Are Kimia Dates Healthy? Nutrition and the State of the Evidence
A close look at what the real data says about Kimia dates, where that data actually comes from, and where the evidence runs thin.
Last checked / verified: 30 October 2026
Kimia dates are a nutrient containing whole fruit that is also high in sugar and energy. They supply fibre, potassium, magnesium and plant polyphenols, and dates tested in clinical studies have shown a low glycaemic index. No published nutrient analysis exists for Kimia specifically, so figures here come from USDA data for other date types. Portion size is what determines whether they fit a diet.
Important: there is no Kimia-specific nutrient table, and you should be sceptical of pages that publish one
This matters enough to deal with before anything else.
Kimia is the trade name used in India, Pakistan and the Gulf for the Iranian Mazafati cultivar. The identity question is covered in what are Kimia dates. What concerns us here is that neither the USDA’s FoodData Central nor any other major public food composition database contains an entry for Mazafati or Kimia dates. The entries that exist are for Medjool and for Deglet Noor, the two cultivars that dominate the North American market where that database was built.
So when a page presents a precise table of Kimia calories, fibre, potassium and glycaemic index, one of three things is happening. Sometimes the figures are USDA numbers for Medjool, relabelled as Kimia without saying so. Sometimes they are copied from another page that did the same. Occasionally they are simply invented. We have seen pages cite a USDA Medjool record as the source for a “Kimia” nutrition table on the same screen as a distinct Kimia glycaemic index figure that has no citation at all.
This page takes the honest route instead. Below are real USDA figures, clearly labelled with the date type they describe. Where a Kimia or Mazafati specific figure genuinely exists in the research literature, it is named as such.
Two reasons the distinction is not merely pedantic. First, Kimia is a high moisture date harvested at the rutab stage, while USDA Medjool and Deglet Noor entries describe drier fruit at around 20 to 21 percent water. More water means fewer calories and less sugar per 100 g of fruit as sold, so the USDA figures are, if anything, an overestimate for a soft Kimia on a weight basis. Second, date cultivars do differ in composition, and a review of dates as a functional food specifically names variation in cultivar, ripeness and processing as a reason why findings are hard to generalise.
What the real nutrition data shows
These are USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g for the two date types the database actually covers. Medjool, the closer comparison for a soft date, is in the first column.
| Per 100 g | Medjool dates (FDC 168191) | Deglet Noor dates (FDC 171726) |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 277 kcal | 282 kcal |
| Water | 21.3 g | 20.5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 75 g | 75 g |
| of which total sugars | 66.5 g | 63.4 g |
| Fibre | 6.7 g | 8.0 g |
| Protein | 1.8 g | 2.5 g |
| Fat | 0.15 g | 0.39 g |
| Potassium | 696 mg | 656 mg |
| Magnesium | 54 mg | 43 mg |
| Calcium | 64 mg | 39 mg |
| Iron | 0.9 mg | 1.0 mg |
| Copper | 0.36 mg | 0.21 mg |
| Manganese | 0.30 mg | 0.26 mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.25 mg | 0.17 mg |
| Folate | 15 mcg | 19 mcg |
| Vitamin K | 2.7 mcg | 2.7 mcg |
Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC IDs 168191 and 171726. These describe Medjool and Deglet Noor dates, not Kimia.
Translating that to a realistic Kimia portion
Published fruit weight for the Mazafati cultivar is around 7 to 9 g, which includes the seed. Taking a middle figure of 8 g and allowing for the seed, the edible flesh of one Kimia date is roughly 6.5 to 7 g.
Applying the Medjool values to that, and rounding honestly:
| One Kimia date (about 7 g flesh) | Three dates | Five dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | roughly 19 kcal | roughly 58 kcal | roughly 97 kcal |
| Total sugars | roughly 4.7 g | roughly 14 g | roughly 23 g |
| Fibre | roughly 0.5 g | roughly 1.4 g | roughly 2.3 g |
| Potassium | roughly 49 mg | roughly 146 mg | roughly 244 mg |
These are estimates built from a cultivar average fruit weight and USDA Medjool composition. They are useful for getting the order of magnitude right. They are not measurements of Kimia, and they should not be treated as precise.
