Sweet potatoes are just great to eat.
In addition to their great taste, they are also really good for your health.
So why so many people are not making sweet potatoes a regular ingredient in their diet?
That is a question that I have asked many of my friends and the answer where all similar:
1- We do not know enough about this potato.
2- I never really thought of it.
3- I am not used to buying them.
4- I never ate them when I was a child.
5- I really do not know if they are healthy or good for me.
And it is the last point that I want to speak about.
If you read this article until the end, then you’ll see those sweet potatoes are really good for you.
And I can tell you that you’ll be going to the shop and buy some.
And the good news is that I have put a recipe for you that use these potatoes as the main ingredient.
Here is another yet great article about this vegetable: I titled it the Super Hero Sweet Potato that fights many types of Cancer
15 Nutritious Facts of sweet potatoes
Below I provide you with 15 real facts of this wonderful potato.
1. Control your diabetic sugar levels
Sweet potatoes are probably one of the best vegetable choices for diabetics. (1)
The reason is simple.
They contain natural sugars.
Notice the word NATURAL.
Natural sugar contained in this potato decreases and stabilizes your insulin resistance.
And there is even more to this – Eating a sweet potato is also really good at regulating your sugar levels.
The difficult part is to balance the consumption of potatoes and the reduction of standard medicines.
If you manage to balance this, then you may end up having to take only half of your current medicins doses.
This is great, as we all know that medicines have side effects.
The less you take medicine, the better you are.
2. Healthy digestion
This a vegetable that contains a huge amount of fibers.
When you talk about absorbing fiber, you also talk about better digestion. (2)
And when you have better digestion, you prevent your body from contracting colon cancer.
And you also prevent yourselves from constipation, which can be really sour at times.
3. Fight the smoking side effect
Sweet potatoes are full of carotenoids.
And carotenoids help your body to produce Vitamin A.
What you need to know is that it is this vitamin which regenerates your respiratory system.
As such, it is highly advisable that people with a given respiratory problem eat this potato.
Experts are adamant, people who smoke must consume sweet potatoes often. (3)
4. Help your thyroid, heart, etc. function better
You find natural vitamin D in these potatoes. (4)
Ingesting this vitamin helps your body at many different levels.
For instance, sweet potatoes vitamin D is excellent for your teeth and heart.
But it is also really good for your skin, bones, and my favorite, increase your energy levels.
Finally, the one that I do not want you to forget ever is that you need vitamin D for your thyroid gland to function normally.
So you better start eating sweet potatoes and fill your “tank” with vitamin D.
5. Improve your heart functioning
Sweet potato is really good for your heart as it contains potassium.
And the American Heart Association has clearly explained that potassium is a great compound for lowering your blood pressure by maintaining fluid balance. (5)
What is good with potassium is that it does lower the impact of sodium on your body.
What I mean by sodium, is salt.
If you reduce the impact of salt on your body, then you reduce blood pressure. This is a common problem that is found by many people nowadays.
As such, eating sweet potato can help reducing blood pressure, which in turn will reduce issues with your heart.
6. Enhance your tissues and muscles
We’ve seen in point 5 above that potassium is great for your heart.
But potassium is also great for your body tissues and muscles.
If you recall, tennis players eat a lot of bananas.
You may ask yourself why?
Simply because it contains a lot of potassium.
And it is the potassium that reduces swelling and prevents cramps. (6)
Eating this type of potatoes will definitely provide you with more energy and relaxes your muscles.
It also regulates heartbeats and your nerve signals.
7. Fantastic antioxidant
I have already spoken discussed beta-carotene above. (7)
This compound acts as a great source of antioxidants. And very few know that sweet potatoes contain such compound.
You only have to look at the above picture to see that this potato is not listed.
The above picture provides a summary of the most common antioxidant food that people know. And our fantastic potato does not even feature on this picture.
That’s why I am making the point here.
What you need to know is that it does reduce and prevent arthritis, gout, and asthma issues.
But more than this, it does protect against lung and breast cancer in a very effective way.
One thing that is very good with this natural antioxidant is that it reduces aging effects.
8. Perfect for pregnant women
Folic acid is a great addition to your diet if you are pregnant. (8)
And this potato is full of it.
In fact, folic acid is known to support fetal development.
And that is why I think we should all know about this potato.
