Forget Bananas: This Small Fruit Has More Potassium

With cultivation going back over 7,000 years and global popularity today, dates might just be the coolest food you're not yet eating. The fruits of the date palm are normally cultivated in North Africa and the Middle East, but you can often find them elsewhere, including in dried form in North America. These fruits have abundant culinary uses, including both savory and sweet preparations sure to tempt your tastebuds. Not only are dates delicious, but, come to find out, they also make the list of fruits with more potassium than bananas.

Per Joolies, just three Medjool dates contain an impressive 501 milligrams of potassium. That's more than you'll find in one medium banana (422 milligrams), according to Harvard Health. Potassium is a nutrient that actually does a lot for your body, including regulating blood pressure and transmitting nerve signals to the brain. In human bodies, potassium helps balance sodium levels, meaning that it can help keep bodies healthy when salty foods are consumed. Potassium also plays a role in helping muscles contract, which explains why you cramp up when you have a deficiency in this area. As a pleasing plus, dates are also high in fiber, which you require for keeping your digestive system happy — and they contain ample vitamins and antioxidants as well. It's not always true that a delicious treat is also nourishing for your body, but that's actually the case when it comes to dates.

You might have seen date sugar on our list of the best sugar substitutes for coffee, as it gives you much the same sweetening effects without necessarily spiking your blood sugar. Subbing sweet dates for white sugar is easy once you've soaked dates in hot water, strained the result, and boiled it down to create a syrup. If you want a granulated product, just dry the dates in your oven on low heat for a long period of time and then run the solid dates through a spice grinder.

Unsurprisingly, dates shine in sweets. We've seen them stuffed with nuts and covered in chocolate, which turns them into a substitute for a candy bar, or minced into oatmeal to sweeten up your mundane morning breakfast. Dried dates can also improve your cookies, bars, or other baked treats with their chewy texture and punch of fruity sweetness. We've even seen them blended into milkshakes with banana and tahini for a mature take on a nostalgic fave.

On the other hand, we love combining dates with savory ingredients for main dishes and appetizers that are sweet, but not aggressively so. Most people know that stuffed dates can lean savory when filled with blue cheese or wrapped in bacon. We also enjoy dates in salads that include nourishing ingredients like grilled chicken, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli. For a Persian take on a common side dish, whip up some lentils with dates and caramelized onion. If you're looking for more potassium in your diet, you can hardly afford to overlook dates ... but we think you won't find eating them to be much of a chore.