The single most useful thing in that table: five small dates is around 23 g of sugar, which is comparable to a standard can of a sugar sweetened soft drink. The difference is that the dates also bring fibre, potassium, magnesium and polyphenols, and come in a form that takes time to chew. That is a real difference, and it is not a licence to ignore the sugar.
Energy and sugar: the honest framing
Dates are an energy dense, high sugar food. There is no version of this that gets around that.
The sugars in a ripe date are mostly glucose and fructose rather than sucrose, because sucrose inverts during ripening. One study tracking Mozafati dates through development found reducing sugars rising steadily and sucrose not detectable at any stage. Chemically, those are the same simple sugars found in many sweetened products.
What differs is the package. Dates deliver those sugars inside a fibrous fruit matrix, with minerals and polyphenols alongside, and they take chewing. Dietary guidance generally treats the sugars naturally present in whole fruit differently from added or free sugars, although in dried and semi dried fruit that distinction gets genuinely blurry, which is why national guidance tends to put a portion cap on dried fruit rather than treating it as freely available.
Two practical implications.
If you are replacing refined sugar, this is a reasonable swap. Using date paste instead of sugar in a bake brings fibre and minerals that sugar does not. It does not make the result low in sugar.
If you are adding dates on top of what you already eat, the calories count. The authors of the main clinical study on date glycaemic index make this point explicitly: dates are energy dense and their calories have to be included in meal planning.
Fibre
The USDA figures put dates at 6.7 to 8.0 g of fibre per 100 g, which is a meaningful amount for a fruit. On a realistic portion, though, three to five small Kimia dates provide roughly 1.4 to 2.3 g, against a typical adult daily reference of 25 to 30 g depending on the authority. Dates are a contributor to fibre intake, not a solution to a low fibre diet.
Fibre is also the most defensible thing in the nutrient profile, because the general evidence for dietary fibre is strong and does not depend on anything specific to dates. Adequate fibre intake is associated with better bowel regularity and with lower risk of several chronic conditions, and that body of evidence is large and consistent.
What we should not do is extrapolate from that to claims about dates treating constipation or digestive conditions. Fibre containing foods support normal bowel function. That is a different statement from a therapeutic claim, and the small trials that have looked specifically at dates and bowel outcomes are not strong enough to carry one.
Potassium and other micronutrients
Potassium. This is the standout mineral in dates, at roughly 650 to 700 mg per 100 g in the USDA records. The US Adequate Intake for potassium is 3,400 mg a day for adult men and 2,600 mg for adult women. A five date portion at roughly 244 mg contributes something on the order of 7 to 9 percent of that.
The established context for potassium is blood pressure. Low potassium intake is associated with higher hypertension risk, particularly alongside high sodium intake, and increasing potassium intake can lower blood pressure, with the effect strongest in salt sensitive individuals. That said, a Cochrane review restricted to higher quality trials found the reductions from potassium supplementation to be non significant, so the picture is more mixed than popular writing suggests.
Applying that specifically to dates requires more caution again. A 2025 narrative review in Foods examining dates in hypertension found that the human evidence “remains limited”. The trials it cites are small, several were in populations with diabetes rather than hypertension, and much of the mechanistic support comes from animal models, isolated blood vessel preparations and in vitro assays. One widely repeated comparison, in which a date extract inhibits the ACE enzyme in a manner compared to a blood pressure medication, comes only from in vitro work and says nothing about what happens when a person eats dates.
Magnesium, at 43 to 54 mg per 100 g, is a modest contribution to a requirement in the 300 to 400 mg range.
Iron is often promoted in connection with dates, including in marketing aimed at anaemia. The USDA figures are 0.9 to 1.0 mg per 100 g, which on a five date portion is around 0.07 mg. Against an adult requirement of roughly 8 to 18 mg a day, that is negligible. Dates are also a non haem iron source, which is less readily absorbed than iron from meat. Dates are not a practical iron supplement and should not be relied on as one.
Copper and manganese are present in proportionally more useful amounts relative to their small requirements, and vitamin B6, folate and vitamin K are present at modest levels.
Polyphenols
Dates contain a range of phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity in laboratory tests. Work on the Mozafati cultivar specifically identified and quantified eight phenolics, including gallic, chlorogenic, trans-ferulic, sinapic and p-coumaric acids, plus vanillin, catechin and hesperidin, the last reported for the first time in a date cultivar. The same study found anthocyanins increasing through fruit development while most other phenolics and overall antioxidant capacity declined.