We all want to have healthy babies, and this veggie does help you do just that.
9. Sweet potatoes are a fantastic anti-stress
I want to go back a step.
As aforementioned, potassium helps in controlling our sodium (salt) levels.
However, what I did not tell you is that a diet rich in potassium will also reduce your stress levels. And this has been scientifically proven in (9).
Eating potassium-rich food will increase the flow of oxygen within your body.
It will also regulate and balance your body water
In addition to this, it will normalize your heartbeats.
And finally, the magnesium content of the potato will also have a positive effect on you and acts as an anti-stress compound.
10. Overall body functioning improved
You’ll be amazed to find out that Vitamin C is a compound that is found in sweet potatoes. (10)
And we all know what Vitamin C can do for our body.
It is a great source of anti-oxidant and dramatically reduce illnesses.
In fact, Vitamin C prevents diseases and that is why people buy it as a medicinal add-on.
I really prefer to use natural sources of this vitamin, and that is why I eat this wonderful potato.
11. Perfect for the white and red blood cells
If you have been diagnosed as having an iron deficiency, then you may want to consider sweet potatoes.
They are simply rich in iron. (11)
When you are diagnosed with iron deficiency, then your body may not be producing red and white blood cells in an effective manner.
In this case, you may be a victim of anemia too.
That’s why it is important to consider this veggie as it contains both vitamin C and iron. Both of these promote the production of white and red blood cells.
And I want to insist on this point, you need both of these (vitamin C and iron) if you want to get away from anemia.
12. Heal your skin
In the past couple of years, there has been an interesting development in how we use sweet potatoes.
Usually, we eat the inside (the flesh).
But nowadays, a lot of people use water that has been used to boil the potato to heal their skins.
For instance, if you have some skin irritation, then you can use the water to heal it.
You can also use the water to clean your skin pores and impurities.
On the other hand, the water will contain some of the Vitamin C and Vitamin E as found in the potato.
Cleaning your skin with it will, therefore, produce collagen (this is the vitamin C in action).
On the other hand, Vitamin E will improve your skin complexion.
What I really like about this sweet potato water remedy is that it contains anthocyanins. (12)
And it is widely known that anthocyanins prevent wrinkles forming and reduce dark circles effect around your eyes.
13. Reduce your menstrual pain
When you have your monthly period, then it is usual for doctors to prescribe medicine. (13)
But what if you can reduce the pain using a natural remedy?
Sweet potato is really good to reduce painful pre-menstrual.
The answer to this is found in the iron and manganese that are contained within sweet potatoes.
Both manganese and iron soothe the pain and alleviate side effects too.
14. Sweet potato for hair growth
Beta-carotene is known to have a positive effect on different parts of your body.
One of these parts is your hair.
Just eating this veggie will allow you to increase your intake of beta-carotene.
By increasing it, you stimulate hair growth and positively affect your damage hair. (14)
It will also reduce your dandruff.
And the good news is that you can use the water where you boiled your potatoes to rinse your skull. This will reduce the effect of dandruff too.
15. Fight degenerative diseases with sweet potatoes
This potato is really wonderful when it comes to degenerative diseases.
As it is rich in vitamin B6, they are able to prevent and reduce the effect of such diseases. (15)
Experts have identified that the chemical homocysteine compound is responsible / linked to degenerative diseases.
But experts have also found that absorbing vitamin B6 reduce the quantity of such compound.
As such, eating sweet potatoes which is full of vitamin B6 prevent degenerative cells to populate your body.
In addition, this vitamin is really good at preventing a heart attack.
Conclusion
Now you have 15 reasons to eat sweet potatoes. And among these reasons, I told you why you should consider eating these to reduce your diabetes symptoms and intake of medicines.
I told you about them preventing lung cancer, hair loss, improving your heart functioning, reducing your menstrual pain, and many more.
I would like to take this opportunity to enforce my message that eating a sweet potato a week is really good for your health.
It contains healthy manganese, iron, vitamin C, E, etc. that your body desperately needs.
So, you should consider adding this potato to your diet and improve your healthy lifestyle.
Back to you
After reading the above 15 benefits of sweet potatoes, I am sure you will fall in love with it.
If you are like me and love sweet potatoes, then I invite you to try my recipes in this article. You can find more healthy information at Omigy.
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