i.e. not Marco
There now that I have gathered all of you date-eating people, I have a question:
How do I eat lots of dates without being in intense pain?
I am going backpacking in Massachusetts on the Appalachian trail for 7 days at the end of this month. I am bringing 15 lbs of medjool dates. They are supposedly "soft" but the salesperson assured me they would keep for 3-4 weeks unrefrigerated. Basically I will be attempting to eat 5,000 kcals of dates a day, almost as if I were trapped on a desert island full of date palms. Hey, I think I'll call that "date island." What a nifty new term I have coined. DR says for this sort of thing, bring 1kg of dates per day so that is what I am doing. Yay, no need to haul around a stove!
Anyways, here are some things I have learned about eating dates. Currently I can eat about 300-400 g of dates at a time while only experiencing minor stomach discomfort; anything more and I am in intense pain!
-Soak my dates for an hour
-Don't drink water directly before, and wait an hour after eating before drinking water
-Eat half of them, take a short break, eat the other half
-Don't pit them before I soak them or else they get nastily mushy and produce the gag reflex when I try to swallow them.
-Rinse off teeth and eat a handful of greens (not pain-related of course. in the wild these will be dandelion greens or purslane because I cannot identify any other wild greens.)
Other than just building up my tolerance for dense sugary fruit, do you have any more tips for eating humongous quantities of dates without experiencing pain?
Tags: backpacking, camping, date, dates, hurt, island, pain, stomach
Permalink Reply by Sweetfruitlover on Hi Peter,
I wish I could help, but I've never experienced pain from eating fruit like some people here have. My only issue with dates is making sure that I stay hydrated. I actually do better drinking water before, during and after eating them, as opposed to what you have discovered about keeping your water drinking separate. They work much better for me if I soak them and make datorade, but I'm not always organized enough to do that, and I keep them at work for the days when I don't have enough ripe fresh fruit for lunch.
Backpacking with dates sounds like such a great idea! I hope it works well for you - let us know how it goes.
Permalink Reply by Fruit fly on drink enough water before....I get used to them easily:D... I love smoothie(dates, apples, cinnamon, water top).
Permalink Reply by Agnes on I found, for me, I best digested dates when I drank water before to stay hydrated, and during. The water and dates actually made them taste better for me too. I also drank water after. I still feel like dates are heavy for me to digest. I love them though and there is no doubt that they have kept me raw because I have a huge sweet tooth! My problem with dates is though, as disgusting as this sounds, is they make me more gassy. I don't know why but I am assuming their low water content doesn't allow it to pass along as easily. Has anyone experienced something similar?
Permalink Reply by Sweetfruitlover on Yes, I have. When I eat dried fruit (dates or otherwise), I get gas and bloating. I get this from un-soaked nuts and seeds too, so it seems like anything dehydrated does that to me.
Permalink Reply by Esra on Have you tried drinking water *with* the dates? That's always how I eat them. I drink my regular 1L of water ~30 minutes before a meal, and if the meal is dates then I drink another 500ml-1L of water as I'm eating the dates....kinda like datorade, only in my tummy :p.
Permalink Reply by Peter Csere on Thank you all for the thoughtful answers. Perhaps I will have to try drinking water with the dates. I always assumed that would cause pain - a couple times I drank a liter of water directly afterwards and experienced pain. It may have had nothing to do with the water.
Sweetfruitlover, you are very lucky to not have experienced the fruit-eating pain!
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