This is genuine chemistry and it is interesting. It is also where health writing about dates most often overreaches. Antioxidant activity measured in a test tube is not a health outcome in a person. Whether these compounds survive digestion, reach tissues in meaningful amounts and change anything clinically relevant is largely unestablished.
Glycaemic considerations
This is the question people most often bring to a page about dates, so it is worth being precise about what is and is not known.
What the evidence shows
The most frequently cited study here is Alkaabi and colleagues, published in Nutrition Journal in 2011. The researchers tested five date varieties, Fara’d, Lulu, Bo ma’an, Dabbas and Khalas, all at the tamr stage, in thirteen healthy participants and ten with type 2 diabetes. Each test portion was weighed to deliver 50 g of available carbohydrate.
The measured glycaemic index values fell between 46.3 and 55.1 in the healthy group and between 43.8 and 53.0 in the group with type 2 diabetes. All sit in the low to moderate range. The researchers found no significant differences between the varieties, and no significant difference between the healthy and diabetic groups. Their conclusion was that dates did not cause significant postprandial glucose excursions in people with type 2 diabetes and could be eaten in these amounts as part of a balanced diet.
What that does and does not tell you about Kimia
Four limitations matter.
- Kimia was not among the varieties tested. The five tested cultivars are Emirati and were tested at the tamr stage, whereas Kimia is a rutab stage, higher moisture, higher inverted sugar fruit. The study authors themselves noted that testing only five varieties was a limitation.
- The portion was large. Fifty grams of available carbohydrate is considerably more than a typical serving. The authors noted it was similar to the seven to ten dates their study population commonly ate at a sitting, but it is not a small portion.
- Glycaemic index is measured on a fixed carbohydrate load, so it describes the quality of the carbohydrate rather than how much of it is in your meal. Glycaemic load, which accounts for portion, is the more practical concept at the table.
- Individual responses to the same food vary considerably, which is why self monitoring beats a published index value for anyone managing blood glucose.
What this means in practice. If you are managing blood sugar, dates are not automatically off limits, and the available evidence does not support treating them as uniquely dangerous. They are a concentrated carbohydrate food that needs to be counted like any other. Anyone on insulin or on glucose lowering medication should fit dates into their carbohydrate plan with their diabetes team rather than on the basis of a published glycaemic index figure, and should check their own response if they monitor. Nothing on this page is a substitute for that advice.
Portion guidance, in general terms
There is no established optimum number of dates per day, and specific numbers presented as a recommendation are usually invention.
What does exist is national guidance on dried fruit as a category. The NHS treats a portion of dried fruit as about 30 g. A review in the British Dental Journal likewise described a portion of dried fruit as around 30 g. At a Kimia fruit weight of roughly 7 g of flesh, 30 g is about four dates.
That is a reasonable anchor for a general adult portion. Several qualifications belong with it.
- Kimia is softer and wetter than the raisins and prunes that figure is usually applied to, so a 30 g portion of Kimia carries somewhat less sugar than 30 g of a fully dried fruit.
- The right amount for an individual depends on total diet, energy needs, activity and any condition being managed. An endurance athlete and a sedentary adult managing weight are not in the same position.
The practical rule that holds across situations is simply that dates are better eaten as a defined portion than grazed from an open pack. Soft dates are easy to eat quickly and in quantity, which is the main way people consume far more sugar from them than they intend.
Guidance on dried fruit also commonly recommends eating it with a meal rather than between meals, which brings us to teeth.
Dental considerations
This is the most consistently underplayed point in writing about dates, and it is the one with the clearest practical advice.
Dates are high in fermentable carbohydrate, mostly glucose and fructose, and they are sticky. Both of those matter for tooth decay. Fermentable sugars feed the oral bacteria that produce acid, and stickiness affects how long the sugar stays in contact with tooth surfaces. NHS guidance specifically advises eating dried fruit as part of a meal rather than as a between meals snack, and notes that it can be bad for teeth.
The evidence is not completely one sided. A review by Sadler challenged the strength of the guidance, arguing that the evidence base is weak and pointing out that chewing dried fruit stimulates saliva flow, which helps clear acid, and that dried fruits contain antimicrobial compounds. That review was funded by the California Prune Board, which is relevant context rather than a disqualification, and the British Dental Journal‘s treatment of the subject noted the funding while still advising moderation, consumption with meals rather than between them, and good oral hygiene.
