For North Americans, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Brussels sprouts, cranberries, and of course, sweet potatoes. And for many Chinese, winter wouldn’t be called winter without snacking fresh baked sweet potatoes on the street.
Although we might only perceive sweet potato as a festive food or a seasonal snack, it deserves more of our attention and should be included in our regular diet. In fact, eating sweet potatoes every day has been inferred as one of the reasons for the people living in Okinawa, Japan to have the longest average life expectancy in the world.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), sweet potato is “neutral” in nature and has sweet taste. It can tranquilize mind; preserve youthful skin; nourish spleen, stomach, kidneys; and relieve constipation; not to mention stave off hunger.
From western nutritional point of view, sweet potatoes contain vitamin B6 that can soothe mind as well as boost immunity. While rich in linoleic acid and fiber, sweet potatoes not only mitigate constipation, but also eliminate the cholesterol inside blood vessel that help prevents arteriosclerosis and thrombosis.
“Unfortunately, since sweet potato also contains abundant of carbohydrate, which has been excluded from many people’s diets completely,” Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioner said. “But if you can take a deeper look at the content of sweet potato, you will realize that sweet potato actually can assist dieters keep in shape.”
Here’s why: Sweet potato is highly nutritious. It is rich in sugar, fat, protein, carbohydrate, starch, vitamin A and C, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, magnesium, and potassium. Although its vitamin B1 and B2 content is six and three times higher than that of rice respectively, 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of sweet potatoes produce only 99 calories, a one-third of rice does. Furthermore, as sweet potato is an alkaline food, it can help decrease body fat versus acid foods lead to deposit of fat in our body as fat facilitates acidity reduction.
Once called “food for poor people” and “war food” for its inexpensiveness and full feeling in Chinese culture, sweet potato has won a new title—The healthiest vegetable (ranked by World Health Organization in 2008)—that it had deserved for long.
Look for a last-minute easy sweet potato recipe for this Thanksgiving? Try this super natural one: Hot Sweet Potato Milk. It has no sugar, butter, or cream cheese added; guarantee healthy yet yummy!
Image by Dave Lifson
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