What Are the Benefits of Dates For Diabetes Patients?
People with diabetes often hear two opposite things about dates: that they are too sugary to touch, or that they help with blood sugar. Most of the trials and reviews below tested dates in people with diabetes, so the question in the title can be answered one benefit at a time. Some claimed benefits held up in a study. Several did not. This page goes through each one and says how many people were tested.
This page is general information, not medical advice. If you have diabetes, talk to your doctor, diabetes nurse or dietitian before changing what you eat.
What earlier versions of this page got wrong
An older version of this article said that dates are a great choice for diabetes because they are a good source of vitamin C and are rich in glucose. The vitamin C part does not match the laboratory data. USDA FoodData Central lists 0.0 mg of vitamin C in 100 g of Medjool dates and 0.4 mg in 100 g of Deglet Noor dates. The same records list 1.81 g and 2.45 g of protein per 100 g, so dates are not a protein food either.
The glucose part is true, and it is why researchers were worried in the first place: the 2022 Bahrain trial below was set up because of concern, given the high sugar content, about the effect of dates on blood sugar control. In 100 g of Medjool, USDA lists 66.5 g of total sugars, of which 33.7 g is glucose and 32.0 g is fructose. The advice to eat dates in winter had no source and has been removed.
Fasting blood sugar
A 2021 review and meta-analysis from the University of Tabuk pooled 10 cohorts from five full-text studies of dates in people with diabetes. It reported a reduction in fasting plasma glucose. It reported that after-meal glucose was also reduced, but with high heterogeneity between studies (I² 92%). The author concluded that doctors may not need to restrict dates for patients with diabetes, and named the small number of studies and the heterogeneity as limits. The search ran up to December 2020, so it does not include the 2022 Bahrain trial below.
In that 2022 trial, fasting glucose did not change. So on fasting blood sugar the evidence is mixed.
HbA1c, the long-term blood sugar number
HbA1c is the test of average blood glucose levels, and the NHS says people with type 2 diabetes need it every 3 to 6 months. On this measure no study here found a benefit.
- A randomised trial in Bahrain (Butler and colleagues, 2022) gave 79 patients with type 2 diabetes either 60 g of dates or 60 g of raisins a day for 12 weeks, split into a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack. 61 people completed it. There was no difference between or within groups in HbA1c, fasting glucose, insulin resistance, lipids, blood pressure, C-reactive protein, or the other glycaemic measures the abstract reports. The authors wrote that dates did not improve glycaemic control but had no harmful effect on it over 12 weeks.
- A second randomised trial (Alalwan and colleagues, 2020) assigned 100 people with type 2 diabetes to two groups. One ate three dates a day for 16 weeks and the other avoided dates. HbA1c did not change within or between the groups.
- The 2021 meta-analysis above found the effect on HbA1c was neutral.
Cholesterol
This is where a benefit was reported. In the Alalwan trial, total cholesterol fell by 0.209 mmol/L in the group eating three dates a day, a statistically significant change. LDL cholesterol fell by 0.171 mmol/L, but its confidence interval (−0.358 to 0.016) crosses zero, so that drop could be chance.
A 2025 meta-analysis of randomised trials pooled 14 cohorts from four studies, 298 participants with type 2 diabetes in all. It found lower total cholesterol, with very high heterogeneity (I² 90%), and no significant change in LDL, triglycerides or HDL. Its authors call for larger studies. The Butler trial, as noted above, found no change in lipids at all.
Quality of life
The Alalwan trial also scored quality of life. Compared with the control group, the date group improved by 30.66 points on the quality-of-life index, which the authors put down to an improvement in mental health. This comes from one trial.
Glycaemic index
This page used to say that dates have a very low glycaemic index (GI) that keeps blood sugar down even when large quantities are eaten. The tests do not say that.
A study at United Arab Emirates University tested five varieties in 13 healthy volunteers and 10 people with type 2 diabetes, whose diabetes was controlled by lifestyle measures and/or metformin. GIs in the healthy group ranged from 46.3 to 55.1, and the values in the diabetes group were very similar. The authors describe these as low GIs. A study of 17 Saudi varieties in 19 healthy adults found a mean GI of 55.2, with a range from 42.8 to 74.6. Sellaj was the highest. The authors found no significant difference in GI between varieties, but the glycaemic load differed significantly between them, from 8.5 to 24.
Neither study tested large quantities. Each test used a portion of dates holding 50 g of available carbohydrate, compared with 50 g of glucose.
Weight
In the Alalwan trial, BMI did not change significantly in either group over 16 weeks. None of the trials above was designed to test dates as a weight loss food, and none reported weight loss.
How much sugar a portion carries
USDA lists one pitted Medjool date at 24 g. At 66.5 g of sugars per 100 g, that is about 16 g of sugars and 18 g of carbohydrate in a single date. A pitted Deglet Noor date is listed at 7.1 g, or about 4.5 g of sugars.
The NHS counts a 30 g portion of dried fruit, such as dates, as 1 of your 5 A Day, but says it should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. In 30 g of Medjool there are about 20 g of sugars. The NHS says sugar found naturally in whole fruit does not count as free sugars, but it is still included in the total sugars figure on a food label.
Where dates sit in NHS diabetes advice
The NHS advice for type 2 diabetes is to eat a healthy diet including fruit, vegetables, wholegrain foods such as wholemeal bread and oats, and pulses such as chickpeas and lentils. It also suggests at least 2.5 hours of walking or other activity that leaves you out of breath across the week. On its list of things not to do: eating too much processed food with lots of salt and sugar, such as bacon, chips, cheese, sweets and biscuits, and switching to a very strict low-calorie diet without talking to a health professional first.
Dates are not named in that advice. If you want to eat dates with type 2 diabetes, the trials above used 60 g a day or three dates a day, and neither amount worsened HbA1c over 12 to 16 weeks. Ask your care team how that fits with your own medicines and targets.
Date Fruits supplies dates for retail and wholesale buyers, with delivery across the country; see the About us page. Questions can go through the Contact us form.
References
- Butler AE, et al. Effect of Date Fruit Consumption on the Glycemic Control of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Nutrients. 2022;14(17):3491. PMID 36079749
- Alalwan TA, et al. Effects of Daily Low-Dose Date Consumption on Glycemic Control, Lipid Profile, and Quality of Life in Adults with Pre- and Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2020;12(1):217. PMID 31952131
- Mirghani HO. Dates fruits effects on blood glucose among patients with diabetes mellitus: A review and meta-analysis. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(4):1230-1236. PMID 34290813
- Mirghani HO, Alhowiti A. Dates fruit effects on dyslipidemia among patients with Type-2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(1):331-337. PMID 39867809
- Alkaabi JM, et al. Glycemic indices of five varieties of dates in healthy and diabetic subjects. Nutr J. 2011;10:59. PMID 21619670
- AlGeffari MA, et al. Glycemic indices, glycemic load and glycemic response for seventeen varieties of dates grown in Saudi Arabia. Ann Saudi Med. 2016;36(6):397-403. PMID 27920411
- USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy, 2019). Dates, medjool, FDC 168191; Dates, deglet noor, FDC 171726
- NHS. Treatment for type 2 diabetes
- NHS. 5 A Day: what counts?
- NHS. Sugar: the facts