The Amazing Sweet Potato

by healthypages on 02/12/2011 - 09:52 am |

Although the sweet potato is not as popular as many other vegetables, it has very high nutritional value. Just one 7 ounce serving of this root crop will provide you with 65% of your body's daily vitamin C requirement. The beta-carotene content which is transformed into vitamin A by the body will offer over 70 times the RDA for vitamin A.

One of the concerns people have about sweet potato is just that; it's sweet. However not all sweet is equal. What is more important than the sugar content is the glycemic index which is a measure of how fast the substance will enter the blood stream as sugar and impact the blood sugar levels. A high glycemic index is to be avoided especially for diabetics. Amazingly sweet potato only has a glycemic index of 17 whereas the ordinary white potato has an index of 29. Sweet potato's low glycemic index is kept by boiling or steaming them as opposed to roasting.

The skins of sweet potato contain a lot of the agents that give the root its health benefits and so for that reason it is better to wash them well and keep the skins on.

One of the other benefits of beta-carotene which is contained in sweet potato is that it reduces the speed of skin aging by combating free radicals.

Sweet potatoes contain high levels of potassium which is an important mineral fro relieving muscle cramps and generally relieving stress in the body the result of which is experienced as tension.

They are fairly easy to grow in any back garden as they only need 100 days free from frost in order to grow to full size. What also makes them a great crop for new vegetable growers to start with is that they need little maintenance, requiring only minimal fertilizer or water. They also suffer from fewer diseases compared to their white potato relative.