Food Intelligence · Fruit

Dates Glycemic Index and Calculate Your Own Glucose Response

Across 1,081 single-item logs where 636 Signos members ate a date alone, the average glucose peak was +35.2 mg/dL — moderate-to-high territory for a dried fruit carrying concentrated sugar. Stuff a Medjool with almond butter and the peak drops to +32.5 mg/dL; chop one into overnight oats and it climbs to +43.4 mg/dL. The fork in the road is what you put with it.

GS
Reviewed by Grace Shryack
Signos Proprietary Data·Updated May 20, 2026·10 min read

● Powered by Signos cohort dataHigh confidence · n=1,081
The swap calculator below draws on 7,742 matched-pair logs — a broader cohort than the page's single-item primary, used to give every ingredient swap statistical power. Welch's t-test on matched pairs, not third-party glycemic-index tables. Each swap shows its sample size and confidence tier inline.
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Tap any ingredient below to swap it for a glucose-friendlier alternative. Your Signos Glucose Score, predicted curve, and nutrition update in real-time. Every swap is data-backed by real CGM response measurements.

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Meal Context
Pre-meal sequence
Activity after meal
Time of day
53
of 100
Signos Glucose Score
High Spike Risk
75% of members fall between +32 and +46 mg/dL
Predicted Curve · 3-hr window
1401001201401601800m30m60m90m120m150m180m+39
Peak
+39
mg/dL
Time in Range
100%
3hr window
Above 140
0m
danger zone
Swaps
0
applied
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● Key Findings · Do dates spike blood sugar?

Yes — across 1,081 single-item logs where members ate a date alone, the average glucose peak was +35.2 mg/dL, with 53.2% of responses exceeding the +30 mg/dL threshold. Across our single-item cohort of 1,081 date logs from 636 unique members, the mean glucose peak was +35.2 mg/dL — moderate-to-high territory and one of the higher means in the fruit category. Dates are dried fruit, and concentrated sugar is the core driver: a single Medjool carries ~16g of fast-digest fructose and glucose. The conventional GI of 29 understates the real-world response because the 25g reference serving doesn't match how members typically eat them. Three levers shape the variance: total meal carb load (the single biggest factor, at +36% when the meal hits ≥60g carbs), what you stuff or pair the date with (almond/peanut butter trims −4 mg/dL across 1,498 logs), and form (Medjool anchors highest at +37.8 mg/dL; date syrup lowest at +31.4 mg/dL). The IQR spans 26 mg/dL (p25: +21, p75: +47).

  • Total carb load is the dominant lever: meals with ≥60g carbs spiked ~36% higher than the low-carb baseline (n=2,199, p<0.001) — bigger than any other modifier tested in the form-tagged cohort.
  • Stuffed-date pairings are the most-effective trim: dates with almond or peanut butter averaged +32.5 mg/dL across 1,498 matched logs — a −4 mg/dL reduction vs. dates alone (high confidence).
  • The overnight-oats stack runs hot: chopped dates in oats averaged +43.4 mg/dL across 258 logs — a +7 mg/dL premium over dates alone, the highest pairing in the builder (medium confidence).
  • Form matters within dates too: Medjool anchors at +37.8 mg/dL (n=3,013); Deglet Noor at +34.9 mg/dL (n=184); date syrup at +31.4 mg/dL (n=342) — a 6.4 mg/dL spread across the variety axis.
● Signos Rules

