Figs, Dates, and Dried Fruit

TL;DR. A fig is not a fruit but an inverted flower cluster, and most commercial fig varieties need a wasp to crawl inside and die there for the fruit to develop, which is true and much less alarming than it sounds. Dates are among the most calorie-dense whole foods in existence, roughly 70 percent sugar by weight, and also genuinely high in fibre and potassium. Drying removes water and concentrates everything else by a factor of four to six, including the sugar, which makes dried fruit an excellent portable food and a poor grazing snack, particularly for teeth.

1. What they are

Fig (Ficus carica, family Moraceae, with mulberry and breadfruit) is a syconium: a hollow, fleshy, inverted receptacle lined on the inside with hundreds of tiny flowers. What you eat is a bag of flowers. Each crunchy "seed" is a separate individual fruit.

Date (Phoenix dactylifera, family Arecaceae, the palms) is a drupe with a single hard seed, growing in enormous bunches from a palm.

Dried fruit is any fruit with most of its water removed, by sun, by hot air, or by freeze drying.

2. Where they come from

Fig: the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia. It may be the oldest domesticated plant of any kind: carbonised parthenocarpic figs from Gilgal in the Jordan Valley have been dated to around 11,400 years ago, which predates the domestication of wheat and barley. Because figs are propagated from cuttings, a single desirable seedless tree could be cloned immediately, which made domestication trivially easy.

Date: Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, cultivated for at least 6,000 years. The date palm is the defining crop of desert oasis agriculture: it tolerates extreme heat, high salinity, and poor soil, produces enormous yields, and its shade allows a second and third layer of crops beneath it, an ancient three-storey agroforestry system.

Production: figs around 1.3 million tonnes, led by Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria; dates around 9.5 million tonnes, led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, Iraq, and the UAE. Turkey dominates dried figs; California produces most Medjool dates outside the Middle East.

3. How they are grown

The fig and the wasp

This is one of the more remarkable relationships in agriculture and deserves explaining properly, because the summarised internet version ("figs contain dead wasps") is misleading.

Figs come in several types:

• Common figs (Brown Turkey, Kadota, Celeste, Brunswick, and most garden and supermarket figs) are parthenocarpic: they develop without pollination and need no wasp at all. These are the great majority of figs sold fresh in Europe and North America.
• Smyrna figs (including Calimyrna, and the classic Turkish dried fig) do require pollination, and the only pollinator is the fig wasp Blastophaga psenes.
• Caprifigs are inedible male figs that host the wasp.

The Smyrna process, called caprification, works like this: a female wasp, carrying pollen, crawls into a fig through a tiny opening at the tip called the ostiole. The passage is so narrow that her wings and antennae are torn off; she cannot leave. She pollinates the flowers, lays eggs where she can, and dies inside. In a caprifig her offspring develop, mate, and the females leave carrying pollen. In an edible Smyrna fig the flower structure is wrong for egg-laying, so she pollinates and dies without reproducing.

What happens to the wasp. The fig produces ficin, a protease, which digests the wasp body entirely. There is no wasp in the fig you eat; there is fig. This is a genuine biological fact and it is also a completely reasonable thing to be relaxed about. Growers of Smyrna figs hang bags of caprifigs in the orchard at the right moment to supply wasps.

Beyond that, figs are easy: drought-tolerant, tolerant of poor alkaline soil, propagated from cuttings, cropping within two to three years, and often producing two crops a year (the breba crop on last year's wood in early summer, and the main crop on new wood in late summer). The fruit is extremely perishable, which is why so much of the crop is dried.

Dates

A dioecious palm: male and female trees are separate, so commercial groves plant one male per 50 or so females and pollinate by hand or with blowers, a practice depicted in Assyrian reliefs almost 3,000 years old. Palms begin bearing at 4 to 8 years, peak around 10 to 15, and can crop for a century, producing 50 to 150 kg per tree per year.

They demand extreme heat and dryness. The traditional description is that the date palm wants its feet in water and its head in the fire: it needs a high water table or irrigation, and rain or humidity at ripening splits and rots the fruit, so the great date regions are hot desert oases. Bunches are bagged to protect from rain, birds, and insects.

Dates ripen through named stages that appear in the trade: kimri (green, hard), khalal (full size, crisp, yellow or red, edible in some varieties), rutab (soft, partly browned, peak flavour), and tamr (fully dried, dark, shelf-stable). Most exported dates are rutab or tamr.

Drying

Sulphur dioxide treatment is used to preserve colour in apricots, golden raisins, apples, and mango. It preserves vitamin C too. Sulphites can trigger asthma in sensitive people, so it must be declared. The rule of thumb: bright orange apricots are sulphured, brown ones are not. The brown ones taste more concentrated and are the honest product.

