This post's title promises easy weight loss from a raw diet. The older raw menu on this page leaned on two foods that never need cooking: nuts and dried fruit. The older version of this post praised both, almonds as a snack and Medjool dates as the glue in a raw chocolate cake. So it is fair to ask how many calories each one brings, and whether the number printed on the label is the number your body actually gets.
A label number is a calculation
The calories on a food label are worked out from the food's fat, protein and carbohydrate using the Atwater factors, a standard set of multipliers. A team at the US Department of Agriculture's Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center tested how well that works for almonds. Novotny, Gebauer and Baer published the study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2012 (PubMed 22760558).
Eighteen healthy adults ate a controlled diet for 18 days at a time, with 0, 42 or 84g of almonds a day, and everyone went through all three versions. In the last nine days of each period the volunteers collected all urine and faeces, so the researchers could measure how much energy from the almonds stayed in the body.
What the almond study found
The measured figure was 4.6 kcal per gram, or 129 kcal for a 28g serving. The Atwater factors gave 6.0 to 6.1 kcal per gram, which is 168 to 170 kcal a serving. In plain terms, the standard method overstated the energy people got from these almonds by 32%.
The authors draw a narrow conclusion. They say the Atwater factors are inaccurate for certain applications and that their method lets the energy value of a single food be measured inside a mixed diet. They do not claim almonds cause weight loss, and the trial did not test that.
Almonds next to dates, gram for gram
USDA FoodData Central lists 100g of almonds at 579 kcal, with 49.9g of fat, 21.2g of protein and 12.5g of fibre. The same weight of Medjool dates is listed at 277 kcal, with 66.5g of total sugars, 0.15g of fat, 1.81g of protein and 6.7g of fibre.
Take a 28g handful of each. By the table, the almonds come to about 162 kcal and the Medjool to about 78 kcal. Even if you use the lower 129 kcal that Novotny's team measured, the almonds still bring around 50 kcal more than the same weight of dates. The trial measured almonds only. The date figure here is the ordinary table value, and nobody should assume it shrinks the same way.
So the two foods sit in different places. Almonds are mostly fat and protein, and their real energy may be lower than the label says. Medjool dates are two-thirds sugar by weight with almost no fat, and a small weight already carries a fair number of calories.
Using both on a raw plate
The NHS counts a 30g portion of dried fruit, and it names dates, as 1 of your 5 A Day. It adds that dried fruit should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. That rules out the habit of picking at dates all afternoon. A few with breakfast, or chopped into a raw dessert eaten after lunch, fits the advice better.
The older post also recommended almonds as a savoury snack and pointed readers to a page where they could find more information. If you snack on nuts, weighing out a 28g portion once shows you how small it is.
A raw cake bound with Medjool dates and topped with chopped almonds is still a dense food. The almond study makes one part of it a little lighter than the label suggests. It does not make the cake a weight-loss food.
Finding dates in Malaysia
The about us page for Kurma Mazafati Bam mentions prices for retail and wholesale buyers, delivery across Malaysia and customer service on WhatsApp. The contact form is unavailable for now, so the contact us page lists the WhatsApp number for a quote. There are more articles on the blog.
This article is general information, not personal advice. If you plan a big change to the way you eat, speak to your GP or a dietitian first.