Sweet Potato, is it worth the fuss it gets?
In short – yes. The sweet potato is packed full of goodness in the way of vitamins and fibre, it’s a great addition to our diet.
Despite not being a relative of the white potato, the sweet potato makes for a similar accompaniment at meal times. It can be prepared and cooked in the same way as the regular potato. Bake it, fry it, chip it, mash it, and according to issue June 23, toast it.
However, unlike the white potato, the sweet potato is packed with vitamins C and B6, B1, B2, copper, manganese, and potassium. How fabulous!
It’s all in the colour
The wonderful orange colour of the potato contains beta-carotene, with a high Vitamin A content. This is good news for health aficionados as it’s great for the eyes. One potato gives you all the daily nutrition you need of vitamin A and 12% of your daily intake of potassium.
They’re also high in fibre which supports gastrointestinal health.
Sweet potatoes can be used in sweet or savoury dishes, and make excellent brownies, as we found out previously.
The sunshine potato?
It’s often reported that the sweet potato has vitamin D – beware of these claims as it doesn’t at all. But, with 400 % of your recommended daily intake of vitamin A, besides being packed with fibre and vitamin C, it is not missed.
The vegetable is also one that does not lose vitamins on cooking either, with more vitamin A being produced than when left raw. It is also better to boil the sweet potato for maximum vitamins.
So, what will you make with this wonderful vegetable, worthy of its fuss? Perhaps a dhal, some brownies, some soup or simply mashed with a dash of butter and some chopped red chilli – Sign us up!
Find our previous recipes here Brownies and Curry
Karlie Simmonds Karlie has worked in Digital Media for over 10 years, she is passionate about health and wellbeing and lives in Edinburgh with her partner, children, and Pug, Poppy.