4. What is inside them

Per 100 g:

The important comparisons:

• Dried figs are the calcium standout, at 162 mg per 100 g, which is high for a plant food and unusual among fruits.
• Dried apricots are the potassium and vitamin A standout, at over 1,100 mg potassium (more than double a banana per 100 g) and 72 percent of a day's vitamin A.
• Dates are essentially sugar with fibre and potassium. A single Medjool date is about 66 kcal and 16 g of sugar, which is roughly four teaspoons.
• Dried cranberries are the outlier and not in a good way. Cranberries are too sour to dry and eat, so they are infused with sugar syrup first. Most of the 65 g of sugar per 100 g is added, and the potassium and micronutrients are negligible compared with other dried fruit. They are a confection.

Fresh figs are notable for a good calcium content for a fresh fruit and for their fibre, much of which is in the seeds.

5. What they do in your body

Sugar delivery. Dried fruit sugar arrives fast, in a sticky matrix, in a small volume. The glycaemic index of dates is moderate (around 42 to 55 depending on variety), lower than the sugar content suggests, because of the fibre and the polyphenols. The glycaemic load of a handful is substantial simply because of quantity.

Fibre and laxative effect. Prunes (Chapter 25), figs, and dried apricots are all effective for constipation, and figs have small trial support in constipation-predominant IBS. Fig fibre, sorbitol content, and the ficin enzyme all plausibly contribute.

Teeth. This is the genuine and under-discussed harm. Dried fruit is sticky, adheres to tooth surfaces, and clears slowly, so it produces a prolonged acid attack. Each exposure to fermentable carbohydrate drops plaque pH for 20 to 30 minutes; dried fruit extends that window. Dried fruit eaten as grazing snacks through the day is genuinely worse for teeth than the same sugar eaten at a meal, and considerably worse than the equivalent fresh fruit. Dentists rank it alongside confectionery for cariogenic potential.

Potassium. Dried fruit is among the most potassium-dense food available, which is beneficial for blood pressure and a specific problem in advanced kidney disease.

Dates in late pregnancy have a small but interesting evidence base: several randomised trials, mostly from the Middle East and Iran, found that eating around six dates a day in the final four weeks of pregnancy was associated with more favourable cervical ripening, shorter first-stage labour, and reduced need for induction. A 2021 systematic review found the evidence promising and the trials small and of mixed quality. It is a low-risk thing to try and not an established treatment.

6. What the evidence actually shows

Established: dried fruit is calorie- and nutrient-dense, and drying concentrates everything including sugar. Sulphites in dried fruit trigger asthma in sensitive people.

Strong: dried fruit consumption is associated with better diet quality and, in cohort studies, with lower obesity and better nutrient intake, which is confounded by the kind of people who eat it. Dried fruit is effective for constipation.

Mixed: dates for shortening labour; figs for IBS-C; dried fruit for bone health (the fig calcium and prune evidence).

Thin: any claim that dried fruit sugar is metabolically different from other sugar in a way that makes quantity irrelevant. It is whole-food sugar with fibre, which is better than sweets, and it is still a large sugar load in a small volume.

7. Who should eat more, who should be careful

Good for: endurance athletes (dates are close to an ideal natural energy gel and perform comparably to commercial gels in trials), anyone with constipation, people who need calorie-dense food (older adults with poor appetite, people recovering from illness), and anyone wanting a whole-food sweetener.

Be careful if:

• You have diabetes. Dried fruit is concentrated sugar. Portion it deliberately, and eat it with nuts or yoghurt.
• You are managing weight. A 100 g bag of dried mango is around 320 kcal and eats like nothing. Dried fruit has almost no satiety per calorie compared with fresh.
• You have asthma or sulphite sensitivity. Choose unsulphured (brown) apricots, dark raisins, and check labels.
• You have kidney disease. Very high potassium.
• You have IBS. Dried fruit is high-FODMAP across the board: raisins, dates, figs, apricots, and prunes all concentrate fructose and sorbitol.
• Your teeth. Eat dried fruit with meals rather than grazing, and rinse afterwards.
• Mould and aflatoxin. Dried figs in particular are monitored for aflatoxin, a carcinogenic mould toxin, and EU border rejections of figs are regular. Buy from reputable sources, discard any fruit that is discoloured or smells musty, and store dry (Chapter 92).

Ages. Whole dried fruit is a choking hazard for young children: raisins, whole dried apricots, and dates are all the wrong size and texture. Chop them. Date purée is a good natural sweetener for baby food. Dried fruit and toddler teeth is a well-recognised dental problem.

