Date Brownies

You won’t believe that these moist and rich Date Brownies are sweetened only with dates and a bit of honey!

Dates are a miraculous fruit. They are an excellent source of:

• energy
• fiber
• essential minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, magnesium and zinc
• vitamins such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, vitamin’s A and K

The nut butter in these brownies also makes them a good source of protein.

Now, let’s compare all that yummy goodness to a popular boxed brownie mix made by Betty Crocker…

Sugar: Just one of these brownies contains 19 grams of highly refined, white sugar- that’s almost 5 teaspoons of sugar! It is recommended to have no more than 6 teaspoons in an entire day.

White flour: highly processed, bleached, and stripped of most of the nutritional aspects of the grain. It raises your risk for diabetes and obesity as well as many other preventable diseases.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil: also called “trans fats,” these are one of the most toxic substances you can put in your body, even in small amounts. In June of 2015, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) determined, based on extensive research, that these oils are “not Generally Recognized as Safe.” The FDA announced,

“On June 16, 2015, the FDA took action that will significantly reduce the use of Partially Hydrogenated Oils (PHOs), the major source of artificial trans fats in the food supply. This action is expected to reduce coronary heart disease and prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks each year in the United States. The FDA has set a compliance date of three years.”

This means that within 3 years of the FDA announcement, trans-fats will be banned from the food supply in the United States.

Harvard School of Public Health notes that trans-fats promote immune system over-activity and inflammation and are linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes, among other chronic diseases.

Artificial vanilla flavouring: also extremely toxic, artificial flavoring is known to cause, dizziness, chest pain, headaches, fatigue, allergies, brain damage, nervous system depression, seizures, nausea, and cancer.

Yikes! That’s all pretty scary.

So move aside, toxic brownie mixes!