First Olympic medal
Figs are ancient fruits that for millennia have played a very important role in the diet of the Mediterranean basin. As long as the manufacture of sugar did not exist, they played their role for the preservation of cooked fruits.
A few fresh or dried figs offer a snack or an energy-recovering snack after training or simply provide a nourishing meal if they are accompanied by a good glass of milk… with fig juice and generous slices of cereal bread.
It is said that the first Olympic athletes consumed figs to gain more strength and agility.
They were presented as laurels to the winners and thus became the first Olympic “medals”. “Food for athletes, par excellence” confirmed Plato, a Greek philosopher and great lover of figs.
Fresh or dry?
If you pick the figs directly from the tree, you will have white, black, red, purple or bicolor fruits, with a somewhat thick and very soft skin, a sweet pulp, crunchy pips and a fragrant smell.
The skin of the figs is edible, no need to peel them. It’s up to you to bite into them! If you buy them, opt for those placed in crates with cells that protect them during transport. Choose figs that are dense, firm, not too soft, with smooth skin. The wrinkles attest that the fruits have begun to dry. It’s already a bit late.
Very fragile, figs keep for a short time at room temperature, around three to four days. Putting them in a dish covered with a tea towel in the vegetable drawer will prolong their life by a few hours, but don’t leave them too long in the refrigerator.
Do not forget to take them out of the fridge a good thirty minutes before eating them because cold figs have less taste, or cook them. There is no shortage of recipe ideas to accommodate them sweet or savory.
In the musette, in a biscuit or a cake, in a granola mix or a tagine, the dried figs combine pleasantly with the cuisine of athletes. The drying process concentrates all their nutritional elements, from carbohydrates to vitamins, from minerals to digestive fibers. For example :
- 30 g of dried figs fulfill an honorable share of the Nutritional References for the Population (RNP) in potassium. This plays a fundamental role in nerve transmission and muscle contraction.
- Another point to emphasize is its richness in calcium, which is essential for bone reinforcement and the regulation of muscle contraction.
- In energy support during endurance efforts or recovery from sports sessions, figs with carbohydrate preponderance renew liver and muscle glycogen.
Average nutritional composition given as an indication
| 100 g of fig | Fresh raw | Dried |
| Energy (kcal) | 69.4 | 238 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 13.5 including 12.2 g of sugars (6 g of glucose and 6.2 g of fructose) | 54.3 dont 49.2 g of sugars (25 g of glucose and 23.5 g of fructose) |
| Water (g) | 80.2 | 30.1 |
| Protein (g) | 1.19 | 2.99 |
| Lipides (g) | < 0.5 | 0.87 |
| Potassium (mg) | 230 | 845 |
| Calcium (mg) | 57 | 167 |
| Magnesium (mg) | 22 | 52.5 |
| Fer (mg) | 0.27 | 2.12 |
| Phosphore (mg) | 21 | 75.1 |
| Vit C (mg) | < 0.5 | 1.2 |
| Vit B1 (mg) | < 0.015 | 0.085 |
| Vit B2 (mg) | < 0.01 | 0.096 |
| Vit B3 (mg) | 0.37 | 0.68 |
| Vit B5 (mg) | 0.15 | 0.43 |
| Vit B6 (µg) | 0.059 | 0.11 |
| Vit B9 (µg) | 24.5 | 9 |
| Dietary fiber (g) | 4.1 | 9.72 |
Good tasting,
Dominique POULAIN, Sports Nutritionist Dietitian: http://www.nutritionniste-dieteticien.fr