Unlock the Power of Sweet Potato Benefits for Better Nutrition

Sweet potato is sweeter tasting tuberous root vegetable and ranked as seventh most important food crop and fifth essential crop worldwide. It is one of the main foods for people belonging to tropical and subtropical areas. During natural disasters, sweet potatoes are known to alleviate food shortages. As a staple vegetable in tropical and subtropical regions they offer significant nutritional benefits. Hence, sweet potatoes are also considered as superfood. Let us learn more about its benefits and nutritional values.

Benefits of sweet potatoes

Labelled as super foods, sweet potatoes are packed with essential nutritional components and many studies highlight numerous benefits. Here are some of them:

• Regulates blood glucose: Despite their naturally sweet taste, sweet potatoes are highly recommended for diabetic patients due to their low glycaemic index. This means they release glucose gradually into bloodstream, preventing sudden shoot up in glucose levels. Additionally, this quality promotes slower digestion, contributing to a prolonged feeling of fullness and improved appetite control.
• Improves gut health: Sweet potato is rich of fibre and adds 15% of daily fibre requirement. High fibre content enhances healthy digestion by ensuring regular bowel movements and preventing constipation. Additionally, fibre supports a healthy gut microbiome, which is crucial for overall health.
• Immunity booster: Sweet potatoes contain high amount of vitamin A which stimulates immunity . This property also contributes to improved gut health which help to eliminate or prevent pathogens from entering the gut. Thus, promoting immunity by helping body to combat infections effectively.
• Vision health: Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body, essential for maintaining good vision. Vitamin A play a crucial role in preventing night blindness and may also help reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration, a common cause of vision loss in older people. It also contains polyphenolic compounds that are good for eyes. By including sweet potatoes in your diet, you can improve your eye health and protect your vision as you age.
• Stimulates brain function: Human body requires several nutrients to be supplemented from the foods they take, sweet potatoes provide the necessary nutrients for the proper working of the brain such as antioxidants and B vitamins. Antioxidants protect brain cells from oxidative stress, which releases free radicals causing damaging to brain cells leading to cognitive decline. Altogether, sweet potatoes help to increase cognitive performance, improve memory and severs as great addition to a brain-healthy diet.
• Fosters heart health: Sweet potatoes contain potassium a nutrient that works hand in hand with sodium and helps to control high blood pressure. Sweet potatoes also help to remove cholesterol from the body. Cumulatively, all these effects promote better cardiovascular health and a very low incidence of heart-related diseases including heart attacks and stroke.
• Useful in the process of weight loss: Sweet potatoes are both, delicious and healthy and can be a great addition to anyone’s dieting plan. They keep you feeling full for longer, which decreases the chances of you indulging in unhealthy snacking. Furthermore, the carbohydrates in sweet potatoes are the slow-releasing kind that helps to curb mealtime hunger and food cravings. Therefore, by adding a sweet potato to your meal, you will be able to intake energy-filled food that is good for your weight loss program.

Nutritional value of sweet potatoes

The essential nutrients in sweet potatoes include B vitamins, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine and zinc. Nutritional value of sweet potato per 100 gm is as below

• Carbohydrates 20.1 g  
• Starch 12.7 g  
• Sugars 4.2 g  
• Dietary fibre 3.0 g  
• Fat 0.1 g  
• Protein 1.6 g  

Conclusion  

Sweet potatoes are multinutrient and multipurpose vegetable prepared in numerous ways to fit into your diet. Their rich nutrient profile makes them an excellent choice as antioxidants and immune boosters promoting overall health and well-being.