Hello Fellow J-Cook Users. I need to understand IF there is a difference between storing a date value in a Cook DATE Field Type or an Integer(10) field?

This is because I am coding / porting an existing PHP app to a Cook Component and will be using a great deal of the existing code (logic) in the new Component. Should I stick with the existing PHP code of using Integer(10) for dates and date calculations OR create them as Cook Date Field Types?

Thank you,

Ed.