Three citable insights from this recipe's data

Rule 1
"The Stuffed-Date Discount"
−4 mg/dL peak
Stuffing a date with almond or peanut butter drops the average peak from 36.8 to 32.5 mg/dL across 1,498 matched logs (high confidence) — the largest single modifier in the builder. The keto-dessert classic and the energy-ball binder both rely on this exact pattern: a small fat-and-protein dose alongside concentrated sugar. The mechanism is gastric emptying: fat and protein slow it, blunting the fructose absorption curve. Goat-cheese-and-bacon appetizer stuffing (n=215) tracked similarly at −3 mg/dL (medium confidence).
Rule 2
"The Carb-Load Penalty"
+42% peak
Across the broader form-tagged cohort, when dates appear in meals carrying ≥60g of total carbs, the glucose response jumps ~36% above the low-carb baseline — a CI of [+10.32, +12.44] mg/dL across 2,199 high-carb meals (p<0.001). Very heavy meals (110g+ carbs) averaged +45.0 mg/dL versus +31.7 mg/dL in the light-carb bucket — a 42% escalation. Eating one date as a small snack largely sidesteps this; chopping multiple dates into a sweetened oatmeal compounds it.
Rule 3
"The Overnight-Oats Penalty"
+7 mg/dL vs. alone
Chopped dates in overnight oats — the wellness-Instagram breakfast — averaged +43.4 mg/dL across 258 matched logs (medium confidence), a +7 mg/dL premium over the dates-alone baseline of +36.8 mg/dL. The date's concentrated sugar stacks onto the oats' additional 20–30g of carbs, and the combined fast-and-slow carb load drives the peak. Stuffing the date with nut butter and eating it alone is the cohort-validated low-spike alternative.
● Curious about your own?

Curious how your body responds to dates specifically?

Across 1,081 single-item logs where members ate a date alone, the average peak was +35.2 mg/dL and the IQR spans 26 mg/dL — from +21 mg/dL at the 25th percentile to +47 mg/dL at the 75th. That's a wide range for a single food. Your response depends on what you stuff or pair the date with, the variety (Medjool vs. Deglet Noor), your meal's total carb load, and your baseline glucose. A CGM makes that variability visible in real time.

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Why this meal spikes

This meal stacks 3 independent spike drivers — together they account for +38 mg/dL.

Driver 1
Concentrated sugar (~16g per Medjool date)
+38 mg/dL
A single Medjool date carries ~16g of natural sugars (fructose + glucose) in a small, dried package. This is the dominant driver of the +37.8 mg/dL Medjool anchor across 3,013 logs — dried fruit concentrates what fresh fruit dilutes with water.
Driver 2
Total meal carb load (≥60g at the same sitting)
+12 mg/dL
When total meal carbs hit ≥60g, peak rises ~36% above the low-carb baseline (n=2,199, p<0.001) in the form-tagged cohort. Very heavy meals (110g+ carbs) push the average to +45.0 mg/dL — a 42% escalation vs. light-carb meals.
Driver 3
High-sugar meal context (≥20g sugar)
+9 mg/dL
In 4,580 meals flagged for high sugar content (≥20g), peaks ran ~28% higher than the 875-meal low-sugar baseline (p<0.001, CI: [+7.28, +9.89] mg/dL), compounding the date's own concentrated fructose load.
● Which bucket are you in?

Some members spike +31.7 mg/dL. Others spike +45. The only way to know how you'll spike is to measure with a Signos CGM.

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What surprised us
What surprised us about dates is how much the stuffing matters. Across 1,498 matched logs, the almond-butter stuffed Medjool — the keto-dessert classic — averaged +32.5 mg/dL, while the same date eaten plain averaged +36.8 mg/dL. That's a −4 mg/dL discount for a small dose of nut butter. The cohort makes the case that dates aren't a binary 'eat them / don't eat them' food — they're a 'eat them with fat or protein' food. The Instagram-friendly chopped-into-oats build runs the opposite direction at +43.4 mg/dL.
Signos Data Science Team

Why this happens, physiologically

Dates produce a mean peak of +35.2 mg/dL across 1,081 single-item meals where members ate one alone — moderate-to-high territory among fruit pages, reflecting that dates are dried, sugar-concentrated rather than fresh. The IQR spans 26 mg/dL (p25: +21, p75: +47), showing wide individual variability. Three levers explain most of that range in the broader 7,742-meal cohort. First, total meal carb load dominates: meals with ≥60g of carbs spike 36% higher than the low-carb baseline (n=2,199, p<0.001), and very heavy meals (110g+ carbs) average +45.0 mg/dL — a 42% escalation. Second, the stuffed-date pairings cut measurably: almond/peanut butter drops the peak −4 mg/dL across 1,498 matched logs. Third, the overnight-oats pairing adds +7 mg/dL on 258 logs by stacking carb loads. These effects are observational from matched-pair Welch's t-tests, not controlled trials.

● Three mechanisms drive a date's glucose range

Carb load, nut-butter pairing, and oats stacking together explain the 42% escalation seen in the cohort

  1. Mechanism 1
    +42%
    Carb-load escalation
    Light-carb meals (0–40g) averaged +31.7 mg/dL; very heavy meals (110g+ carbs) averaged +45.0 mg/dL — a 42% escalation across 3,813 vs 511 logs in the form-tagged cohort.
  2. Mechanism 2
    −4 mg/dL
    Nut-butter stuffing
    Pairing a date with almond or peanut butter dropped the mean peak from 36.8 to 32.5 mg/dL across 1,498 matched logs (high confidence). Fat and protein slow gastric emptying, blunting the rate of glucose entry from the concentrated date sugar.
  3. Mechanism 3
    +7 mg/dL
    Oats stacking
    Chopped dates in overnight oats averaged +43.4 mg/dL across 258 logs — a +7 mg/dL premium over dates alone. The oats add 20–30g of additional carbs that compound with the date's concentrated sugar.
● Fit Check
Dates are concentrated sugar in a small package — the cohort shows the entire glycemic story is about what you pair them with.
This is for you if
  • You eat dates stuffed with almond or peanut butter. Stuffed-date logs averaged +32.5 mg/dL — a −4 mg/dL reduction vs. dates alone (n=1,498, high confidence).
  • You stop at one Medjool. Single-item logs averaged +35.2 mg/dL with an average carb load of 31g, vs. 55g for multi-item meals containing dates (n=6,349).
  • You serve them as a goat-cheese-and-bacon appetizer. The keto-appetizer form averaged +34.3 mg/dL across 215 matched logs (−3 mg/dL vs. dates alone, medium confidence).
  • You use date syrup as a drizzle, not whole Medjools. Date syrup averaged +31.4 mg/dL (n=342, medium confidence) — the lowest form mean, largely a portion-size effect.
Not for you if
  • You chop dates into overnight oats. That pairing averaged +43.4 mg/dL across 258 matched logs — a +7 mg/dL premium over dates alone (medium confidence).
  • You eat dates as part of a high-carb meal (≥60g total carbs). That load increases the glucose response by ~36% — a CI of +10.32 to +12.44 mg/dL above the low-carb baseline (n=2,199).
  • You eat dates at dinner. Dinner logs averaged +39.0 mg/dL (n=1,970) — the highest meal-time average in the cohort, ~7 mg/dL above the snack-window average.
  • You eat several Medjools in a sitting. Multi-item meals containing dates averaged 55g of carbs vs. 31g for single-item logs — the portion math compounds quickly.
● How it fits your day

Calorie band and pairings (member-measured)

