A Mediterranean Fruit High In Magnesium Is Also Packed With Fiber And Potassium

It's hard to overestimate the importance of protecting your heart. After all, it works 24/7. If you're an average, healthy person, you can expect your heart to circulate around five to six liters of blood each minute. And if you're exercising, that figure can jump nearly eightfold (per the Cleveland Clinic.)

Since it's generally a sturdy, resilient muscle, the heart can keep pumping for about 80 years — give or take a few years based on multiple variables, including your nutritional choices. For this reason, you may want to consider adding more cardioprotective nutrients into your diet. Three top choices are magnesium, potassium, and fiber, which are all conveniently available in dried figs, a Mediterranean fruit that's compact, sweet, and nutritionally dense.

For every cup of dried figs you eat, you'll enjoy 101 milligrams of magnesium, 1,010 milligrams of potassium, and 14.6 grams of fiber. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, adults should try to consume between 310 milligrams and 420 milligrams of magnesium, between 2,600 milligrams and 3,400 milligrams of potassium, and between 28 grams and 34 grams of fiber a day.

Magnesium plays a pivotal part in hundreds of body functions, including keeping your heart ticking thanks to adequately performing muscles. In fact, if you were to consistently take in too little magnesium, you might develop heart problems, since magnesium keeps your heart rhythm healthy. A 2024 review in Nutrients noted the strong correlation between magnesium deficiency and cardiovascular disease. The review added that studies on animals and humans have revealed that when magnesium intake drops, blood pressure rises. Elevated blood pressure can boost your risk of a heart condition.

(Read about the biggest warning signs of a magnesium deficiency.)

Potassium also protects your heart. When you're getting enough potassium, your body can usher excess sodium out of your system more efficiently, ultimately helping your veins and arteries to relax. In turn, this can help you lower your chances of experiencing a stroke by up to 25%, depending upon how much potassium you consume. (Just be careful and talk to your doctor if you have any issues with your kidneys, as ingesting higher-than-normal levels of potassium may be unwise.)

Fiber is the third nutrient in dried figs that can help you maintain a normal blood pressure level for your age. Increasing fiber intake by just 5 grams beyond average levels has been shown to cause a subtle but significant drop in blood pressure, according to a 2024 article in Hypertension. A 2023 review published in Cureus found likewise and supported further research to determine exact dosages to deliver predictable blood-pressure-lowering results.

In the meantime, be aware that dried figs do have a downside: their sugar content. A cup of dried figs contains 71.4 grams of sugar (mostly made up of glucose and fructose). That's way beyond the cap of 25 grams (for women) and 36 grams (for men) suggested by the American Heart Association. 

With that said, fruit sugars may not be quite as harmful to your system as other sugars. As registered dietitian Beth Czerwony noted in a Cleveland Clinic article, "Unless you have diabetes or another health condition where you need to monitor blood sugar levels, you're probably not eating enough fruit for the sugar in it to be a concern." If you're really concerned that high-sugar fruits like dried figs will cause your blood sugar to skyrocket, Czerwony says to partner the fruit with a protein-filled food like yogurt to minimize sugar spikes.