HEALTH – Move over, goji berries!

Jujube fruit, or Chinese red dates, are packed with health benefits.

They are less sweet than normal dates and have half the sugar and calories.

They’ve been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years to help insomnia.

Health fanatics have been using dates as a natural sweetener in nutritious desserts for the last few years – but the dried fruit still contains a lot of sugar.

Now a little-known Asian fruit known as a Chinese red date could become the new favourite snack of healthy eating bloggers as it contains half the calories and sugar of a regular date.

Jujube fruit are called red dates because of how similar they look and taste to Middle-Eastern brown dates.

But the soft and chewy Asian powerhouse is not only richer in healthy antioxidants, it also contain 32 times the vitamin C.

A portion of three dates has 54 calories and 12g of sugar on average, while three jujube fruits contain 28 calories and 6g of sugar.

A portion of three dates contains 54 calories and 12g on sugar on average.

Three red dates meanwhile – which are said to be less sweet than a normal date – contain just 28 calories and 6g of sugar.

With 13mg of vitamin C compared to just 0.4mg in dates, jujube fruit has 32 times as much vitamin C.

They also contain 18 out of 24 amino acids which help with the formation of proteins in the body.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
Imogen Blake for Mailonline