FOOD VALUE OF THE DATE 205 



This analysis may be taken as a fair average for 

 dates. Some fruit will show as high as ninety per 

 cent, carbohydrates, others lower than the percentage 

 given in the analysis. The carbohydrates are made 

 up almost wholly of sugars of the hexose or six carbon 

 series, a small residuum being pectin bodies of the 

 pentose or five carbon series. 



The pectin bodies belong to the gums, and lead 

 to the jellying of the fresh cooked juice of the date or of 

 the sap from the plant. The hexose group of carbo- 

 hydrates, or sugars, are the principal food element, and 

 dates have been classified into two great groups, 

 according as they contain relatively large amounts of 

 cane sugar or invert sugar. As far as is known all 

 dates are originally cane sugar carriers, but some 

 varieties develop in relatively large quantities the 

 ferment invertase, which "inverts" the cane sugar, 

 the invert sugar being a mixture in molecular pro- 

 portions of levulose and dextrose, fruit sugar and 

 grape sugar respectively. The latter varieties form 

 typical predigested foods, as the molecules of invert 

 sugar can be absorbed directly and stored by the 

 animal economy without any preliminary digestion, 

 the invertase performing the function of a similarly 

 acting ferment in the intestinal tract. 



The protein and fat content, though small, is in a 

 readily available form, the protein as a builder and 

 the fat as a fuel. A man who includes two pounds of 

 dates as the bulk of a day's ration will not require much 

 additional protein, the physiological requirement 

 being approximately one gram per kilo of body weight 

 per day. In fact, a pure date dietary meets the require- 

 ment of many Arabs in every day activities for long 

 periods at a time, without the addition of any other food. 