Per serving
139–507 kcal
Single date alone averages 139 kcal with 31g carbs; multi-item meals containing dates averaged 507 kcal with 55g carbs across 6,349 logged meals.
Pair before
  • Stuff the date with 1 tsp almond or peanut butter: treatment mean dropped to +32.5 mg/dL vs +36.8 mg/dL baseline across 1,498 paired logs (−4 mg/dL).
  • Keep total meal carbs under 40g: light-carb builds averaged +31.7 mg/dL vs +45.0 mg/dL for very-heavy (110g+) — a 42% swing.
Pair after
  • A 10-min walk within 30 min of eating blunts carb-driven peaks — relevant given 53.2% of single-item date logs exceeded +30 mg/dL.
  • Avoid stacking high-carb sides post-date: meals with ≥60g total carbs spiked ~36% higher than the low-carb baseline (n=2,199, p<0.001).
Avoid pairing
  • Chopping dates into overnight oats: that build averaged +43.4 mg/dL — a +7 mg/dL premium over dates alone (n=258, medium confidence).
  • Eating dates at dinner: dinner logs averaged +39.0 mg/dL (n=1,970) — the highest meal-time window in the cohort.
● Quick definitions (click to expand)
mg/dL — milligrams per deciliter. The unit blood glucose is measured in. A rise of "+30 mg/dL above baseline" means blood sugar went up 30 units after the meal.
Glycemic Index (GI) — a 0–100 score for how fast a food raises blood sugar in lab tests. Under 55 = low, 56–69 = medium, 70+ = high.
Glycemic Load (GL) — GI adjusted for portion size. Under 10 = low, 10–19 = medium, 20+ = high.
CGM — Continuous Glucose Monitor. A wearable sensor that tracks blood glucose every few minutes. Signos members wear CGMs while eating meals they log.
● Related Foods: How dates compare to other sweeteners and snacks — and what the CGM data says about each

Frequently Asked Questions

Methodology

This page is grounded in 7,742 logged meals containing dates from 2,168 unique Signos members, captured through the Signos production PPGR cohort. The page-primary cohort is the single-item cut: 1,081 meals where a date was logged alone, from 636 unique members, with a mean peak of +35.2 mg/dL, median +32 mg/dL, and IQR p25 +21 / p75 +47 mg/dL. Data was filtered to meals with a measured glucose rise between 0 and 100 mg/dL (ppgr_case='regular') to exclude outliers and sensor artifacts. Statistical comparisons between modifier groups use Welch's t-test on matched pairs; all effects reported at p<0.05 minimum, with the dominant modifiers reaching p<0.001. Date logs were identified via a regex cohort match on "date" / "dates" with an aggressive exclusion list to filter out non-fruit uses (date night, due date, expiration date, date of birth, etc.). Date forms (Medjool, Deglet Noor, date syrup/molasses) and pairing categories (stuffed with nut butter, stuffed with goat cheese/bacon, in vegan baking, chopped into overnight oats) are identified by sub-form regex matching. A minimum of 100 matched meals was required for any modifier to appear in the recipe builder; smaller sub-cohorts are flagged at medium confidence in the calculator.

Limitations

  • Self-reported portion sizes introduce measurement error — '1 date' logged by one member may differ meaningfully in weight and sugar content from another's, particularly across Medjool vs. Deglet Noor varieties.
  • Cohort skews health-motivated; Signos members are actively monitoring glucose, so general population responses — particularly among people with greater insulin resistance — may differ.
  • Deglet Noor sub-cohort is modest (n=184, medium confidence); the −2.9 mg/dL delta versus Medjool is plausible but the precision is limited.
  • Overnight-oats and vegan-baking sub-cohorts are medium-confidence (n=258 and n=206 respectively); the +7 and −2 mg/dL deltas are directionally suggestive but should be interpreted as approximate.
  • The regex exclusion list filters explicit non-fruit uses of 'date' (date night, due date, etc.), but some calendar-context noise may remain in the cohort — directionally, the consistency of the modifier signals across high-N sub-cohorts (stuffed with nut butter, n=1,498) suggests the noise is small.
  • All findings are observational, not causal — confounders such as concurrent medications, activity levels, and sleep quality are not controlled for in the modifier analysis.
● Get your own data

See your own date response

Across 1,081 single-item logs where members ate a date alone, the average glucose peak was +35.2 mg/dL — but the IQR spans 26 mg/dL (p25: +21, p75: +47). That's not noise; it's biology. The almond-butter stuffing drops the peak −4 mg/dL; the overnight-oats stack adds +7 mg/dL; a very heavy carb load pushes the average to +45.0 mg/dL. Medjool runs higher than Deglet Noor, and date syrup runs lower than either. Only a CGM tells you which end of that range you live on.

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