Are you tired of avoiding vegetables because of their taste or lack of benefits? Look no further than sweet potatoes.
Most of the time sweet potatoes are overlooked in favor of other vegetables, but they offer a wealth of benefits that make them well worth incorporating into your diet.
Well in this article, I’ll tell you about sweet potatoes, a vegetable you will want to become friends with, and the incredible effects they have on our bodies that you’ve probably not heard of.
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash
Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet versatile root vegetables. They exist in different forms, white, purple, and orange-like. Originally grown and widely consumed in central and south Americas, Africa, Hawai, Caribbean people, the Maori people, and the Papua New Guineans.
Not only are they sweet and delicious, but they are also packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants that can help boost your overall health and well-being. And this is how they do it
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They Are A High Source Of Energy
They are a good source of fiber that can help you keep full and satisfied for a long while, providing you with the amount of energy your body requires.
They are low in calories (100 grams of sweet potatoes contain only 38 calories), making them a great choice for weight management. All you need is just substitute your carbs with sweet potatoes.
This is the reason why it is considered the perfect carbs substitute.
They Are Good Alternatives To Synthesized Food Coloring Agents
These root vegetables contain beta-carotene that, combined with the high stability of the color extract may be a perfect and healthier alternative to synthetic food coloring agents, which with time tend to cause damage to the body.
Orange sweet potatoes have the highest amount of beta-carotene, thus mostly used for this purpose.
Studies are still going on to prove it.
They Are Cheap And Can Increase Your Economy
Furthermore, you don’t have to spend that much to enjoy the benefits of this food. It’s relatively cheap, so even do some savings and you eat healthily! What a win right?
This same food can make you win side money. You can simply transform it into flour for better conservation and sell it at 4 times the price you bought it. Being the food of fashion nowadays, people won’t hesitate to buy, especially fitness athletes, cooks who want to innovate their cuisine, or simple individuals.
It will not only increase your income but also healthier nutrition in the population.
They Improve Muscle Building
The rich, earthy flavor of a perfectly baked sweet potato can give all the benefits of healthy muscles. Fitness coaches advise sweet potatoes as pre-workout or post due to their rich nutritious properties, which would help them:
- burn fat as they are fiber-rich
- build muscle as they are rich in fiber
- boost their metabolic activity as they are high in water
During exercise, it would enable you to keep up the maximum performance, thanks to the presence of potassium, a mineral salt that manages sweating, nerve functioning, and blood pressure.
It also contains vitamins C and A which will help repair damaged muscle tissues.
This can be a good strategy to replenish energy and strengthen tendons needed for weight lifting.
They Maintain A Healthy Digestive System
The fiber-rich aspect of this vegetable gives positive effects on your gut, as it aids digestion. They do it by alimenting the bacterial colon which makes sure they keep the gut healthy.
Also, antioxidants present in sweet potatoes, particularly the purple type, promote the growth of a healthy bacterial colon. So a high amount of healthy bacterial colon will maintain your gut safe from infections like irritable bowel syndrome or diarrhea.
If you’re struggling with mild constipation, based on your body type, sweet potato can be a potential secret to overcoming it.
Further research is going on to bring, more details to this.
It is advised to them unmodified to benefit full effect.
They Regulate Blood Sugar Levels
Sometimes sweet potatoes are considered to be similar to normal potatoes, well, but studies have shown that the former have properties that the latter do not possess.
Sweet potatoes, the white one more specifically, is known to increase insulin sensitivity, which is important to regulate blood sugar levels and sometimes bad cholesterol.
Sweet potatoes are healthier than regular potatoes because they have a lower glycemic index, more fiber, and more beta-carotene.
So if you’re T2 diabetes, consuming white-skinned sweet potatoes may help you reduce your symptoms.
I’m no expert to prove this fact, but I tried it with my husband who is diabetic, and it is working, we eat white sweet potatoes 1–2 times per week.
They Boost The Immune System And Healthy Vision
One of the biggest advantages of sweet potatoes, (more specifically the orange ones) is their high vitamin A content which supports eye health and can help prevent night blindness.
It also increases the ability of the immune system to respond properly to threats. Research has shown that a vitamin A deficiency is likely to increase gut inflammation.
But the benefits of these versatile root vegetables don’t stop there. They also contain Potassium which helps regulate blood pressure and support a healthy heart function.
They’re also a great source of vitamin C which helps boost your system and can also protect your skin from UV-rays damages.
I’ve eye issues and put on glasses all day long, I eat carrots regularly to support my eyes’ health since they’re known to be rich in vitamin A good for the eyes.
When I discovered that sweet potatoes especially the orange type, also contain a high amount of vitamin A, I started using it too, and I’ve noticed that the effects are similar.
They Reduce The Risk of Cancer
A study with purple sweet potatoes was made in test tubes and animals, the results showed that they contain a group of antioxidants that was able to reduce the growth of certain types of cancer cells like the breast, bladder, colon, and stomach.
However, these effects haven’t yet been tested on humans.
Finally…
If you’re looking forward to adding more vegetables to your diet but have been avoiding them due to their taste or perceived lack of benefits, sweet potatoes are a good place to start.
Not only are they delicious but are packed with nutrients that can help improve your overall health and well-being. They’re cheap and can be cooked in many ways.
Why not give them a try? You’ll be surprised by how much they can improve your health and well-being, and you’ll want to become friends.
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I’m a sweet potato consumer, and I grew up with it, in my culture in Africa, it’s part of daily alimentation, so I’ve witnessed its benefits on me and the people around me. However, I’m no expert and the additional pieces of information I gave you are from these sources and studies
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash