Sweet Potato Goodness!

I absolutely 100% adore sweet potatoes! Once they leave your fork, spoon, or fingers—hey, why not?—and hit your tongue their sweet nature allows them to easily make friends with your other taste buds—salty, savory (umami), bitter, sour—and perhaps even send a little taste sensation jazz their way.

Beyond the plain and simple truth that sweet potatoes are the Godiva of potatoes, they are good for you! Very good for you. So good, in fact, that in 1991 the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) ranked them as the numero uno vegetable in nutrition out of 18 vegetables studied and rated!!! To further these lil’ tots healthifying properties, they top CSPI’s 10 Super Foods for Better Health list.

So—why all this sweet talk over these tots? Can they really walk the walk?

… Yes, oh yes, they can and they do!

Here’s why they are often referred to as “the nutritional gold standard among vegetables” and “a powerhouse of nutrition.”

Healthifying—the Sweet Potato Way!

• Packed with beta-carotene (Vitamin A): a fat soluble vitamin with antioxidant properties to help keep you protected against disease! Yay!  A’s awesomeness resides from the fact that it keeps your teeth, skeletal and muscle tissues, mucous membranes, and skin optimally functioning, keeping you a good lookin’! A fascinating fact  is that Vitamin A helps keep your vision strong, particularly in low-light.
• Loaded with Vitamin E: another fat soluble vitamin functioning as an antioxidant, protecting you from damaging effects of the environment. Reasons to be ecstatic about E is that it keeps your heart healthy, gives your immune system a pair of boxing gloves to make it even stronger AND helps open your blood vessels so blood keeps moving and grooving along, as it should!
• Punched with Potassium: an essential mineral and electrolyte needed to keep a normal water balance between cells and body fluids. Also, needed to keep your heart, smooth muscle, and nervous system up to gear, but more importantly—for our purposes—it allows your muscles to contract and release so you can SWEAT. IT. UP. at your next sweat sess!
• Bounding with Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine): a water-soluble vitamin involved in over 100 reactions in your body—from keeping your noggin thinking clearly to keeping your immune system strong.
• Vibrant with Vitamin C: this water-soluble vitamin does much more than amp up your cold defenses. It also forms collagen to keep your nails, skin, ligaments, blood vessels, and tendons strong, helps heal wounds, and works its antioxidant properties to keep you away from the marble orchard (as my grandfather would say )
• Swimming in a Sea of anthocyanins and phenolic acids: What, What … You say? Phytochemicals of course! These are nature at its best! Chemicals from plants—real plants!  NOT plants they managed to powder down and pack into a jar or whip into some weird looking vile in the “diet aisle” … and no … I don’t care what the label says…  Phytochemicals from actual real food help keep you free of disease, boost immunity, help reverse the aging clock and again, keep you away from the marble orchard…how could you not dig ‘em? Where are they? …In plant foods! Think fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, seeds—I think you get the gist.
• Full of Fiber: I’ll spare you my diatribe on why I love fiber, but know it’s a good thing!  Wanna know more?—read Setting Fiber Straight.

Now, for Some Fab Facts on Sweet Potatoes (with the help of NC’s Sweet Potato Commission!)

The sweet potato is not a potato or even a distant cousin. Potatoes are tubers (a short fleshy underground stem from which a new plant may grow); on the other hand, sweet potatoes are roots (an underground portion of the plant that cannot reproduce).

Sweet potatoes provide twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A.

Finally–My Easy-Peasy Sweet Potato Recipe!!!

If you all haven’t gathered this by now—I AM NOT a gourmet chef. Yea, I know, you couldn’t tell right? Ha! In fact, I wouldn’t even go so far as to say I am a foodie because real true foodies cook fabulous gourmet celebrations or they indulge in the best of the best of food everyday. Me, on the other hand, am A-okay with turkey, veggies, & Dijon on Ezekiel bread (so good!) or simple Greek Yogurt, bran buds, and some fruit for lunch or when in a squeeze–dinner.  Is this making you feel better about the GGB Nutrition Challenge?!? My thing is quick, healthy, easy, and yummy!

Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE and can decipher truly good food—I just happen to believe I don’t have what it takes to warrant the foodie label.

Why? Well, for example—this morning I microwaved a medium sweet potato for about 7 minutes, added a pinch of salt, and revealed in my fabulous satisfying breakfast—really, what’s the difference between this and oatmeal? There’s actually more nutrition in the sweet potato than the oatmeal.

Don’t worry, that wasn’t my recipe, but use it … it’s good! Here’s my real “recipe”:

Sliced & Diced Sweet Potatoes

1. Buy as many sweet potatoes to your liking (you can make a big batch & then refrigerate)
2. Wash them
3. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
4. Chop baked potatoes into cubes
5. Place sweet potatoes in pan on top of aluminum foil, if you like (will save you time on clean up)
6. Drizzle with olive oil
7. Add salt to liking
8. Bake until tender for about 45 minutes
9. Eat! As a side with dinner, for breakfast, a snack, at lunch—oh, so many possibilities!

Here’s a picture of my sweet potatoes. Okay—they may not look fabulous—but, they sure are  good! No, really—they are.  And, what pre tell matters more, may I ask? I vote TASTE!

You may be wondering what the nutrition stats are for this dish. But, I can’t be in the kitchen with you, well—I mean, unless you invite me, but that may be taking this whole blogger thing to another level…So, I don’t know how much olive oil you’ll add, which could really up the calories on this baby. Olive oil is a heart healthy fat, but it’s still a fat. So, what I’ll do is leave you with the sweet potato nutrition stats below and the knowledge that olive oil is 120 calories and 13. 5 grams of fat per tablespoon. Don’t shy away from olive oil because of this though! Just know you may need to watch the servings.

Before I leave you with the nutrition info—I feel obliged to share Oprah’s love for the sweet potato! Right on Oprah! Love this clip—I promise you a guaranteed smile

Happy Healthifying!

What’s your favorite way to eat a sweet potato?

Nutrition information per serving of one medium sweet potato:
Calories:  130
Calories from fat: 0.39 g
Protein: 2.15 g
Carbohydrate:  31.56 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.9 g
Sodium: 16.9 mg
Potassium: 265.2 mg
Calcium: 28.6 mg
Folate:  18.2 mcg
Vitamin C:  29.51 mg
Vitamin A:  26081.9 IU
Source: National Agricultural Library (NAL), part of the Agricultural Research Service of  the US Department of Agriculture.