Kimia sits at the sticky end of the date spectrum, which is worth knowing. Practical steps that follow: eat them with or straight after a meal rather than as a standalone snack, drink water afterwards, and do not brush immediately after eating acidic or sugary food, since the enamel is temporarily softened. These are routine oral health measures, not date specific ones.
kimia-dates-with-meal-and-water.jpg – Alt: “A few Kimia dates served at the end of a meal next to a glass of water”
Who should be cautious
This section flags situations worth individual advice. It is not a list of contraindications, and nothing here is a diagnosis or a prescription.
People with diabetes or prediabetes
Not a prohibition. Dates are a concentrated carbohydrate food, the clinical data is reassuring at the portions studied, and the sensible course is to count them in a carbohydrate plan and check your own response. Discuss it with your diabetes team, particularly if you are on insulin.
People with chronic kidney disease or impaired potassium excretion
This is the most clinically significant caution on the page. Dates are potassium rich, and impaired potassium excretion raises the risk of hyperkalaemia, a potentially serious rise in blood potassium. The US potassium Adequate Intake explicitly does not apply to people with impaired potassium excretion. If you have CKD, your potassium intake from all sources is something to agree with your kidney team or renal dietitian, not something to decide from a food article.
People taking medicines that reduce potassium excretion
This includes potassium sparing diuretics such as spironolactone and amiloride, ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers. These medicines reduce potassium loss and can cause hyperkalaemia, and monitoring is recommended, particularly where kidney function is also impaired. If you are on any of these, raise a high potassium food habit with your prescriber.
People managing weight or energy intake
Dates are energy dense and easy to eat in quantity. Portion matters more here than any other factor.
Anyone with a known sensitivity to sulphites
Plain Kimia should contain nothing but dates. Some dried fruit products are sulphited, and sulphite preservative has been reported in the date trade. Check the ingredients list.
People with irritable bowel syndrome or fructose sensitivity
Dates are high in fructose and in sorbitol, both of which are poorly absorbed by some people and can trigger symptoms. Tolerance is individual.
Infants and young children
Whole dates are a choking hazard for small children because of their size, texture and the seed. If dates are given to young children, serve them pitted and finely chopped or as a purée. Standard infant feeding guidance on added and free sugars applies.
During pregnancy
Dates are an ordinary food in pregnancy. There is some research interest in date consumption in late pregnancy and labour outcomes, but the trials are small and the evidence is not sufficient to make a recommendation, so we are not making one. Pregnancy nutrition questions belong with a midwife or doctor.
What dates do not do
Dates, including Kimia, do not cure, prevent or treat any disease. Pages that say otherwise are going beyond the evidence.
Specific claims worth naming because they circulate widely:
Not a treatment for anaemia. The iron content is too low to be meaningful at realistic portions, and it is non haem iron.
Not a cancer treatment or preventive. Laboratory antioxidant activity does not translate into a clinical effect in people, and there is no human evidence supporting such a claim.
Not a blood pressure medicine. The potassium content is a genuine positive dietary feature. The human trial evidence on dates and blood pressure specifically is limited, the ACE inhibition comparison comes from in vitro work, and nobody should change prescribed medication on the strength of a food.
Not a weight loss food. Dates are among the more energy dense fruits. Trials of date consumption lasting four to sixteen weeks have reported no effect on BMI.
Not a substitute for medical care. This page is general information. For anything specific to your health, please speak to a qualified clinician. Read our full medical and editorial disclaimer.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories are in one Kimia date?
Roughly 19 kcal for a typical date of around 8 g including the seed. That is an estimate from USDA Medjool composition applied to the published Mazafati fruit weight, not a measurement of Kimia, and it will vary with grade and moisture.
Are Kimia dates good for diabetics?
They are not automatically off limits. Five date varieties tested in a 2011 clinical study showed low glycaemic index values and did not cause significant blood glucose excursions in participants with type 2 diabetes at the portions tested. Kimia was not one of them. Dates need counting as carbohydrate, and anyone on glucose lowering medication should plan them with their diabetes team.
