks.

Stay tuned next week, when we’ll introduce our newest enticing entrant to the delicious date pool. See you then. 🙂