8. When and how to eat them

• Portion into a bowl. Nobody eats a measured amount of dried fruit from a bag.
• Pair with nuts. The classic combination works: fat and protein slow the sugar and add satiety, and the two are traditionally sold together for a reason.
• Use dates as a whole-food sweetener. Blended date paste replaces sugar and syrup in baking, energy balls, and sauces, and brings fibre and potassium with it.
• Soak them. Hard dried fruit rehydrates in hot water, tea, or alcohol in 20 to 30 minutes, which transforms both texture and how much you eat.
• Fresh figs are best barely touched: halved with cheese, honey, or prosciutto, or briefly roasted. They bruise instantly and last two or three days at most.
• Ficin in fresh figs, like bromelain and papain (Chapter 28), digests protein: fresh figs tenderise meat and will prevent gelatine from setting.
• The fig skin is edible and is where most of the polyphenols are, particularly in dark varieties, where the skin contains anthocyanins.
• Dates as sports fuel: two or three Medjool dates supply roughly 35 g of carbohydrate, which is the standard hourly intake target for endurance exercise.

9. Choosing and storing

Fresh figs: heavy for size, soft but not mushy, with a slightly split or "smiling" skin, which indicates ripeness rather than damage. A drop of syrup at the ostiole is a good sign. They do not ripen after picking (figs are technically climacteric but improve very little), they last two to three days refrigerated, and they should be brought to room temperature to eat.

Dates: should be plump and glossy with slightly wrinkled skin. White crystalline patches are sugar crystallising out, not mould, and are harmless. Fuzzy grey or green growth is mould. Medjool dates are sold semi-dried and should be soft; Deglet Noor are firmer and drier.

Dried fruit generally: should be pliable, not rock hard, and should smell of the fruit. Store in a sealed container in a cool dark place for up to a year, or in the fridge or freezer for longer, which also keeps it softer.

10. The varieties worth knowing

Figs: Black Mission (dark purple-black, sweet, good fresh and dried), Brown Turkey (the common garden and supermarket fig, mild), Kadota (green-skinned, amber flesh), Calimyrna/Smyrna (nutty, the classic dried fig, requires caprification), Adriatic (green skin, bright red flesh).

Dates:

11. Myths and confusions

Don't be confused: dried fruit is not "just fruit." Removing the water concentrates everything by four to six times, and it also removes the volume that would have made you stop eating. A cup of grapes and a cup of raisins are not comparable portions; a cup of raisins is roughly five cups of grapes.

• "Figs contain dead wasps." Common figs need no wasp at all. Smyrna figs do, and the wasp is completely digested by the fig's own enzymes. There is no insect in your fig.
• "Dates are a healthy sugar." They are sugar with fibre, potassium, and polyphenols attached, which makes them better than table sugar and still sugar.
• "Dried fruit sugar does not count because it is natural." WHO free-sugar guidance specifically excludes sugars in intact fruit and includes those in dried fruit only partially; the practical point is that dried fruit is easy to over-eat.
• "White spots on dates are mould." Sugar crystals.
• "Sulphur-free dried apricots have gone off." Brown is the natural colour of a dried apricot. Orange is the treated one.
• "Figs are a good source of protein." No fruit is.

12. The bottom line

• A fig is a bag of inward-facing flowers. Most figs you buy need no wasp; the ones that do dissolve it entirely with their own enzymes.
• Dates are among the most energy-dense whole foods available, roughly two thirds sugar by weight, with genuinely useful fibre and potassium. They work extremely well as endurance fuel and as a whole-food sweetener.
• Drying concentrates everything four- to sixfold and removes the volume that would have stopped you eating. Portion it out rather than eating from the bag.
• Dried figs are a notable calcium source; dried apricots are exceptional for potassium and vitamin A; dried cranberries are mostly added sugar.
• The two real cautions are teeth (sticky, slow-clearing, prolonged acid attack) and, for a minority, sulphites in the bright-coloured products.

Sources and notes

Composition figures are from USDA FoodData Central; production figures are approximate FAOSTAT values for the early 2020s. The Gilgal parthenocarpic fig finding is Kislev, Hartmann, and Bar-Yosef, Science, 2006. Fig-wasp mutualism, caprification, and ficin digestion of the wasp follow Janzen's and Cook and Rasplus' work on Ficus pollination. Date palm cultivation, hand pollination, and the kimri/khalal/rutab/tamr stages follow FAO date palm publications and Zaid's Date Palm Cultivation. Drying methods, sulphur dioxide treatment, and sulphite labelling thresholds follow EFSA and FSA guidance. Aflatoxin in dried figs is a recurring subject of EU Rapid Alert System notifications and EFSA assessments. Dates in late pregnancy follow Al-Kuran et al., Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2011, and the 2021 systematic review by Nasiri et al., which found the trials small and of mixed quality. Dried fruit and dental caries follows the cariology literature on retentive sugars. Dates as endurance fuel follow comparative trials against commercial gels. Infant botulism from honey follows CDC and NHS guidance.

Open questions. The dates-in-late-pregnancy trials are almost all small, regionally clustered, and at risk of bias, so the finding is promising rather than established. How much of dried fruit's association with better diet quality is the fruit and how much is the person eating it is unresolved.

👉 Next: the tropical fruits most people have never bought.