How many Kimia dates can I eat per day?
There is no established number, and any page giving you a precise one is inventing it. National guidance puts a dried fruit portion at about 30 g, which is roughly four Kimia dates. The right amount for you depends on your total diet and any condition you are managing.
Are Kimia dates healthier than Ajwa or Medjool?
There is no good evidence that any date cultivar is meaningfully healthier than another at the level of a normal portion. Composition does vary between cultivars, but published per-cultivar nutrient data is sparse and the differences are small compared with how much you eat. Choose on taste, texture, use and price.
Do Kimia dates contain added sugar?
Genuine Kimia should contain dates and nothing else, and it is sweet enough that it does not need help. Some packs do carry glucose syrup, added sugar or a glazing agent. Check the ingredients list; the quality signals are covered in our Kimia dates buying guide.
Is the white coating on Kimia dates sugar?
A light, uneven white bloom is crystallised natural sugar and is harmless. A uniform sandy coating can be added sugar. Fuzzy or coloured patches, especially with a sour or musty smell, indicate spoilage and the fruit should be discarded.
Are Kimia dates safe in pregnancy?
They are an ordinary food and there is no reason to avoid them. There is research interest in dates in late pregnancy, but the trials are small and the evidence is not strong enough to base a recommendation on. Raise pregnancy diet questions with your midwife or doctor.
This page provides general nutrition information and does not constitute medical or dietetic advice. It is not a substitute for individual guidance from a doctor, registered dietitian or diabetes care team. Read our full disclaimer.
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central, Dates, Medjool (FDC ID 168191) and Dates, Deglet Noor (FDC ID 171726). These are the only widely used public composition records for dates and neither describes the Mazafati or Kimia cultivar.
- Alkaabi, J. M., Al-Dabbagh, B., Ahmad, S., Saadi, H. F., Gariballa, S., and Al Ghazali, M. (2011). Glycemic indices of five varieties of dates in healthy and diabetic subjects. Nutrition Journal, 10, 59. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-10-59
- National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, Potassium Fact Sheet for Health Professionals – Adequate Intake of 3,400 mg for adult men and 2,600 mg for adult women; the note that the AI does not apply to people with impaired potassium excretion; blood pressure evidence including the Cochrane finding; hyperkalaemia risk with CKD, potassium sparing diuretics, ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers.
- Jim, E. L., Jim, E. L., Wildan, A., Santini, A., and Nurkolis, F. (2025). Nature’s cardioprotective sweetness: a review of dates as functional food in hypertension. Foods, 14(24), 4208. doi:10.3390/foods14244208 – human evidence described as limited; reliance on animal, isolated vessel and in vitro work; in vitro ACE inhibition; no effect on BMI in trials of four to sixteen weeks; cultivar, ripeness and processing variation as a limitation.
- Sheikhbahaei, N., Rezanejad, F., and Arvin, S. M. J. (2020). Mozafati date as a potential treasure of calcium and antioxidant compounds: assessment of these phytochemicals during development. Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization, 14(3), 1273-1285. doi:10.1007/s11694-020-00375-7 – eight phenolics identified and quantified, hesperidin reported for the first time in a date cultivar, anthocyanins rising and antioxidant capacity falling through development, reducing sugars rising, sucrose not detected.
- Gardner, E. (2017). Alternative sugars: dates. British Dental Journal, 223(6), 393. doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.792 – dried fruit as fermentable carbohydrate and its oral health implications; NHS advice to eat it with meals; the Sadler review and its California Prune Board funding; a dried fruit portion of about 30 g.
- NHS, 5 A Day portion sizes – dried fruit portion of about 30 g; advice to eat dried fruit with a meal rather than as a between meals snack because of tooth decay risk.
- Karizaki, V. M. (2017). Iranian dates and ethnic date-based products. Journal of Ethnic Foods, 4(3), 204-209. doi:10.1016/j.jef.2017.08.002 – Mazafati fruit weight of 7 to 9 g, used here to scale USDA per 100 g figures to a realistic portion.
- Barreveld, W. H. (1993). Date Palm Products. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 101. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – sucrose inversion to glucose and fructose during ripening; moisture at the rutab stage.
Amira Noor writes about Ajwa dates, their origin in Madinah, nutrition and heritage, with clear, practical guides for readers.