Hi everyone,
I feel really silly for thinking about this, but in order to solve my dilemma, I could really use some feedback.
I eat Mozafati dates every day. The ones that I order in bulk (29 kg per order) come in boxes weighing 650g each. On average I eat 2 boxes a day (1 kg and 300g total), but I can also eat up to 3 (1 kg and 950g/almost 2 kg) boxes a day depending on what else I eat throughout the day. On the box it states per 100g is 260 calories. Given I ate 2 boxes today, that would give it a total of 3380 calories (and I even ate later after my date meal :) ). But considering that each date has a stone in it I'm worried that I'm getting less calories than I thought. Though I've seen posts from people (including avid date-eaters) here who eat less dates than I do, even though sizes vary from dates to dates. Still I'm worried because I don't want to be undereating at all. Each box of dates that I have has a total of 48-60 dates (depending on the size of the dates). Usually I eat well over 100 dates a day.
I've always been reliant on my dates that if I eat at least 2 boxes, I won't have to worry about getting enough calories with the other fruits and greens I eat after my date meal. But I'm afraid if the stones severely affect the calorie-content of my beloved dates that I have been unintentionally undereating.
Because I am terrible at math (could never do better than a 3 in school) I could really use some help and insight to find out if I need to be eating more dates or if I'm making a big worry over nothing.
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Replies
Thanks David. I may look into that. :)
You eat a lot of food during the day.
What else do you eat except dates ?
I had this Mazafati Dates too once 2 years ago i had 14,4 KG ordered.
You eat deglet Nour too or never ?
My dear friend Athena,
Please don't ever feel silly for thinking about something that concerns you, especially if it is so serious a matter as this. Don't ever hesitate to ask us about what is bothering you! We're here to help each other!
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>I'm afraid if the stones severely affect the calorie-content of my beloved dates that I have been unintentionally undereating
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Indeed, this is quite possible!
I believe the only way to really know is to perform the following experiment:
Do you have scales?
If so, then weigh your dates with the stones before eating them; keep the stones then weigh them. Subtract the two and divide by the total weight. This is will give the average fraction of the total weight of a date that is composed of stone. Subtract it from one to find the edible fraction of a date in terms of weight.
Repeat this experiment as many times as possible for better precision.
Then average the results (divide the sum of all the results by the number of experiments you have performed)
If you could keep them and hand them to me, it would be great as I could also see others kinds of computations to test for example the reliability of those data.
Unfortunately, I cannot do the experiment myself, as I do not have Mozafati dates where I live... But I am very curious to know the outcome.
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Since Sheepmobile says the edible part of a date makes around 90% of a date's weight, I believe it is reasonable to assume that it comprises at least, say, 75% of it, which gives 260kcal x (0,75) = 195kcal for 100g of date with pit. It is probably reasonable to round this as 200kcal/100g or 2000kcal/Kg of dates with pit.
This would mean you should eat at least 1,5Kg of dates per day in terms of gross weight, which would make about two and a half boxes.
I am probably underestimating the amount of calories you will get, but this is none of a problem, because if you eat more, then it's even better as you'll have more energy to do fun things! And this way you can be quite sure you are getting enough calories.
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Have a great day, Athena! Have fun with your dates!
And always remember: if you want to eat more dates, by all means do eat more!
Ah, and don't be shy when asking questions! We're here to answer.
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My sincerest regards,
Daniel
Thank you, Daniel, for your kind, helpful, and detailed response. I really appreciate it and I'm never afraid to eat as many dates as I want. ;)
I'm so lucky to have found this forum with so many great people who are helpful and supportive. :)
btw, I hope you've got the bottom line of my reply, which is: eat two and a half boxes of dates per day, and you'll most likely be fine energy-wise.
Don't worry, I read it and sometimes do eat two and a half boxes - sometimes even three. :) I can't wait to dig into them tomorrow morning! :D
go for it, girl! go deep into'em! : D
>Thank you, Daniel
my pleasure, athena! that's what we're here for.
>I'm never afraid to eat as many dates as I want. ;)
glad to hear :)
>I'm so lucky to have found this forum with so many great people who are helpful and supportive. :)
So am I
Not silly at all. I recently tried to work out much the same thing, to figure out to how many calories my date-eating amounts to. Since I think we probably have the same supplier of dates (or at least our suppliers probably buy from the same wholesaler), as my favourite dates are also mozafati which are packaged exactly the same way, maybe my calculations can help you.
Using kitchen scales and a pocket calculator, I worked out that the stones of those dates weigh approx. 10% of what date weighs (with stone). Hence, of a 650g package, 65g would be stones, leaving you with approx. 585g of pure date. That makes the calorie context per box approx 1521 calories. Eating two boxes per day should give you this just over 3000 calories from dates. Remember these are approximate values and are probably only valid for a specific type of date (but as I said, it sounds to me like we might get them from the same place).
Hope that helps :-)
Thank you so much Sheepmobile!!! :)
I know you order yours from Erdmann. I order mine from Persische Seidenstrasse (shop in Hamburg). Though you're probably right that they are the same dates. Are your dates also shipped from Bam, Iran?
I'll send you a PM.