2 Amazing Nutrients Of Purple Sweet Potatoes
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Most people
associate sweet potatoes as orange colored potatoes and wrongfully identify
them as Yams. Sweet potatoes are distantly related to potatoes and have no direct
relation with yams. Orange sweet potatoes are commonly mistaken as yam in the
United States because some canned sweet potatoes are erroneously labeled. The
two greatly differ in appearance, family, taste and overall look.
These orange sweet
potatoes are known to be a great source of beta carotene. The presence of beta
carotene gives sweet potatoes its natural orange color like carrots. The darker
the shade of orange a sweet potato has, the greater the presence of beta
carotene is.
Though white
sweet potatoes are not as nutritious compared to the orange ones, these types
of sweet potatoes are known to be a lot sweeter compared to their orange
counterpart. The recently discovered purple
sweet potatoes however, are four times more nutritious than the orange ones.
What do sweet
potatoes’ beta carotenes and anthocyanin exactly do in our body?
·
Beta
carotene is the forerunner of vitamin A that is naturally converted to the
much-needed vitamin in our system. Vitamin A is not just responsible for our
vision but also helps maintain our skin integrity. It is also responsible to
pumpkins’ and sweet potatoes’ yellow to orange color. However, beta carotenes
are three times more abundant in sweet potatoes compared to pumpkins. This
makes sweet potatoes a better choice to get beta carotene.
·
Sweet potatoes are good sources of anthocyanin which work as
antioxidants in our body. The anthocyanin antioxidants work by binding with the
cancer-causing free radicals ingested in the body that makes them more helpful
to the body. The presence of anthocyanin in sweet potatoes makes the color more
red or purple. It is also responsible for making blackberries, blueberries and
red cabbages’ purple color.
Like the other
sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes are tasty but are more difficult to find.
And when you find and prepare them for your meal, they may not be as pleasing
to the eyes compared with white or orange sweet potatoes. You might have seen
some fast food chains having sweet potato fries as part of their menu but
you’ll hardly see purple sweet potatoes as fries.
Regardless if
they are white, orange or purple sweet potatoes, rest assured you’re taking in
better nutrients than their carb counterparts.
Though they are prepared more tediously as you have to peel after
boiling or grilling, the nutritional values and their health power could simply
overwhelm the hassles. And though others just can’t walk away from rice, pasta
or bread, learning to integrate sweet potatoes in their daily meals gradually might
just spell the remarkable difference in their diet.
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