Hot Dates

When it comes to candy, I have just two words in my vocabulary: “chocolate” and “dates.” I’ve written many times before about dark chocolate, my go-to dessert of choice (beloved in part for the fact that it combines equally well with a starch or a protein meal). And I’ve blogged often about raw cacao, one of my favorite ingredients for making decadent power smoothies and delectable raw desserts. (Click here and here for recipes.)

But as much as I love cacao, I have to admit I’m a fool for fresh dates – often sold as Medjool dates. You know, the big, soft sticky kind that simply ooze sweet lusciousness from every moist fiber in their plump little bodies? Those ones.

So, imagine a place where these exact soft, chewy dates fall from the trees in such abundance that they litter the sidewalks, causing a nuisance for shopkeepers and passersby.

That place exists, and it is Treasure Island. I know this because I’m here for a weekend Reiki intensive that started last night. I’ve never been to this side of Florida before and I’m in love with the deep gulf coast beach. Think acres of clean, silky white sand. Tiny pink seashells the size of your fingerprint. Warm calm waters skimmed at sunrise by glider-winged pelicans, scanning for breakfast. Graceful dolphins swimming parallel to the shoreline, curved backs slicing through the sea like glossy dark serpents. And that was just this morning.

But I digress. I was talking about dates.

Besides being delicious dates are a rich source of nutrition. Dates are very high in minerals. A quarter cup of these succulent jewels supplies eight percent of your daily potassium needs and six percent of manganese requirements, along with zinc and copper, iron, selenium, calcium and magnesium.

Dates are also an excellent source of fiber. They are very low in moisture compared to most other fruits, but although dates seem like a dried fruit, they actually are not! I now know this firsthand, having found and tasted several freshly fallen, “dried” dates this morning on my stroll through town.

You could say that as a tropical fruit, dates are naturally dehydrated by the sun. Being native to hot and desert-like environments has influenced the evolution of dates and caused them to contain high levels of antioxidant polyphenols. In dates, olives and other plant foods, polyphenols protect fruits and seeds from turning bad before they ripen to maturity. Plant polyphenols also act as antioxidants in humans. Date polyphenols have been shown to inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, making them a good choice for heart and blood vessel health. [Hughes JS, Ganthavorn C. Role of Antioxidants in Asian Vegetables and California Dates. Acta Hort. (ISHS) 837:59-64]

Better yet, polyphenols aren't just good for your ticker. In fact, these free radical-quenching compounds help to fight inflammation and slow the aging process throughout the body. And according to the USDA and the California Date Commission, dates are higher in antioxidant polyphenols than any of the most commonly consumed fruits and veggies. Who knew?

Clearly, dates are one of the healthiest natural sweets in the world. So skip the Snickers and enjoy a few Medjool dates as a between meal pick-me-up! Or, eat some dates for dessert. They make an ideal finish to the new standby healthy comfort meal (made famous by Natalia Rose), avocado salad and baked sweet potatoes... or any well-combined starch-based or nut-based meal.

Personally, I love to eat dates with bananas and organic yogurt, or with nuts. Dates are especially tasty when paired with whole raw almonds or walnuts. You may also stuff them with raw almond butter or dip in sesame tahini. Either of these dreamy treats will digest best if eaten after a salad or along with some raw veggies like celery, carrots or romaine lettuce to help escort the dense fruit-nut combo through your body.

Of course, if you live around Treasure Island you can always just take a walk outside your door, do some wild food gathering and make a breakfast out of freshly dropped dates, plain and simple. Back home this time of year, it's leaves that are dropping from trees ablaze with the warm colors of fall foliage but here in Florida, it’s date season and the picking is fine.

Would You Like Antioxidants With That?

I'm writing from the hospital where my mother has been in intensive care for the past two-plus weeks. It's a cruel irony that after finally completing a 6-month course of chemotherapy for lymphoma, she is now fighting another issue: widespread lung inflammation due to either complications from the chemo or "radiation relapse" pneumonitis or some pneumonia-type infection - the doctors aren't sure.

As it becomes harder for her to breathe on her own, Mom's treatment has required the addition of oxygen, given via either breathing tube or face mask or nasal canula, with or without assisted pressure.

The paradox here is that oxygen, while necessary for life, is in itself a toxin that can damage the lungs. This is one reason why lung tissues are naturally loaded with antioxidants, particularly glutathione, a sulfur-containing compound made within the body to help protect cells and tissues from oxidative damage. Glutathione levels are low in people with inflamed lungs, beause the body uses up its stores trying to reverse the free radical damage ongoing from whatever is causing the inflammation.

Because oxygen causes inflammation and free radical damage to lung tissue, I thought it would make sense to give Mom antioxidants as part of her treatment. In other words, if you are knowingly creating a situation where oxidation is going to take place, boosting levels of ANTI-oxidants could counteract or prevent the damage.

I found a good deal of research to support this theory and shared it with my mother's doctors. Respectfully, they considered it before deciding for various reasons not to add any glutathione, acetylcysteine (a glutathione precursor), vitamin E or any other antioxidant to her protocol. I am sorry to report that her condition is not improving. I don't know if the antioxidants would have helped. At least I tried - with my mother's blessing, I might add. Sometimes when things get critical, people open to possibility. She was OK with me proposing this alternative idea to her medical caregivers.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to keep my own antioxidant intake high, considering I've been basically living at the hospital (a great place to get sick) since mid-May and am under increased emotional stress during this difficult time. To this end, I thought of bringing a ton of antioxidant supplements down here with me. But then I realized, instead of carrying around multiple bottles of this and that, why not focus on food?

Enter the local fruit stand, around the corner on 68th Street and 1st Avenue. Fresh berries galore are there for the taking; they make a wonderful breakfast with bananas and are one of the highest potency antioxidant foods to be found. I've partaken of golden raspberries, blueberries and strawberries so far.

I'm also trying to get a daily fresh veggie juice - available from the local juice bar or from the hospital cafeteria here at Memorial Sloan Kettering where they serve a tasty pineapple-cucumber-ginger elixir. (Very impressed to find fresh green juice here - overall, their caf is top notch.)

Delicious and affordable Indian food from Tawa, on 68th between 1st and York, provides great taste and protective curry spices. For $4.95 I get two curries of my choice along with rice (unfortunately white rice, something I don't generally eat but am allowing myself to enjoy as comfort food). Honestly, it's the best Indian food I've had since I lived in India back in 1987 - especially the palak paneer (spinach and fresh cultured, enzyme-containing cheese).

Green tea, dark chocolate and raw Sacred Chocolate are also helping me meet my antioxidant needs. I ran out of high ORAC goji berries a while ago...tossed with cashews, bee pollen and raw cacao they made a fabulous free-radical-busting trail mix.

I did bring one antioxidant supplement with me: Supertonic, a wonderful herbal product from Pioneer Nutritional Formulas that's packed with high potency adaptogenic Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs including turmeric, eleuthero, ashwagandha and shizandra.

So far, I am managing to stay healthy during this transition time. I love my mother so much. Bless her spirit and bless all of us, shining in brilliance, careening through the unpredictability, the joy, the pain and the beauty of a precious life on earth.