Thanks to Papa John for sending me this info and reigniting my love affair with dates.

Dates have always been up there with beer and chicken wings on my list of favorite foods and I’m sure that I came near to overdosing on them a few times when I lived in Vancouver in the early 90s – an Iranian friend (he knew his dates) and I used to do epically long walks on our days off that always passed by a Bean Around The World, where we would drink coffee and gorge ourselves on date squares.

I have nibbled on them ever since and have used them as cycling fuel over the years, not really bothering to actually think about what was in them because, dammit, they just taste so good anyway. Then good ol’ John sent me over a Facebook post that did just that, comparing them very favorably with gels (I’ve checked The Googles to confirm the numbers).

The Coles Notes version of that post is that two medjool dates (the big, juicy ones) have as many carbs as a gel, plus a whole host of other good stuff, like magnesium, potassium, and fiber, that at least my SIS gel doesn’t have. Oh, and I just bought a kilogram of them for around €7.

The problem for me is limiting myself to just two…I had 8 on my ride yesterday.